Monday, June 20, 2011

LÅTAN DUDU



A venerable, old Chamorro custom rarely seen today.

After using up all the canned Real Fresh milk, or any tin can but preferably with a gold interior, keep your cold water in it and place it in the kåhon ais (fridge).  The låtan dudu.

Låta is "can"; dudu means something that can be used to hold liquid.  A coconut shell can be used as a dudu.

Gold interior ones rusted slower.  My grandma's cousin, born in 1900, always had to drink from her låtan dudu when she would stay (for weeks) at our house with grandma.  No other water would do.  Sometimes she would cover it with a napkin or folded paper towel.

It was a convenient way of always having cold water on hand, without the hassle of getting a glass, as one would have to do with a pitcher of water.  You drank straight out of the låtan dudu.  Sometimes, when no one was around, I'd take a swipe from her låtan dudu myself.  I will never forget the metallic taste of the water.

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