Papayas in the Garden

You might think that the classic scene in which some poor lost soul has been shipwrecked on a desert island and is driven half-crazy by unsuccessful attempts to shimmy up a palm tree and pick coconuts, the island’s only apparent source of food, is only from movies like “Castaway” or shows such as “Survivor”. However I have realized this is not always the case. Exhibit A: the papaya tree outside my house. I hadn’t managed to get into town to buy groceries last week, and while I was doing fine on cereal, pasta and tinned tomato sauce and beans, I was definitely beginning to crave fresh fruit and veg. Given that Kachikau has no shops, and that I wasn’t planning on going into Kasane ‘till the weekend, I didn’t have many options. But Kara had mentioned that there was a papaya tree in the corner of her plot, so I decided to investigate. In a dusty, scrubby, thorn-filled yard, I wondered how a papaya tree had ever even ended up there. Certainly papaya trees are not native to this area. And more so, I wondered how I would ever be able to reach any of the papayas, which quite literally, were ripe and dangling from the top branches. Even if I managed to jump up the lowest branches, which were still significantly above my head, would they support my weight? I jumped up and grabbed hold of one to find out. It broke off in my hand. Ok so climbing the tree was not going to be an option. Shaking the tree violently didn’t seem to do much either, except I had the feeling if I shook hard enough I might be able to knock over the entire tree—not my intended effect. Throwing sticks at the papaya also met with little success (and we all know what great aim I have :-) ). Staring at the tree and willing one of the more ripe papaya to fall off was apparently not a good tactic either. Finally I gave up, and frustratingly ate the last of my overripe mushy apples. So, any suggestions on papaya harvesting (and Dad, no I am not going to try throwing a shoe at it) would be much appreciated!

(Though as an addendum I should add that in general I really can’t complain about food here. I just came into town and had the most tasty cranberry-carrot-pumpkin seed bran muffin for breakfast, with a big frothy cappuccino. Yum).