I wrote my “blog” down by hand since I did not have a computer with me during village living. I also only wrote snippets as I had time, so what you’re about to read will be a very long blog entry as I’ve put all the 6 days together in one post. Also, since it is more like a quilted fabric of thoughts and recollections of the day, the grammar is not always clear. Take it for what it is, and I hope you enjoy reading it. It’ll be a bit of a read. Also, soon I will post from Kendal’s journal, so you get her perspective as well.
PLEASE ENJOY THE PICTURES
(the way I enjoy is I goto the first picture, click on the down arrow, choose "view slideshow" then up at the top click on 640x480 change the time from 15 seconds to 3 seconds, and click "show more info"... then I can sit back and enjoy the photos)
POC
Village Living
Day 1
We took 2 hiluxes and 4 families into the bush “kamba”. After unloading the others we took a 2.5 km trail in the 4x4 to the village named “Betelgut”. There we met our was mama and her daughter and granddaughter (1yr old) and her dad. We were told that our waspapa was in Lae for the week so I figured I was destined to not have one. He may show up later.
The house was up a short path, our temporary waspapa is a carpenter so the house was very nice. Strong. After we saw the newly finished liklik haus (outhouse) we storied a bit (talked) then put up the beds and mosquito nets and got water going through the filter. I was told “you fat” and that Sydney spoke better tok pisin than me or Calvin or Kendal. These types of comments are not rude in their culture, they simply are observations. This hurt Calvin’s feelings until I told him that he spoke better tok pisin than me. We seemed to click quickly with the family so that was good. The roof of our room is at 10’ but the door is at 6’ and I’ve hit my head 4 times thus far.
We’re isolated but it is really nice. I am finding I can communicate somewhat well although I’m not sure if that’s a tribute to my tok pisin or their ability to understand bad tok pisin. I still have much to learn. After a brief nap 10-15 boys came and played soccer. Watching the boys w/ Calvin was amazing. They would run all around him but stop near him and let him take his time kicking the ball because he was so much slower than them. Then in a feat of cross cultural communication, I taught them kickball! They loved it. 2 dads umpired and one dad was your typical little league dad, shouting and directing them in their tok ples (native language).
Stand in was-brother showed me a new house being built, it was 2 stories. Sydney is amazing! Everyone loved her from the 1^st minute. She’s fluent in tok pisin, plays with their pet snake, and right now is learning to shred coconut. It is simply awe inspiring to see her flourish. Calvin is right now trying to catch a chicken with his bare hands. He thinks a rope would help him, so he might get a vine. From time to time you see him chasing after it. For Dinner we’re having taro, kowkow, chicken, kumu and rice. Syd played hopscotch but her hair wasn’t curly enough to hold the piece of coconut shell on her head. Calvin played marbles and I learned to chop/split wood the PNG way. An old man came into the room and started talking. It was an awkward conversation because he was partially deaf. He had 4 sons, 1 daughter and 2 sons of his died to sickness. They tell us we will be seeing many funerals in the coming years as AIDS is quickly becoming a major health problem here (to rival Africa).
The liklik haus is a 4x4 room with a 12” hole in the ground. I put a toilet on top of it under advisement from staff at POC. I met wasmama’s husband. He’s a very talkative and hospitable guy. A carpenter, I really like him. He has many friends and built his house to host visitors. We had a good dinner and talked a lot. He gave me permission to do magic tricks tomorrow, I was concerned about this because of the country’s history with mysticism, but he was assured when I taught him the secret to the trick and realized it was all play. His prayer at mealtime was quiet and on one knee and well spoken. So far I’m really enjoying village living as is the rest of the family. They call SYD a PNG Meri. I think they want to keep her. Sydney carried firewood on her head today, and Calvin has been a little quiet, but he’s warming up.
