Sargent Major fish frenzy

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PNG- News # 14: Sargent Major fish frenzy
(June 12, 2004)

Sitting on a dock outside of Finschhafen wasting time. Four Canadians trying to get to Tami Islands.
Patrick drops a Lae Biscuit cracker into the sea and a dozen fist sized sargent majors swim every which way. It is difficult to watch as the sea motion from Sunday night’s sixteen hour boat trip is still present. One successful stripped sargent major poses with his catch - a large piece of cracker in his mouth.

Its Tuesday, no market today. No boats. We walk to the local high school Dregerhafen Regional for tourist advice. Lucy, an English teacher with a spare block adopts us. Her husband Jason, an unemployed TV repairman comes from the small island and becomes our personal guide. Telling us the history of buried WWII US airplanes, the latest yacht disaster which left the Australian owner crying on the beach, and his time in prison. He arranges for a boat and the next day we are walking the island greeting carvers and meeting his family.

No power, no TV. There are less than a hundred people who spend their time spear fishing, carving, and church. There are two churches. Christianity has seeped into this community like tea from a tea bag. They still have their beliefs in the spirit. The story goes, that the seven headed snake spirit on the adjoining uninhabited island was approached by a western military man. As he did not believe in the spirit’s power, the snake took the form of a man who travelled to the USA and developed the atomic bomb before returning to the island and his snake form.
You are with me, right? You don’t want this magic to fade. The people will have nothing to believe in. They will be modern.



Our last meal on the island is a freshly caught yellow finned tuna….



.with fresh oranges thrown down for dessert.



We leave paradise with two more boat rides and the challenge of the bridge crossing to the city of Lae. Then take a PMV back to Madang. Great trip.
After a week with three Canadian young adults I don't seem to miss Travis as much. On some odd level we are interchangeable. And the opportunity to watch BBC news serves as a touchstone to what I know.
In the same way that my Western characteristics keep showing up, no matter the context, certain patterns are apparent to the foreigner. I was sitting in a meeting with five women library staff and Makis their male supervisor. Makis invited the women because in an earlier meeting they had many questions and comments. After Makis talked around and around the issues of using one room in the library for art exhibits.
He suggested that the women might want to comment.
It was a moment to remember. it was classic. As if each were getting ready for a scene in a painting; the five women struck their own distinct evasive noneye contact stance. It was all at the same time and then there was no movement and perfect silence.
To throw out ideas and discuss can be dangerous in this culture. Conflict can escalate quickly and bush knives appear. Silence does seem like the best policy.
And now it is on to my next trips.
Back to you at the end of the month.

PNG- News “Sore Rabaul yu. No olosem bipo.”
(July 1, 2004)

“Sore Rabaul yu. No olosem bipo.”

Translation of pidgin - Poor Rabaul, Never all the same as before.
My coffee cup at St. Mary’s School of Nursing Vunapope, East New Britain Island

Ever since the volcano, things have changed in Rabaul and neighbouring Kokopo. Pitpit is growing all year, mangoes are not growing and there is no dry season. Other things have changed too, however some things haven’t- the Tolai people still use shell money to pay bride price with a fathom (your arms length).

You will have to come to East New Britain to touch this money, as it can’t be taken out of the country.
I could view the North Daughter simmering from Dr. Pauline’s (my VSO host) dining room table, just past her ‘haus win’, and the ocean bay, which is a crater, filled with water. Pauline a Scottish doctor and Isika, a Kenyan water engineer gave me a tour of the devastated area. North and South Daughter are grouped with Mother. Father Mountain is away in New Ireland Island.
The Japanese burrowed walkways throughout the hills to hide and get to supplies during World War 11. I went to the most amazing submarine base which had a shallow coral shore of 20 metres and then a sharp wall which seemed to go down forever. It was a great place just to watch the fish without even getting wet. The Kokopo Museum was a tribute to the battle. The picture that follows is Isika at the Japanese memorial we passed on our way to explore Mother. The kids with mudpainted faces seemed to be living at the memorial.

The diving was great in Rabaul however sea life is literally getting to me. I took pictures of batfish as I explored the wrecked tuna boat off Pigeon Island. Now I am covered with angry bites that are thriving on my skin.

