Myself and my friend are both large men. He's maybe an inch shorter than me. Together we were rowed from the big boat on a small dingy to the shore. We stepped off, our booted feet making large imprints in the sand. The local nationals stared in wide eye disbelief. They rarely see white men, much less, giant white men. I think the disbelief was also that the dinghy didn't sink.
These men, dressed in their dancer garb (bilas), traditionally dance from dinner time to sunrise every Friday. Pounding their drums and shuffling their feet across the coral covered coast, they seem larger than life. Two of them paused to ask for water. You rarely ever hear a PNGian ask for water, so you know they were thirsty. While the water was fetched I posed for this photo, it was minutes before we left the dedication on the boat. It wasn't until today that I saw this photo, and realized, that these men, even with the feathers on top of their heads adding a foot to their height, were still not as large as they appeared.
I am still surprised to see how large I am compared to them, as they, with their spears and drums and feathers, seemed to be... larger than life to me.