Day 2
My air bed leaks. So I decided to hike the 2.5km to the PMV stop. We saw some other POCers there. The hike wasn’t too hard, very sweaty and hot. Calvin and I rode the pmv into town, THAT was an adventure. Then we bought 2 foam mattresses with all the cash I had on hand. I bought Calvin an ice-cream with the remaining coins because he was so good today! The new rode another pmv to Kamba and hiked back into our village. I never planned to ride a pmv or hike while in the village. I made up for the hike I missed when I was sick! On the way up one man asked my advice on how to be successful, and in tok pisin I replied to him that true success was knowing Christ. If he wanted true success he needed to read his Bible. I had only a little time to witness to him, but instead of answering his question of how to sell more effectively to whiteskins, I gave him that. Who knew I’d be witnessing on a the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of a jungle? God. It was a great adventure today, one I would have never attempted without the training of the previous 5 weeks at POC.
Papa talked about an adopted son in Australia learning the computer business from a friend of his who likes snakes and insects, I’ll have to ask more about this later.
Day 3
Slept from 8p-4a was tired. The family is large, 7 kids. 2 boys away w/work 1 daughter w/baby. Our wasparents are no who they were meant to be but it’s fine. Mama runs most of the show. Today waspapa stand-in wants to climb coconut trees and drink kulau (young coconut milk, very tasty. This is a good drink sort of like jungle Gatorade, it puts back in minerals and electrolytes You find a green coconut, then cut open the top 1/3 of it and drink the contents). He took me on a tour of betelgut, it’s large w/30 houses or so, very pretty because there is water all around. Yesterday I asked Sydney “what are you eating?” “kowkow and a lolli”. PNG MERI. Calvin has been practicing cutting bark w/a bush knife. Sydney has befriended Alma, I’ve done a few magic tricks. Sydney drank some bad creek water but didn’t get sick from it. She was called “blackskin” and we’re told she will soon know yet another language (tok ples) if she stays much longer. I hiked up with calvin to the kulau and it was very tasty. Grandpa stopped in twice today. The first time he wanted medicine and the 2^nd he wanted a bread. I spent some time with him documenting his family history (homework assignment). The kids have really taken to me and papa said it was good for a man to play with his children because too many order their kids around to do work and then their children never come until dinner when called. Today the boys really were interested in touching me. They compared hand sizes and foot sizes, tried to feel my toe inside the boot, wrapped their fingers around my calf… they were fascinated with my size and color. It takes a measure of patience to be pawed at, but I didn’t mind it too much. I read today from the Bible in tok pisin and they gathered around. We spent a lot of time laughing and talking with everyone. The kids enjoy coin tricks much more than any other kind. There was a mouse in our room last night, but we didn’t even bother getting out of bed. The dogs chased some stranger snooping around the village off. We played games with papa tonight, talked a while, did shadow puppets which he found very amusing and participated in. Tomorrow he will go on a BOMBOM (fishing). I wanted to go catch kundaum(shrimp) but mama decided it would be too dangerous for me. I insisted but she declined. I have been warned that these families will really watch out for us and make sure we’re safe but I had yet to be denied anything. I respected her wishes and didn’t go. But I asked her to teach me how they are caught and prepared and was wary of how they are preserved since we weren’t to eat them for 2 days.
I was shown how they dry them. Whiteskins refrigerate, they dry. The shrimp were cooked over a fire for 2 days… They use a spine from an old umbrella and attach it to a bamboo stick and spear the shrimp around 2am. I am anxious to give this family our parting gifts as they’ve been such gracious hosts. I told them so as well.
