Be sure to take the test

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PNG- News # 13
(April 26, 2004 )

Brother Pat, the elder and mediator who worked in the Bougainville crisis, told me about a man who wanted to train with him.
“But you are known in the community to beat your wife,” suggested Brother Pat.
His answer: “She is not my wife, she is my girlfriend."

Domestic violence and rape are rampant throughout the country -it’s out of control. In fact, all women are encouraged to wear black every Thursday to indicate our stand on violence against women. The power of the community of men is so strong that it just doesn’t make sense to report these injustices.

Br. Pat also told me the following story that happened in his village. For 10 years one family had a mango tree, which bore much fruit. The neighbours plucked the fruit on their side of the fence. Over the years the neighbours took the mangoes for granted. The mangoes being so luscious they were sometimes tempted to misinterpret the line and take more than their share.

The mango tree’s family decided to punish their neighbours by cutting down the tree. The neighbour threatened to take the family to court for loss of garden crops. Yes, go right ahead suggested the previous mango tree owner, as I will counter sue and charge you for the cost of ten years of mangoes.
Taking anyone to court here doesn’t make sense unless the people have money. Churches feel vulnerable in this regard.

Life is a hot beach….

PNG- News: “International Media Freedom Day”
(May 3, 2004)

Neither John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister, nor Sir Michael Somare, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister attended the opening of DWU’s Friendship Library. Their relationship in the past weeks has not been friendly, so politically it was for the best. The University was indeed proud of itself. The opening was a media event with singsings throughout the entire day.

There are so many layers to the relationship between the two countries. Like each of the mats being pealed away from the library doorways, the two countries have known each other through colonialization, through exploitation, through warfare, through independence and through globalization. They are important neighbours to each other and their differences are great. Australian’s power is everywhere in PNG, from products to media. Fashion, however, as you can see is not a major influence.

PNG’s identity in Australia is a corrupt and dangerous jungle - not a place to visit, a place to help. It is interesting to formally label the relationship ‘FRIENDSHIP’ with the hope that the Australians keep giving.
The university can now relax after the tension, will the building be ready to open or not? Tuesday the president threatened to close down the local art exhibit that we were putting together. Things get done or they don’t, in the nick of time. One painting portrays violence towards women in PNG. The women are bundled in a billum (the bags they carry) of hard labour.

Also at the university this week we had a visit by an 82-year-old British academic; Dr. Scarlett Epstein, an anthropologist who was here in the fifties and continues to visit. The British High Commissioner sponsored her to speak about the threat of HIV/AIDS and in order to do that she needed to talk about the violence against women. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting this vibrant woman, who suggests “strategic grand parenting” as a vehicle for AIDS awareness for young people in this culture.

PNG- News
(May 10, 2004)
You gotta laugh… or you’d cry here. This week’s meeting of cabinet declared a 1Million Kina deficit. A major contributing factor is that the Office of Higher Education have not paid the 340, 000 Kina owing the students for scholarships. The administrators at all six universities met with the Office of Higher Education, and now they don’t answer their phones. It is never clear here whether offices are intentionally not answering their phones or they are disconnected because of unpaid bills.

At 11:00 am on Tuesday I went to pick up the yellow Hilux truck from the on-campus garage. Andrew, the fellow in the middle of the leaf men in the next photo was asleep under a truck that he was fixing. He is the manager of the garage and he sure can snore…I tried yelling his name but he was out. Pursuing him under the truck, he looked like he fell asleep in the middle of changing the oil. His legs were bent. I wish I had photographed that for you! It was too funny. I never did wake the guy, just took a minivan and left. Sometimes it is so hot it zaps even the most well rested of us.


Lazy? In a class the other day the instructors were suggesting that their students are lazy. The same day, some administrators were suggesting that the construction guys on campus are lazy. An expat New Zealander, who works for quality assurance in the airline industry, talked about what it was like in the ‘70’s here. He claimed that villages were divided into missionary folks and bushmen. The missionary converts wore clothes, were less healthy as they couldn’t expose their bodies so bathed with all the clothes on, and needed money to give to the church. They also didn’t show up for work on Sundays. Of course the heat makes us all disinclined to activity or exertion. If the definition of lazy is not energetic or vigorous, I guess they are right. Living in this atmosphere any being is averse to activity, effort, or movement. Even infections are indolent or slow to heal.

