POC: Village living (before)

Teachers go on ‘prac’, pastors have vicarage and POCers go on a five week village living stay. This is our practical time where all our previous learning comes together and takes on a new depth. We are off to Amele area on the other side of Madang, to a series of villages where we each have a new wasfemili and a house set aside just for us. I am going to Auron Ples with Michelle (Tennessee) and Inga  (Germany), the other single women at this POC.

Village living is a time of learning, even though we have assignments to work on. The purpose of these assignments is to get us asking questions and reflecting on the life which 85% of PNGns live. That’s over 5 million people, includes most of our co-workers in translation, literacy and support work. Even for those in the cities, this is the life they have usually come from, still have family in, send money back to and return to when they can. Village life is the heart of PNG life.

We’ve been planning and packing in the week leading up to our departure. Food has been purchased, sorted into weekly rations, packed and labelled. We are going through our personal things to decide what to take and what to store here at POC. I’m trying to catch up on emails, blog, business etc before I go. There is a last minute shopping trip.

Once we are in the village, we will be looked after by our wasfemili, but do most of the cooking ourselves. Conversation with villagers will be in Tok Pisin. Sometimes we may go to the garden with people, other times we may be on our own. Reports of village living from previous POCers are positive, but so varied. Some people got bored with how quiet life was. Others were overwhelmed by the constant presence, hospitality and generosity of their wasfemili. I am going with plenty of books and other things in the hope we are on the quiet end of the scale. Should I find myself crowded by people I’ll have to make a much more concerted effort to have time to myself.

I am looking forward to this village stay as a chance for time to be, rather than a time to do. In a relationships oriented culture just being together is the important thing. Coming from a task oriented culture, I struggle to not have something to do. I hope to be able to spend this time building good relationships with my wasfemili and my colleagues and as well as deepening my relationship with God. Five weeks of being, not doing, is a gift to be celebrated and enjoyed.

See you on the other side!

POC: Wasfemili

Our wasmama

Another part of POC is having a local wasfemili (host family) who we spend time with about weekly building relationships, learning about PNG life and practicing Tok Pisin. The first time we met was here at POC, as they all came for a meal with us. For many it was an awkward meal, as our Tok Pisin was not yet very good, the relationship new and we weren’t sure what to talk about. Our wasmama was great. She has been a wasmama a few times before and kept the conversation rolling when we ran out of words.

Betip village

Next visit it was time to go to their place instead of them coming to ours. We headed off before sunset, about a 20 min walk, with dinner to share in hand. We sat, we chatted, we ate, we started to learn to make billums (local string bags that carry everything) and we relaxed into a forming friendship. Our Tok Pisin had improved and so had our comfort levels with these people who were no longer strangers.

Wasmama outside her house

The visit after was an overnight stay, then once again a dinner visit from us before it was time for our wasfemili to come back to POC. That time we entertained them in our haus kuks, showing our skills at cooking on the campfire, but still learning plenty from them as to how to get the fire just right for the tea and just how sweet the tea should be. By this time we were having fun hanging out together. Sometimes we chatted and at other times the silence was comfortable.

The final wasfemili event completed the circle as we gathered together in the meeting hall as a group once again. It was a time of saying thank you for sharing their lives with us over the last while. We exchanged gifts, as that is an important part of expressing relationships here. Michelle and I now have matching bilums which many have ‘eye greased’ (envied) and our wasfemili has some new towels, a meri blouse and laplap I sewed and some earrings from Michelle. Our bilums have decorative tassels on one side. When worn facing outwards it means we are happy with life and all is well with relationships. When the plain side is worn outwards, it means a relationship is broken and I am giving my back to your village… facebook posts, bilum style.

Mi amamas. Laip bilong mi em I gutpela sindaun

Yumi gat bikpela hevi. Mi givim bek long ples bilong yu. 

Sharing life with a local family has been a precious thing. They have welcomed us, taught us, encouraged us and become our friends. I feel for my wasmama as she lives with chronic pain from a childhood injury, family history of arthritis and a life of hiking mountains, gardening and carrying heavy loads. I feel for my was susa (sister) as she prepares for her exams, exams which were delayed a week or two because the papers have not yet arrived from Port Moresby. I hope to visit them again sometime, to bring my own sister here when she visits, as we are all family now.

POC: Outdoors

Our group ready to depart

PNG life is mostly outdoors as people work their gardens, travel about on foot and spend time storying  on village verandas. To get us fit for life here as well as to give us an appreciation for PNG life, we’ve spent a lot of time outdoors during POC. This has mostly taken the form of weekly hikes and swims. The hikes recently culminated in a three day hike around the area where POC is based.

About to descend from the mountain

Ugal leading the way

Resting by a beautiful creek

Wading upriver

Following the creek

Survived!

The hikes started small, first just on the mountain top, then down the mountain, then down and up again…each hike a bit further and a bit harder. Finally was the three day hike. We went as two groups, each with a pair of national guides, a guy and a girl. Day one we went all the way down into the valley (POC is at 365m elevation), lunched by a river and then went on a little way to the village where we were staying in for the night. Our waspapa (host father) met us, showed us around and let us rest awhile before we chatted into the evening. The village was very quiet as most people had gone to the funeral of a three year old girl who had died of malaria. Death of children is always sad, but when it is of something largely preventable and treatable and the difficulty is in access to care, it is sad indeed.

Day two was the best day of the hike as we went over many ridges and stopped for a rest at a few creeks and waterholes. It was a day to appreciate the stunning beauty of this country. Ridges and valleys have different ecosystems. One ridge will be different to the next ridge. As we stop quietly by a waterhole butterflies and dragonflies flit about and land on us. A poisonous snake crossed the path but then wisely hid from us, for our guide with a bush knife was waiting for him to return. On the second night we chatted late into the night, an encouraging sign our Tok Pisin has improved as well as a reflection of local hospitality and welcome.

Day three was a long day of wading in rivers and getting back to our mountain top POC home. We started the day following a river, moved on to following a creek (slippery!), occasionally took steep ‘short cuts’ across ridges and finally faced the long, constant and at times very steep uphill back to POC. Yet again, we were surrounded by stunning beauty. After three days hiking my pack was a familiar presence and the weight did not bother me. After three days hiking I was running out of energy and the final uphill was a battle of will. One step at a time I made it to the top, drenched with sweat, but glad to have made it.

Although when hiking uphill I feel incredibly unfit, when we go swimming I feel the opposite. Each week we have gone to a nearby inlet, stretched a 100m rope out in the water and swum laps of it for fitness. The goal we were encouraged to reach was 1 mile (8 laps). I made that the first week and soon after made my ‘real’ mile (nautical) of 9 laps. All those years of swimming lessons paid off. While swimming I would lap people, while hiking I would be the slowest in the group… evidence I really am a coastal person and not a mountain person!