Day 4
It would have made a good story to go on the bombom but at least the story doesn’t end with me making a trip to the hospital as mama didn’t allow me to go. But what did transpire was a bit of a pickle for me. Papa asked mama to ask Kendal to ask me if they could borrow our coleman kerosene lantern. Now this lantern was lent to me by the POC director and I was told not to bother coming back without it. So I had to decide if I was going to give the impression that “stuff” was more important than a relationship because in PNG culture, you share everything. However, knowing that, I also know that should I share this coleman with him, he would see sharing it with his brother or friend as the same permission. This is exactly a text book case of cultural values being different. We studied this in ICC. I knew therefore, that if I lent this, it could end up in ANYONE’s hands. And it did. In fact it ended up in two of his close friends’ hands. And since mama didn’t let me go, I couldn’t watch it. Let’s face it, I was more likely to fall and break it than they were anyway. Well, that night Kendal and I prayed that the lantern would come back, and if it didn’t, it was worth the relationship building to buy a new one. I could not shame him in this way. I did notice however that he didn’t ask me directly, it went through the wives. It rained all night and into the morning, so I was somewhat relieved to have been banned from the trip. The coleman came back fine and they caught more than kundaum they caught maleo (eel) and fish. They told me it was snake but when I looked up “maleo” the dictionary said “eel”.
Papa and I talked again for a while. It seems to be the nightly tradition, we eat, and then we sit back and talk about anything. He talked more of his son in Australia. He talked about how his son failed a computer course and wanted to know how I might be able to help. He talked about opting to not finish his house and use the money to help his son graduate his course. Which he did, and has yet to send any money back. I sensed an air of sacrifice for his son and yet disturbance that his son doesn’t write or contribute money to the family. This made me think of the idea of compensation in their culture. Even a father who invests in his son (whom he pointed out repeatedly was adopted, and the only bearing I can think that has on the issue was that it was his oldest. He made a distinction between his FIRST BORN and his FIRST SON, the reason this is significant is because by adopting a son before having a son, his adopted son gets all the land rights, instead of his first BORN son. So perhaps the slight bitterness was that this boy who was in line to inherit all his land, was not contributing to the land, and yet the first born son was living here, working the land, working hard, giving back to the family. I’m unsure) There is a lot about the people and the place and the family that you can’t glean from 6 days. I get the feeling that if I were to stay months I might scratch the surface of all the elements that go into the social interaction.
Papa seems to have many friends all over the world, which shows me where his heart lies. I was walking today and saw a sketch in the dirt of a tall man with boots and shorts and I had to assume it was me. Someone in the village was drawing me… that brought on a chuckle. Papa doesn’t talk to his dad (grandpa) nor listen to him, so again there is that something underlying that as a guest, I’m not privy to.
Day 5
Last night I was shutdown. I could barely speak English. I don’t know why but I was hoping my brain was switching to tok pisin thinking. I didn’t do much but I had little energy. The bagman in the village (community leader) came to visit with me. Sydney taught the kids the “chicken dance”. I read some more of the Bible and gave a little magic lesson (God has the true power kids). We ate eel for dinner with rice and kuaka. Sydney ate the eel down to the bone. Calvin liked it too. They asked me to read/preach in church this morning as their pastor was at a conference. They asked about 5 minutes before church was to start. It went well, the church is about 3 feet taller than I am. Papa was proud to tell me he painted the lettering on the door and in fact he was a leader in the church. He led the service. He later showed me his son’s soccer trophies.
Tonight was a big night, we had a Bangka (big feast) and many people came. Waspapa made a traditional meal of “banana cake” which was really enjoyable to watch the process of. It isn’t a cake like we’d think of it, it wasn’t sweet. Watching the ceremony of the day and the preparation of the food with coconut leaves as rice baskets, really the description of it doesn’t fit the participation so I’ll save some typing and skip that. It was an enjoyable celebration where we were the unspoken guests of honor. The bigman later took me aside and asked what my intentions for being in their village was.
I answered in tok pisin and then in English to be sure he understood me
“I’m here to learn Tok Pisin and to learn what your life is like, what you are like. My job in this country is to fix computers to help with Bible translation, but it is a meaningless effort if I am not doing it with a love in my heart for the people of Papua New Guinea. So I am here to foster that love, and to gain the skills to make friends in this country.”
