PAY MERI

On the way home from the beach today we were stopped in the middle of the road by a mob of people parading through the streets. They were carrying money to a family near by. The money that you can see joined by the 2 large poles is to buy a wife. I was shocked to hear that this actually happens. It's called a pay meri. 

The friends and family of the groom to be, parade around the streets shouting, singing and squirting baby powder at each other (hence the white faces). When they get to the bride's house they will present the money along with a pig or two to her father. The reason for this is because the girl is a valuable asset to her father, she works long hours in his garden and if she gets married the father will need some money for his loss. The husband pays him compensation.  I think a lot of dads would like this to catch on back home. 

There's a video on my facebook page if you fancy a better look.

Love Emma x

WALINDI ISLAND

These are just a few photos from my trip to Walindi island today. It is a beautiful tropical island about 30 mins off the coastline. It was a scorcher of a day with temps reaching around 40 degrees. Sun tans all round.

As soon as we reached the island we went snorkeling around the reefs. It was absolutely beautiful swimming in the warm water of the lagoons. I saw clown fish (nemo's), angel fish and lots of other weird and interesting tropical creatures. I also came face to face with a 4 foot barracuda. He was only about a meter away from my face, I swam like the clappers to get away before he got any ideas of an early lunch. I really wish i had an underwater camera because my words really don't do it justice. The reef at Walindi is by far the most spectacular i've seen so far. 

Hope you're not too jealous.

Love, Emma x

KNOCKANI TRIBE - GALILO

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Knockani tribe in Galilo. It's about a 40 minute drive into the bush from where I live. I love just going and seeing the people in their homes and chatting to them (in the limited Pigeon i know). 

Two missionary families have just moved into this tribe about a month ago so it is a very new work. There is a picture of one of their newly built houses at the bottom. It is such a contrast to the housing of the tribal people. Sometimes I think it's a little bit unfair that the "white man" comes in and builds a huge house on their land with all his fancy gadgets, but I was reminded today that this house is not only their home but a school for their children, an office for a pastor, a clinic for the tribe and a 24/7 drop-in centre.  

The Knockani people were very welcoming and wanted their pictures taken at every opportunity. It was a great day and I look forward to hearing about the new independant church plant there in the next few years. Pray for the two missionary families as they now start language study and adjust culturally to this new setting.

Love,

Emma x

HAUS WIN

Sorry that I haven’t been updating the blog as much as usual, I just have trouble getting round to it sometimes. Things are still going well. It’s getting very near the due date for the submission of Map 4/5 (my class) novels. As some of you know I have been “teaching” 13 – 17 year olds how to write a novel. It’s going well considering the last time I took an English class was 2003 and have never written a novel before. What I’m not looking forward to is the 70 pages per student that has to be individually marked come April. Anybody willing to help with this just let me know and I’ll gladly send some your direction.

Some of you have been asking where the pics below are from. They are from a tribe just next door to my house. We went for a little walk through their village, they were so happy to see us. Jumping in front of the camera shouting to get our attention. It’s eye opening to see the difference on the other side of the fence. Literally. There is a wire fence that almost touches my back door and it is what separates this mini America from the real PNG. Sometimes walking through that little tribe I felt very embarrassed as I was so aware that they knew what kind of house I was going back to. The “work meri” that comes to my house to do laundry and that kind of thing comes from this village. Her name is Daileen, she is so lovely. When she heard that we went for a walk in her village she was so excited and has invited us for tea some night. She was on skype the other day with some of my friends from home, she couldn’t get over how you could see their faces on the computer. She kept saying “The faces on the box? sheeeeeee!”. Then when I told her they could see her too she said “Ahhh next time I fix my hair”. She loved it.

