What’s all the commotion? Work stops on campus. Students and teachers gathering around the reception area. An accident? The Minister of Health paying a surprise visit? The cows are fighting again? No, Ali is peeling and dicing a jackfruit.

A jackfruit being mishandled by a student rep

We were given a jackfruit as a present on Pemba (Nadine’s doing the blog on that one later). A couple of oranges would have done.

a jackfruit loiters in the corner

Yes it is as heavy as a small iron dumbbell. And no it doesn’t turn any heads at Pemba international airshed  airport. Neither though do chickens or small coffee tables with only 3 legs. However, whereas chickens and 3 legged coffee tables apparently class as carry on in Pemba, there’s a big issue with large fruit meaning it had to go in the hold.

Anyway, we safely got it back to the house. Nadine wasn’t too impressed with it. Especially when it began to emit dangerously sweet ripe odours.

You hold it. I’ll take the photo

We hadn’t a clue what you do with it. I’d been told that you had to be careful when opening it. Something about latex and glue that never comes off and fruit with cyanide that kills if you don’t cook it long enough. So we donated it to the college under the condition that we got to see how it’s opened and watch a student being fed to see the effects of the cyanide.

An expertly dissected jackfruit

The glue bit I got right. Latex glue. Murder to get off. We had to peel Ali off three support columns and two students before he stopped sticking to things. The cyanide I mixed up with cassava. Cassava leaves have to be boiled to get rid of it before you eat it. Very tasty though. We had that on Pemba with a lovely piece of fish as we watched dirty great red chested fox bats silently cruise past us on a balcony overlooking the port (all in Nadine’s blog and much, much more dear reader). The fruit itself is sort of a mix between pineapple and chicken. Strange but a clear hit on the college campus.

And Ali? Well, the last we saw of Ali was him stuck to a cow as it trotted out of the college in search of better grazing.