Where's the pineapple?

ananas in my front yard

Ananas. Better known to English speakers as pineapple: an exotic, tropical, and sweet fruit with a strange name. Seriously though, what kind of a name is pineapple anyway? Maybe you don’t care to know but sometime in the 17^th century someone decided the ananas fruit looked like a pinecone. Except it's better than a pinecone, of course, because of the fact that its insides are full of yellow sugary edible goodness. That is probably where the apple part of the name comes into play. That strange yellow fruit looks like a pinecone but, if you’re into comparing things, tastes more like an apple than a pinecone. Or maybe the apple part was attached because the big edible pinecone became so treasured as a scrumptious fruit that it was called the apple of one’s eye. I personally like to call the tropical goodness ananas—that name brings better results when I go to the market searching for the funny looking pinecone fruit.

ananas on a taxi

One of the great things about living in the tropics is that I get to eat ananas all the time… some days I eat ananas for every single meal and snacks too. I love ananas. Ta tene. That’s the truth. So does Shawn Spencer. I’m not alone in my ananas love. Here in Central Africa ananas are everywhere you turn. They are hanging up along the side of the road, stacked in piles on street corners, on top of women’s heads, painted on taxis, incorporated into logos, printed on cloth, cross-stiched on bags and tablecloths, carved into beds, fashioned out of wood and sold at the artisan market… you get the point.

pineapple upsidedown cake

A couple weeks ago I had some different groups of the PHC kids make welcome signs to hang in our office for when Barb, the state-side director of PHC and my boss, arrived back in Africa for her three week visit. As I hung all the lovely welcome-back pictures for Barb on the wall I was delighted to discover that every single picture included an ananas. That’s a lot of pictures with ananas—too many to be simply coincidence. It could be all the kids think ananas are Barb’s favorite fruit. I don’t know the answer to this but I was curious as to why everyone around here is so obsessed with ananas so I did what anyone would do when they are curious and need answers: I turned to google and wiki answers. It turns out that the ananas is an international symbol of hospitality and associated with welcoming guests, safe travels, warmth, and friendliness (you can do your own google search and read the history on your own). Apparently these orphans are much more educated in the language of international symbols than I am and apparently the city of Bangui is trying to be really welcoming, warm, and friendly because there sure is an abundance of ananas.

ananas in a village hung on the edge of the road being sold for 40 cents each