In Port Moresby, PNG’s capital, I was safely cloistered in an international community of Bosconians. Most of the brothers/fathers were from the Philippines, Italy, and Mexico. The two brothers in the picture -one from Samoa and one from PNG, played basketball. I watched in the stands with twenty odd settlement kids who spend their weekends on the school ground. There are always so many children everywhere you go. The average Tolai family from East New Britain Island is 7.5 children!

Father Andrew, a Vietnamese missionary, who will go to Mongolia to set up a Don Bosco Vocational School, drove me around and catered to my need for cappuccinos in the big city. He even managed to get me to the National Museum and UPNG.
Now I am back in the thick of it. Cabinet meetings where we have to decide whether a Catholic University can hire a man with two wives and how well I am doing in my placement. This weekend I am at a resort for the VSO conference, and am hoping to get a night dive in with the full moon.


PNG News - ‘A boy at last’
(July 11, 2004 )

“Thank god it’s a boy!” VSO doctors reported at last weekend’s conference that this was a common reaction of PNG folks in the birth process.
The photo above was taken at DWU’s Open Day Communication Arts students exhibit on photojournalism. Clearly gender is an issue of power and status, roles and position, access to and control over resources and division of labour. In the Highlands it is referred to as ‘sexual antagonism.’

Last week I went for an early morning run. On the road I met a couple coming out of their home. The man greeted me with smiles and ‘guta morn, where are yu going? yu alrait?’ The woman, walking five metres behind him, had a fresh bloody nose showing she had been recently beaten.

Women literally carry the load or heavy bilums. Bilum is also the word for womb.

Life expectancy for a woman is 51 years. PNG is one of the few countries in the world where women have a lower life expectancy than men (56 years). There are limitations for women - health, education, violence, being treated as property (bride price) and polygamy (on to the next wife). Some misery can be gendered.

They murder women for sorcery here. The notion is that women might have magic power, and that makes them dangerous.

When I was in Kokopo at the Teachers' College, I was the only woman serving on the Affiliation Audit Team, the only woman in the room and one of two white people. The administration of the school was all men. The school has about 350 women students and 250 men. The overcrowding was such that at the beginning of the semester students were sleeping two to a bed!

The representative from the Office of Higher Education was questioning the school’s hiring policy for women. Brother Andrew (Australia, VP Academic) who was staying with his Catholic brothers at the school had met some women instructors who complained that they had no voice. Bro Andrew brought this up in the discussion. This triggered the Highlander Academic Deputy Principal into defensive mode. The Principal then stated that he” didn’t like women to congregate.” Yikes, the comment seemed so ‘politically incorrect’. Later in the discussion, after I had calmed down by reminding myself that I was a visitor in this country, I made the comment; 'that being the only woman in the room I felt I had to say something about the remark about congregating women’ I was told that I didn’t understand the culture. I agree.

Let me interrupt myself. Yesterday I met two US women, one from LA and one from NY. They were marooned off Hermit Island and have spent the last 10 months negotiating parts and fixing their sailboat. They will take another 4 months, write their book, fix their boat and be off to the Philippines. They had met the owner of TimeWinder, the yacht I saw that hit coral off the Tami Islands. The man who owned that boat, cried on the beach, left the boat on the island and never came back. Is that the difference between men and women? Or was it just insurance policy?

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Comments

[Lindsay Smith]

Finschafen
My wife, daughter & I lived in Finschafen in 1975 & were there for the Independence Celebrations. There was a 21 gun salute while the Nuigini flag was raised & the Australian flag was lowered. Bazookers left in the jungle after WW2 had been renovated. Shells were loaded up with gunpowder with newspaper rammed in on top. As each round was fired charred newspaper floated up. By the end of the show the whole place was shrouded in charred smokey fragments so that nobody could see anybody. Great memory.

[Stroiid Aliizta Biishop]

Sargent Major fish frenzy em pawa mi tok!!!!!!!!

[Stephen Mesa]

The Carver-comment
The is Aitalo Sali, my first cousin. He comes from my family who is know well known for fine "blade" work on the hard wood (we call it mbuan or kwila) carving. This is one of his many fine works. We keep some of our grandfather's carvings which he gives to us the first born grand children. Aitalo is from the only son (my uncle) of the old grand father Sali Tobia (Tami best fine carver). Thank you for taking this photo and having it on the net. Cheers Stephen