At the Sharp End in PNG
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2008
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20
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Trip End
Ongoing
Bogia,
Papua New Guinea
Saturday, April 11, 2009
One term done , and what have we done!! We got back into harness with a lengthy meeting to plan the programme with the Ian, the visiting consultant. This was mixed up with farewells to the education programme manager who has gone to be VSO health programme manager in Cambodia, and our Country Manager Joe has gone off to the Solomon Islands as OXFAM programme Manager...tough life if you don't weaken!. We have now done two visits to each of our schools and are getting the flavour of what a new academic year has in store when there is so much upheaval in staffing and policies and finance.
People are obviously a major part of our working, and non working, days. There is an enormous variety as you would expect and we get fun, interest and amazement from those we see on our travels
png and people
. There is no real consistency, although maybe when you are not used to them the average Papuan can be a bit of a shock at first because visually they are a bit fierce.Well the men are anyway! The youngest kids usually have little or nothing on and if the sea is safe or there is a river they are happy to splash around for hours with nothing on. The older ones are pretty good at spear fishing using a sort of catapult and the sharpened spokes from broken umbrellas. Working men in town will nearly always be wearing baggy t-shirts and shorts which all come from the second hand clothes shops which are huge. They also have a great love of a flash line in hats, from the woolly sort which we associate with mountaineers, to Andy Cap flat caps or American baseball hats. There is a fair sprinkling of Rastafarians as well with their crocheted rainbow hats. Nearly every man caries a bag, a bilem, which goes over his neck and one shoulder. This carries mainly his betel nuts, Daka stems of pepper, and plastic jar with ground lime in it for chewing. They are nearly always chewing. They start with the betel nut, which is a green -husked nut about the size of a golf ball. They peel the husk off with their teeth and throw that away...anywhere. Then after that is chewed soft they add little bites of daka which has been dipped into the lime. The reaction between the lime and the green mush in their mouth turns a bright red, so their mouth is red, teeth, lips, and the road after they spit out a long stream of bright red juice when they have worked on it enough.
The women also chew, so there are many smiling faces which present the most alarming bright red lips and gums with the most revolting blackened and broken teeth. The lime grinds away at the teeth while the chemical reaction causes all sorts of grotty things to happen to the mouth....ending up with cancer
Practical Skills
. Other than that the women can be lovely! They also dress in baggy shorts and t-shirts in town, but many wear the baggy 'meri dress' which is very brightly patterned and loose. Hair can be in any style you imagine. Long is possible, pigtails, bunches, plaits, buns, shaved off all together, or anything in between. Most men have some sort of face hair, of a great variety of shape and style, and some of the women do too! Specially those from the Sepik and Ramu river regions. Going through the jungly bits along the coast road you still see the skirt and boobs look in some of the tribes, and there is usually a fair display of muscles and skin bits as the men go from the villages into the bush gardens or collect building wood from the bush. They are very strong and fit.There are of course, plenty of anomalies. The ladies in town with the tight jeans and clinging tops may be something to do with the shed hotel which hires rooms by the hour. Those men in long pressed trousers and long sleeved shirts will be from the offices, schools or government. They will also be the ones wearing regulation black shoes. Boots of any sort are a bit of a status symbol while the flipflop has a major role to play, although some still protect theirs by carrying them as they walk along the rougher roads barefoot. Feet are created made of iron here, even the mini kids can walk barefoot over burning coals without a twitch. You do occasionally see the opposite of all this when a family has come into some cash, and the youngest is dressed in the brightest clothes possible including those shoes that flash as they walk, and they strut their stuff as they follow parents down the road to church or market.
Ex-pats also present the rage of sartorial elegance
Practical Skills grade 10
. There are still the antique white explorer looks floating around with brown shoes, long socks and pressed tailored shorts and shirts with the required two pockets...these gentlemen always have a very large 4x4 as well. Not so old can come in all shapes and colours. The Father Walter who runs the local catholic Conference centre always wears sandals, baggy dark brown shorts, and a vest(singlet) which obviously starts off as white. The nuns always look immaculate which I just don't understand at all. And those Indian nuns who belong to the St Theresa lot are always smiling as well. I think they are just showing off that they can wash whiter than anyone else. The Italian Father who insists on living on the volcanic island near us has a neat line in baggy shorts and singlets as well, but he is a bit more mobile than Father Walter so he sports a neat line in training shoes which possibly started off as white as well but I cannot say for certain.Finally the item of costume which is essential in our neck of the woods is the knife. These can be of the small variety which can be used for cleaning your fingernails, and such like. The blades about as long as a carving knife. Then there are the genuine workers who carry a real knife. Not a machete but made in the same style about as long as from your elbow to your fingers. And heavy. It's used for splitting coconut, that sort of thing
A social evening at school.
. A domestic essential. Then there are the wood men who will have the world famous machete. This will cut anything if you have the time or the inclination. It is strong and heavy and swings well. Good for bamboos, trees, or anything in between. Finally there is the grass knife. Everyone has these and the children all have to bring them to school as part of their boarding kit. Yes.....their boarding kit. A grass knife is about a metre long of steel sharpened on one edge and it has a cloth or tape handle roughly wrapped at one end. The handles can have time spent on them as a form of ID, just to be flash. This delightful implement is carried along the paths and streets by children of all ages and by men and women. It cuts grass well. It also cuts people pretty well by accident as it swishes through its cutting arc of about 2 metres of swing, and then of course there are those times in PNG when the cutting of people is not an accident.....so you need a knife.I've got one. A short coconut cutting knife. I use it with trepidation and count my fingers after each swing.............so far so good