As you know, sluggishness is so not me. I am doing my first fun run this Sunday for Mother’s Day. However, this atmosphere has changed my main physical activities to slow and very slow. Yoga happens on Gisele’s balcony looking over to the ocean, and we do a very slow version of Tai Chi in a room with a view of the bay.

Gisele, is French Canadian and Catherine is a French speaking woman from Belgium. The Tai Chi teacher is French from France. Too bad I don’t speak French!
Make up is typically not worn with the exception of singsings. As you can see in the picture below, Anja, an Austrian volunteer did not dawn make up for the Library opening singsing- she did however take the first two photos and video that I have included in this email.

So far my weekend has been spent washing clothes, and activating flea bombs in my house. I sure hope this helps my itches. I gotta get a haus meri.
Em tasol. (That’s all)

PNG- News: The Waterfall
(May 17, 2004)

Sunday, sweet Sunday.
Awake at 6:30am.
Its cool- do I want to get up and go for a run?
No. I’d rather read another Jhumpa Lahini subtle Indian short story.
Make coffee and cereal (rolled oats and granola in juice and milk with pawpaw fruit from my garden).
Get up about 8:30am and make a fast trip to the office. Yeah! an email from Travis with his new phone number.
Make my peanut and jam sandwich and we are off to visit the butterfly farm. Five people in the physiotherapy new Hilux Toyota four wheel truck. The journey was so difficult that Michelle (a Dutch VSO physio instructor) got a cramp in his leg from road conditions. One has to be very skilful or stupid to drive this. If it would have rained we would have been stranded. Of course if the waterfall would have flash flooded we might have drowned and I might have lost my third camera.

As you can see the trip was worth the risk. The butterfly farm, partially funded by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) was a natural environment of butterflies living their brief lives in the mountains. Big and colourful. The caterpillars were as big as BC slugs. A Harvard scientist discovered a microscopic size moth in this village and named it Ohu Hein after the village and himself.
The guide was cordial and very knowledgeable. We returned him back to his church and proceeded down to the waterfall. The rocks were slippery and the girls helped us through the water. They completed 5th grade. Their parents didn’t have the cash for school fees for them to go further. This is a typical scenario especially for the girls. Education is not necessarily the answer anyway. Education gets people to hope for work outside the garden. Some people suggest it actually causes “rascalism.” Some people actually use that “ism”. Rascalize is also a verb.
The Jealmanu Waterfall is the steepest in PNG and the force was a powerful massage on the shoulders. Cool. We ate our sandwiches and sat around talking with the children until we lost the sun.
On the way back we shopped at 4 mile market- coconuts and beetlenuts. Michelle buys the latter to make friends with the locals.

Went swimming at the resort. A terrific day!

PNG- News: The Test
(May 24, 2004)

Gude Olegata! (Hello everyone)
It is exam week so I thought I’d ask you some questions and see if you could answer.
I have made them true or false so you have a good chance of getting them right.

*1. You get to know the emotional makeup of a culture by reading fiction. True or False?
*2. I painted the dots on this man? True or False?
*3.That is a real snake? True or False?
*4. The bananas on the boys’ heads are ready to eat? True or False?
*5. Smoking causes more cancer in this country than beetlenut chewing. True or False?
*6. The issues in this university involve the church, the vocational needs of PNG and the power of the Australian academic model. True or False?
*7. The last two pictures are photographs that I manipulated with Photoshop. True or false?
*8. I added the colour red into the last photos because I thought the pictures needed them. True or False?

This was fun? stupid?

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Comments

[Static Brain]

Mud Men
I am curious why they wear mud. Can you tell me? http://staticbrain.blogdrive.com

[calico]

Patriarchal culture
Many years ago (12, to put a figure on it), my then husband, kids and I were stationed outside Mt Hagen and Goroka while working with a missionary-cum-aid organisation. One of our tasks was to organise medical evacuations; women post-partum and in prolonged labour were frequent recipients of our aid. One of the primary causes of their troubles was a tribal structure which allowed the menfolk to deny their women basic food, water and medical assistance when in labour and most vulnerable. Women and infants were expendable, easily replaced and an afterthought to some men. They saw no need for assistance and no connection between the level of maternal care and mortality rates. It seems that the situation has not improved; a hundred or so years of white cultural and religious imperialism have not impacted much on the lives of those most vulnerable. What I report here is the extreme. I have met PNG men both Xtian and of traditional spirituality, educated and not, who treat their families and dependants with care and respect. And I know there is a groundswell of the young educated who are trying to introduce some equality and basic health education. But New Guinean tribal structure seems to support and shield those naturally inclined to be abusive.