DIY – Hey Becky Boo

Beach July 22, 2017

How to Make A Moana Canoe in 15 Minutes

Okay, Today my 8 year old brought me this absolutely ADORABLE outrigger canoe that she made 100% by herself. It was tooo cute not to share:) Just to warn you- you’ll need to be in a tropical place to make this canoe.

One thing I love about our world schooling experience here in Vanuatu, is that there are so many opportunities for my children be creative. Emma did this whole project all by herself. The kids spend literally HOURS outside in the sunshine and with the absence of technology their imagination flourishes.

Today Emma was looking at the coconut trees and the dried up shriveled branches which would drop daily from the trees. In our backyard alone we have: Mango trees, Avocado Trees, Papaya Trees, Coconut Trees, Banana trees, Passion fruit vines, Watermelon and Cucumber and Pumpkin plants, peanuts, & potatoes.

It was literally so easy to grow things that all you had to do was throw the scraps in the compost pile and then just a few weeks later they would be flourishing plants.

Anyways, back to the tutorial. With these plants comes more opportunities for creating, which is how Emma came to be making a Moana Canoe tutorial for everyone. It was extra fun because we are living in a tropical place so it’s special to be doing something tropical!

Beach July 18, 2017

Building a Natungra Structure in the Tropics

Hey Everybody!! Everyday here is amazing. You can’t run to the store like you can at home and just pick up or buy what you need so many of the things that people have are just built from materials around us. Watch this little video to see what I mean 🙂

It all started with my sister who was desperate to have an outdoor eating structure where she and her guests could enough a meal with shade overhead.

Patrice, was our dear friend, the father to two sweet kids and my sisters worker. Today it was his job to make a natangura structure. the whole process was amazing and interesting!

First he insisted that he had to be dropped off in the jungle where he would collect the needed supplies.

My sister obediently obeyed and Patrice and a few boys were gone the whole day.

When they returned he had some special plants that were used to create strips off of them which turned into rope. The rope was used to attach the leaves to the wooden structure that Patrice would make.

After Patrice had his rope, he would gather the leaves from the Natungura tree and then weave them into a covering over an umbrella type wooden structure that he had made with crooked thin branches which had been stripped of their bark.

It took about a week but it was a beautiful little structure in the end.

My sister spent hours outside sipping icy lemonade on those hot island days.

Food July 14, 2017

The Bitterest of Bitters…Making Aloe Juice!

Today we went on a nature walk to find the aloe vera plant. I’ve been drinking the juice and it’s been helping me feel better so I thought I’d try making my own. Sure enough we found massive aloe plants and the guy who owned the property was happy to let us pick them. Here’s a little tutorial on how we made our aloe juice! Enjoy my video 🙂

We first passed the giant plants on the side of the road one day when we were on a trip to the blue hole. We couldn’t believe the size of those absolutely incredulous aloe plants. They were as big as me!

As I continued to get sick while world schooling in Vanuatu, we kept trying more and more things as remedies. Today we decided that we would try aloe juice, after all the aloe juice I had bought back home didn’t taste too bad. And with aloe plants as big as the ones that we had seen it should be easy to get enough to make the medicinal drink.

Sure enough we pulled over and asked the gardener if we could have some of the aloe plants. Happily they cut off a few leaves and we went home to make the aloe juice.

The whole process of world schooling is about learning new things. This was a fun new thing to learn! We discovered something, and that was that homemade aloe juice tastes NOTHING like store bought aloe juice. Indeed it is VERY bitter! So I did take it dutifully, but after 1 month of torturing myself I discovered that it didn’t really seem to help me.

So what is the worst drink you’ve ever tasted?!