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!

POC: Medical

Life in another land has many challenges, including staying healthy. The bugs are different to at home, cleanliness is thought of in a different way and access to health care is different. To help us stay healthy and remain in PNG, we’ve been having a series of medical lectures. Much of it boils down to being diligent in caring for ourselves and staying hydrated with clean water. At POC we’ve had our share of bugs, as people arrive stressed by major life changes and adjust to living together in a new place. The longer we are here, the more we adjust and the healthier we are.

Medical approaches across cultures are very different. Illness in PNG is often attributed to broken relationships, for the spiritual and the physical are seen to be directly related. Maintaining healthy relationships equates to maintaining the health of a community. Although the US and Australia are both ‘western’ they too have different medical approaches. I am used to using dettol or just clean water for cleaning wounds. My US friends bleach everything. As for a response to choking, they teach the Heimlich manoeuvre, which first aid training in Australia told me never to use. Lateral chest thrusts, a fancy phrase for a good thumping on the back or side, is taught instead.

As an ex-pat in this country I have health advantages. The organisation I am with has its own health centre and a doctor on call 24-7. By phone (or radio) I can always get medical advice. I am sent to the village with medications for a range of conditions that the doctor can then remotely prescribe for me to use, a situation I am familiar with from life at sea. There too, we had a locked cabinet of prescription medication and a doctor at the end of the radio or satellite. The organisation I am with also has an aviation department, to get people to and from remote villages. They also do Med-Evacs when necessary, including to Australia for more significant help. Although I pray I never need such an evacuation, there is comfort in knowing the safety net is there and that it even delivers me to my home country! Knowing insurance will pay for it is also comforting, but I’d prefer to stay fit and healthy.

POC: Cultural Awareness

Increasing our cultural awareness is a significant part of POC. This is not just making us aware of PNG culture, but aware of our own cultures and how they shape our judgements and reactions. I have found this last part the more significant as I live and work with people from across the globe. Each nation has its cultural norms, but within that is still a great range of expressions and experiences.

To increase our PNG cultural awareness we have had a series of lectures on PNG life and culture. They have covered topics such as kinship, the spiritual and the physical and the relationship of the two, the significance of gift giving, the community based nature of decisions and life as well as the value of relationships over tasks. It has been good to get a range of pointers for what to look for and questions to ask. This has been much more helpful than being given all the answers, as PNG has such a plethora of cultural expressions that there is no such thing as one PNG culture.

Before coming to PNG, I was warned that the biggest conflicts are often between co-workers, not with nationals. It can be the small cultural differences that chafe the most and, as we all know, chafe is the enemy. Our sessions on multi-cultural teamwork have been aimed at reducing this chafe by introducing understanding. The model we’ve been working within has two main scales; the hierarchical to the non-hierarchical culture as well as the strong to the weak community. PNG has a very strong sense of community, the US a weak sense of community. Australia is somewhere in between. This makes for PNG a communal culture and the USA an individualistic culture. Each has its strengths as well as its weaknesses, as well as its conflicts with the other.

In reflecting on where I fit in these scales, I am constantly evaluating my responses and expectations. This allows me to understand both myself and the people around me. I can better see why I find some people greedy and selfish; they are living out their individualistic culture. The same people often have a great self confidence, which can appear as arrogance, as their individualistic culture has given them a valuable sense of their self worth. Meanwhile, I can find myself struggling with my own self-worth, as the communal culture knocks tall poppies down. Yet, on the communal end of the scale I value the sharing and care that occurs, that PNG people are very good at including people. Where greed is the sin of the weak community, envy is the sin of the strong community as that which is yours is, or at least should be, mine, so I may as well take it to even things up. The individualist points and says ‘thief’ while the communalist indirectly agrees with their peers that the other person is selfish and greedy. Name-calling rarely helps. Understanding and adjusting our behaviour is more helpful.

Learning traditional roofing

Cross cultural child care

 I find that years at sea have taught me to function well within a hierarchy, yet on land I lean towards weak structure and consensus. PNG, Australian and North American cultures all function within a low hierarchy. Our European and Asian colleagues are more comfortable with the rules and social order of a more hierarchical culture. Many at POC struggle with the set schedule, doing activities they do not like and living to rules they would write differently, as they are from the low hierarchy culture. Life here is less ordered than at sea, so I fit into it easily enough for the time we are here.

