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My village house.
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My house is the fanciest house in the village.
I have indoor plumbing (one tap to put a bucket under),
indoor toilets (composting), power (2x 95w solar panels) and I’m cooking with
gas. Each of these items on its own makes my house fancy. Together they make my
house the best in town.
Compared to Australia though, I am roughing it. Bucket
showers with brackish well water (at least until the drought is over), just a
few 12v plug points, no phone or internet, no oven, no fridge, no furniture…
people go camping with more comforts than I’ve got!
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| My neighbour’s house. He plans to rebuild soon |
Lifestyle gaps are a strange thing. By Australian standards,
my village house is little more than established camping. By village standards,
I’m living in swamp luxury.
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Village kitchen, sitting on the floor
and using a fire in
the tropical heat.
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| A village toilet |
Negotiating being the one with so much is a challenge. It teaches
me to be thankful for what I do have rather than focussing on what I don’t. It
teaches me to be thoughtful about what I own and what I consume, as I do not
want my wealth to be a barrier to relationships. It teaches me to be generous,
as I am too egalitarian to be comfortable in my castle while others wish for
one of their own.
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| My indoor bathroom with wash place and toilet |
My real lifestyle gap with my PNG village is that I can leave.
I can go away from my fancy village house to an even fancier house in the
Highlands. I can then go away from that house to Australia and my Highlands
house seems simple in comparison.
My biggest challenge with lifestyle gaps in the last year
has not been returning to Australia with its comforts and riches, but the day
the medical ship was in my area. Being aboard the big air-conditioned ship,
sipping a coffee and looking at the village through the deck to deck windows
felt like I was watching my own life on a documentary. I can cope with
Australia being Australian, but when a piece of Aus floats into my PNG
neighbourhood, I feel the clash distinctly. The ship does good work and I’m
glad it visits, but it forced me to face the uncomfortable reality of my lifestyle
gap in a way that I prefer to compartmentalise.
Our oldest daughter just spent two years working on a small island in the Philippines, while she was in the Peace Corps. I'm amazed that she navigated the culture shock of moving between Nipa Huts (the Philippine huts look identical to the PNG ones you show in your blog), and the U.S. Midwest with its shopping malls and freeways as well as she did. What is perhaps most telling is her comment to me after she arrived home, that "it wouldn't be a bad life if she were to spend the rest of her life teaching English on that island". Modern luxury is not the most important ingredient in a recipe for happiness.
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