beetle nut

Chewing beetle nut is a habit that gives many of the Mibu people's teeth their characteristic red hue.  So, of course, why wouldn't we want to try it? 

Actually, this is something a few of us had decided weeks before we wanted to try, mainly just to have one more thing in common with the people of Mibu, to attempt to establish another commonality.  Plus, I was curious...why did they chew it?

We tried it after our mid-day meal.  The basic technique is to find a beetle nut, use your teeth to open it up and get the nut out of it.  There is not really a direct comparison I could find, but the beetle nut resembles a big almond, and it is protected by a softish material, soft enough to rip off with your mouth, but not juicy at all.  I guess kind of like if you had an immature small peach and were trying to get to the pit, but the pit was chewy and easily changed to a pulp. 

Confusing, I know.  Anyway, once you get the beetle nut out, you put it between your front and side teeth and chew it into a pulp.  This part instantly dried my entire mouth out; it felt like I had put an entire ziploc of chalk dust in my mouth.  You have to hold that part in your mouth without swallowing.  Then you roll a leaf up (as far as I know, any leaf will do), wet the end of the leaf with your tongue, and then dip it into the container of lime dust that is just about ubiquitous in Mibu and other places in PNG.  I am not completely clear as to what exactly the lime dust is, but we were instructed repeatedly not to let it touch the skin inside our mouths, as it would burn.  Once you get the powder on the leaf, you put it with the pulp in your mouth, and keep dipping the damp leaf into the powder until you use up the entire leaf and then you chew that as well.  By now some sort of chemical reaction has occurred and the formerly white mash in your mouth has turned orange/red.  Once you feel the need, you spit this red saliva out, making sure that you do not spit or swallow the mash. 

This is supposed to result in a some sort of positive result in your body...enjoyment or energy or something. I am still not completely clear as to what is supposed to happen. It made me dizzy and light headed, and eventually I felt the need to sit down. At one point, Lori felt like she was going to throw up. Kevin said he felt something, but I don't think he had any negative responses like we did. Based on our reactions, Dennis opted out of this cultural experience.

Clearly, the three of us expected that our teeth would have turned bright red from the experience, since we were smiling so big in these pics.  Unfortunately (at least for the pictures), it was hard to tell.