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Published: September 12th 2005
The warriors who saved us
rugby team members from Brahmin(August 26, 2004)
Well it should have been the road to Bundi, however the policeman’s truck was bugarap and he turned back at 5:15am. So Jamie, my 24 year old British fellow trekker and I went back to sleep at the Catholic Mission and then spent yet another day walking to Brahmin. On this final hike, six members of the Warriors- Brahmin’s under 21 rugby team saved the day. They showed us shortcuts down steep mountains, bought us bananas, and most of all carried my pack. Surrounded by a circle of young beetlenut chewing men we waited for the PMV to take us to the Highlands Highway. Where after a flat tire, a lots of watermelon we negotiated a ride back to Madang.
So the trip to the highest mountain in PNG - Mt. Wilhelm 4509 metres was successful on all counts. Up at 2 am walking to the summit for sunrise, then the walk down to base camp- 2 hour nap and then back to the guest house in the village.
Instead of taking the PMV back to Kundiawa we made an impossible walk to Bundi. It was a 12 hour
marathon forty something kilometres with packs. The woman with the pot on her head was the only one who gave us the most truthful estimate for how far we were from Bundi.
“Impossible” was the German tourist’s word for what we did in one day. The mission gave us a room, a bed, a hot shower and a meal. (not sure what we ate with the rice- bird? bat? ). They also provided us with breakfast at 3:30am.
Throughout the journey, others showed us compassion and hospitality. In Kundiawa Patrick from Kenya made us a chicken dinner and put us up in his room. And we had a lot of good luck. The PMV driver ignoring the request for a 5 kina road fee, drove through a band of Highlanders, who ran after us throwing rocks, tree branches and bush knives.
I love PNG.
PNG News- Knots and land (September 5, 2004)
Remember before the Sopranos, before Six feet Under and Sex in the City there was Allie McBeal. My favourite episode had the psychotherapist asking people to choose a theme song. I didn’t realize that this is derivative. The people of TepTep have an
earlier and more creative approach to personal melodies. Like most PNG traditions, the melodies are communally based. Each person is given his or her own melody- a short thing of about four notes - ‘dee dee dah do’. They can dream a more fuller sound. They never use the melody themselves, others use the melodies when they cross that person’s land.
Being in a university has its benefits, Thursday night a group of three German anthropologists presented a talk- rethinking ‘culture’ in anthropology. The word has too many meanings so they don’t want to use it. They are studying individuals in an interdisciplinary way in PNG and Micronesia and attempting to make sense on what makes a social person in a particular village. They do not consider themselves dealers in exotica, merely exploring what it means to be a person in a locale.
In PNG, a person is like a knot in a web of ropes and the ropes belong to a particular landscape. The knots do not suggest inner turmoil, I can’t imagine therapy in such a ‘live for today’ society. The knots underline the interdependency and interconnections of people with each other.
And of course
the interconnections are based in a geography, the landscape of home. Where people dwell. The Highlands people are very different from the coastal people.
When people are asked to orient items in space they do not use their self as the reference point as in left or right, they use the landscape to let others know where something is.
This new approach to anthropology is liberating. If anthropologists investigate individuals who live in a marketplace of both traditional and new ideas, we can assume they are integrating them all in their own unique ways and reformulating what it means to be a person in this culture at this time. And maybe some western new ideas are useful.
(Oh oh I used the illegal word culture when I shouldn’t have.)
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krishna
non-member comment
Bundi Catholic Mission
Yes,I have been their guest in 1986/90 when father weigal was incharge and have met Bruno and had their support to plant cardamom at the Kobum plantations.I have walked from Bundi to Kobum,have flown to Brahmin Mission-great place to be.How to trace father Wiegal,a great person to know. K V S Krishna From Chennai,India