We’ve talked about many more things like this, including the different cultural values and divisions of personal and private, clean and dirty, what constitutes a ‘proper’ home, good and bad, the causes of sickness and conflict and much more. Learning basics for reflecting on culture has been an important part of POC. Many things I’ve learnt before, but encountering them again while I am in another land and surrounded by people from a variety of cultures and places has meant I’ve had to constantly be putting them into practise, which is the best way to learn. Hopefully now I not only survive, but thrive within a multinational organisation in PNG as  I continue to live and learn. -->

POC: 6 Weekers

The youngest 6 week POC participant

6 week POC participant, David, practising fire cooking

Fourteen weeks of POC is a long time to invest in a training course, but worthwhile for  those of us who plan on being long term in this region. For people who are here shorter term (and various other reasons) there is also a six week version of POC. For the first five weeks we all do the same things. In week six the short-term POCers go on a five day village stay and the rest of us start to focus more on preparing for our five week village stay.

On their return from the village the 6-weekers had all had a good experience of PNG life, as well as their share of challenges. They’d all been very well looked after, felt their Tok Pisin had improved and were glad for a hot shower and a familiar bed. Saying goodbye to them was sad, as they have very much been part of our community to this point. We feel their absence…particularly in the noise levels. The six weekers happened to include all the children aged under one, who are at a noisier age and stage.

Now that only the fourteen week POC participants remain, the focus has shifted to village preparations. We are dehydrating food to take with, planning and shopping for five weeks, and starting to wind down life at Nobnob. Just as we had settled into the POC routine, everything is set to change once again!

POC: Haus Kuk Weekends

Pancakes in the roasting dish

Pot Oven

Collapsed haus kuk

As a family we grew up going camping. Somehow, Mum and Dad would fit all seven of us plus tents, bedding, clothes, food etc into the van and we would head off to National Parks and other bush places. Campfires, pit toilets, sponge bathing and nights under a glorious display of stars were all part of  this. Mum and Dad were not deliberately preparing me for POC and PNG, but going on an affordable holiday that explored our remarkable land. Yet, preparation it proves to have been.

As most others coming to PNG do not quite have so much camping experience, haus kuk weekends are part of the programme to prepare us for village living. Haus kuks are the name for outdoor kitchens that are standard in local villages. We have built our haus kuks out of bush poles, string and tarp, and although less sturdy than a local haus kuk, they provide us shelter in which to practice our campfire cooking skills and get an idea of what food we might like to take with to the village.

Thankfully, the point of building them was the cooking, not the building, as we have not had the most success in the building department. Our haus kuk stood up to the first tropical downpour and at least one earthquake, but two further tropical downpours flattened it. The work men had mercy on us and rebuilt it while we were in class one day and it is now much straighter and sturdier. Our version was slightly wonky and wobbly.

The cooking has been much more of a success and I’m enjoying pushing the boundaries of my campfire cooking ability. A pot oven and a heavy based roasting dish open up possibilities beyond the saucepan I’ve previously worked with. Dishes I am proud of so far include sticky date pudding, sour dough bread and pizza. We’ve also discovered that tinned corned beef can make surprisingly good meat balls and that well fried thin slices of tinned luncheon pork go well with scrambled eggs. There is an amusing cultural bias in our pancake toppings; peanut butter for the American in the team, maple syrup for the Canadian, sugar and lemon for me and our German team mate was wishing she had nutella. Okay, so she was not the only one wanting nutella…

I am very much enjoying haus kuk weekends as I find the pace slower. We organise meals when we want to and eat them in a small group. During the week meals are to a schedule and shared with fifty plus others. Other POCers find haus kuk weekends stressful, as campfire cooking is more of a chore and less of an adventure for them. I’m a kid who has gone camping in the back yard, they are parents trying to manage large families in a foreign land and all that entails. Hopefully though, it prepares us all for our five weeks in the village.