I put a wire in my Santa hat and taped it to my helmet, driving around my ATV like this to be festive.
I set down the helmet to walk inside, and through the window I see a PNG man, bald, walk up to it and stare at it.
We call this 'aigris' aka 'envy' (eye fat). The man was envying my Santa hat. I kept my eye on him wondering if he might try to snatch it.... but he didn't, he stood next to it for five minutes, staring at it.
When I came out, he shook my hand, and then did something in the culture called 'Traim Tasol' (give it a shot ---try it that's all--).
He didn't ask, didn't inquire, didn't use the word please. He simply said in mumbly Tok Pisin
'You will give me that hat, because my head is being cooked by the sun!'
and I said 'no'.
he replied 'you will give me that hat, my head, it is hot, the sun is cooking it.'
I replied 'you can go into town and buy one at Papindo'.
'no' he said 'give me that hat, my head is cooking, I need it.'
I decided to stop pursuing the conversation and left before things got ugly. As I left, several people started giggling at the man.
That is a traim tasol. He gave it his best shot.
Another interesting part of the culture, is that most likely now, he will tell a story about how an uncaring ex-pat had 2 hats, and wouldn't spare 1 for him, because his head was hot.... hopefully he doesn't allow that to justify him vandalizing my fruit trees or something. We'll see. If suddenly my ripening bananas are missing, I'll know why. What a story that would make 'how my wearing a santa hat caused my family to lose some bananas'.
