Betel Nut

The staff at EQPB are terrific.  One of the nicest group of people I’ve ever met or worked with.  At least three times a week someone cooks lunch for the entire staff, and it’s usually a marvelous meal. There’s a small refrigerator in the office, and the cooking is done on a one burner hot plate.  We get lots of stews and stir fry dishes.  Many of the men fish and bring in their fresh catch for lunch.  Both men and women cook.

These fish were brought to the office for lunch

I have a good relationship with all the staff.  However, this post isn't about food or the staff.  It's about my education in betel nut.

Mike is the Compliance Supervisor.  I’ve gone on several long drives with him to the big island (Babeldaob) to attend meetings or inspect sites for permit applications, and more than once he’s come to my rescue at the apartment when something didn’t work.  I single out Mike because he likes to chew betel nut.  He certainly isn’t the only one.  Most people in Palau chew betel nut.  Many chew only occasionally; Mike chews frequently.  I believe he started when he was 14.

Although I had spent a lot of time with him, I realized last week I didn’t fully understand the process of preparing betel nut for chewing.   It was quite clear to me as I observed Mike at the office, at meetings, and driving that a fairly complex process was happening about which I needed more information.  So the other day I asked him to explain all the paraphernalia he and others carried around to facilitate the chewing of betel nut.  His response to me was that I needed to try it to fully understand.

When I started this blog I said the one thing I wouldn’t do was chew betel nut.  I was wrong.  I had to find out what was going on.  The following photos describe what I mean.

Mike laid out on his desk all the things he needs to prepare a betel nut for chewing.  This photo missed a few items.

Above you see a few betel nuts in the plastic bag he uses to carry everything.  There's a knife to peal the nut, a pack of cigarettes, the small white bottle containing slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), and soda bottle which is used as a spittoon. Not shown are betel leaves and a container of cardamom seeds.

Here's a peeled betel nut - the first step.  The betel leaves and resting on top of the pack of cigarettes, and the white jar in the foreground contains the cardamom seeds.

Mike is preparing a betel nut for me to chew.

Mike generally chews only half a betel nut at a time.  He slices the nut in half, saves the unused half for later, and removes some of the inside of the nut (the red stuff in the picture).

Here he is putting some lime on the half I'm going to chew.

Next he places some betel leaf on the lime and nut.  This is what I chewed.

Mike would normally break off a small piece of a cigarette (a little longer than the eraser at the end of a pencil) and place it and a cardamom seed on the lime before wrapping it.  He didn't think I needed the tobacco or the cardamom.  Others might chew a nut with different spices.

Here goes:

My spittoon

Kulie, who took the pictures of me, just after I chewed the betel nut, thought I turned a little red in the top one.  I think it made me look loopy.  Or is that how I always look?  I did feel a little warm for a few minutes.

John with his Pelican box.

The most common way to carry one's betel nut paraphernalia is in a Pelican box.  It looks like a small black lunch box, and you see men carrying them everywhere.  Women tend to use a variety of small bags or purses.

That's my betel nut story.  It's a real thrill watching Mike prepare a betel nut for chewing while he is driving 50 miles per hour.  I couldn't capture that on video because I was too busy watching the road.