He was very pleased with my answer and then told me that he had several experienced with white men who come, learn the language, take pictures then sell the pictures for a profit and exploit his people. I had heard reports of this as well, and I’m not sure what is going on but others seem to complain about it. Every person there has a different impression when they see a whiteskin that is tainted by their previous experience. I feel though that we made good friends and I know we made a close connection in this time.
Day 6
Today we leave. We packed up and the kids gave our kids gifts, we gave gifts and received gifts. I entertained the kids with finger tricks, eye tricks, whatever I could think of. We had a great time with the old “spin your head on the baseball bat then run in a straight line” game. The kids and adults laughed as the dizzy kids would fall all over the place. Papa and mama both asked us to have Sydney write them and send pictures as she grew. Mama was tearful at saying goodbye to Sydney. Again I’m convinced we are here so our children can minister. (-;
Earlier papa took me to their matmat (cemetery) and I asked him about his family line. Apparently his grandfather was a peacemaker (like a policeman) and came to settle a large tribal fight. In so doing he was rewarded with land, and his family relocated to Betelgut. So their children, the ones I played with, were the first children FROM betelgut from his bloodline, until the kids were born they were more or less outsiders. He explained how the community functions, how they have committees for everything and how they are communicated to through the GARAMUT (like a gong) and what the different gongs mean.
Market Experience
Sagawa Market
I got there twice after a long hike and pmv ride with Calvin. 30 men on a flatbed truck, with a ton of cargo and bilums. People were shy about touching me but I told them “if we hit a bump, don’t fall off, grab my leg” they chuckled but at the next bump three men grabbed my leg to hold on. My calves are thicker than their necks. I am repeatedly surprised by the pictures that show our size difference.
Garden day
We (calvin me and waspapa) hiked to the coconut line about a mile away and rested in the shade and drank kulau. I asked if Calvin could learn to climb a tree and they taught him. They wrapped a loop of bark around his feet and showed him how to hop and pull and hang on. He made it about 5 feet up and then stopped as he says “I didn’t want to exhaust myself, but I could have gone all the way up.” Then we cut the kulau and brought it home by tying the husks and throwing the coconuts over our shoulders. The kids (mangis) threw some coconuts on big Limbu leaves (about the size of a wagon) and dragged them home. I cut my finger a bit on the coconut shell, when drinking but it was good and Kendal enjoyed sharing some back at the village as well.
Garden Visit –Kendal’s Journal
Sydney and I went to the garden with some of the women and children. The garden we visited was “longwe liklik” (not too far) and thankfully not too steep of a climb. The family has another garden that is on top of a big mountain, so to get there you must go way down and then way up again. I was thankful they didn’t take us to this garden. We walked to the garden and then worked together to weed a large part of it. I’m sure wasmama thought I was very slow, but I felt like I did a good job of contributing to the work. Sydney is definitely the star of our family. Wasmama kept saying over and over how she is a good PNG meri.
Learn A skill/teach a skill – Kendal
Today I taught some of the ladies how to make bread in a drum oven. The women said they wanted to learn this and I think they enjoyed learning. They seemed eager to help mix and make the bread. I decided now was the time to tell them that I would leave the drum oven that Chad made, when we go. It would be silly to teach this skill and then take away the tool needed to repeat the skill.
Mama taught me how to make (or at least start) a bilum. I enjoy this kind of work a lot, it was nice to learn this skill. At first I think Mama didn’t really want to teach me, but she did and I think we both enjoyed it very much.
Attending Church - Kendal
We attended the local church in the village. Just before going Chad was asked to read and share about a passage of Scripture. The service was rather short due to the fact that the pastor is gone at a conference. The service was a mixture of formal like the church near poc and informal because they had someone playing a guitar and leading some praise song. Since the pastor was gone our papa led the service. One thing that really stood out to me was the very serious and respectful way Papua New Guineans behave when it comes to speaking about and worshiping God.