Across the road from the base are a few little “haus wins”, they are small stalls that people come and sell their produce at. Lots of the missionaries go and buy the food there, It’s nice to get real carrots instead of the tinned rubbish all the time. The other week there was a bit of a commotion right next to the stalls. During the night one of the haus wins belonging to a lady from the tribe next door had been chopped down. There were just a few remains left. Another lady who had just recently been widowed had come to sell her last little piece of cow-cow (sweet potato) and had set it on what was left of the stall. This was all she had to make a little money. You see when your husband dies here, you are left on your own for a while, no one really looks after you until after the “grieving process” , however long that may be. We heard shouting outside so we went to see what was going on. The lady that owned the stall was throwing everything everywhere and the widow was so upset as she had just lost her last hope of some money. The widow got so angry that she went to get a knife and came back threatening the stall owner. It all got a bit crazy with death threats flying about all over the place. Eventually it calmed down and the haus win got rebuilt (as you can see from the pic below) but it really opened my eyes as to how things are dealt with here. No one calls the police, there’s no point. Every tribe just fends for themselves. The people of PNG are a violent people. More so in the highlands which puts my mind at rest a little considering I’m in the islands region.

It is almost time for spring break here so next week I get off for about 10 days. I will hopefully be flying up to the highlands with Annika and Nya for a few days, it will be nice to see a little more of PNG. When I come back to Hoskins I hope to go into a tribal work for a few days as well. Just to live amongst the people and really see what God is doing will be a great experience.

After break I will be almost halfway through my time here. Time is flying so I better make the most of it. Keep praying for me as I go about my daily routine here and I will try my best to keep you updated on what’s happening.

Love,

Emma x

TRIPLE H // CHELSEA (SCUM) // LEVIS // PNG

HEROS AND SHEROS

So as you can imagine there's not a huge amount to do at night here on base. Usually we watch movies or play games, but once you've done that 3 or 4 nights in a row it tends to get a little repetitive. Sometimes the youth leaders here organise something a little bit different to do at weekends. Tonight we had a heros and sheros night. Each of the adults was supposed to dress up as a hero or shero and choose either to be a sitter, runner or hider. If you chose to be a runner your job was to run away from the kids all night trying not to let them catch you. If you were a hider or a sitter your job was to do exactly what it says on the tin, either sit or hide. Once the kids caught you they got points for their team and the winner was announced at the end of the night. It was good fun and and just something a little bit different. Just in case you were wondering, Martina dressed up as a geek and was a sitter with Annika. Simon and I were running ninja's. I wasn't very successful, all my points were given out in the first 15 minutes.

Everything else is going good. I've settled back into a routine after my parents left and am "enjoying" teaching.  On monday we all head to the local hotel to watch the superbowl (not that i even know what that is, but I'm going anyway). 

Love,

Emma x

LUKIM YU

Today I had to say lukim yu (bye bye) to my parents who are heading back to the bright lights of Derry city after visiting PNG for a month. They won't arrive home until wednesday your time, which will be Thursday here but at least they're on their way. It was lovely to have them here and it definitely helped me to settle in a lot easier. I know that they found it hard leaving us (especially Nya) as they may not see Simon and Annika for another 4 years. 

Please remember to pray for me as I try to settle into a routine now that they are gone and for them as they adjust to life back home. 

For me it's 1 month down and 5 more to go.

Emma x

AND GOD SAID, "LET THE WATER TEEM WITH LIVING CREATURES..."

On Wednesday my brother, Dad and I went deep sea fishing at a little beach near the base. Simon has a local friend here, Robert, who invited us to use his boat for the morning. He said the earlier we left to go fishing the better because the brighter the sun got the less likely it would be for us to catch fish. We left at 5 am, but PNG being the way it is, we were not in the water until after 7 am. I was so excited, more about the possibility of snorkeling at an untouched reef than catching fish but nonetheless I was still excited. In the photograph below you can see our local volcano creating the perfect setting for the beautiful sunrise (although, in PNG the sunrise/sets are nowhere near as lovely as the African ones, just and observation). 

The catch of the day was a 10lb Spanish Mackerel. Most of the time our lines just got caught on the reef below. We fished at reefs that none of us had been to before. The ones further out are the most beautiful, the water is like glass so you can see the fish swim right by you. When you reach the lagoon's the colours are breathtaking. I couldn't believe it. 

Robert decided to take us to the "drop off". At this point I got a little nervous, the only time i had ever heard of a "drop off" was in finding nemo when he falls off the edge into the unknown. When we got there I realised it was just the edge of the reef but it was beautiful. You could just see the clear blue water of the lagoon turn to black as the reef disappeared and the only thing now below us was hundreds of feet of sea. We anchored to the reef and used banana leaves to tie reef rocks to our hooks. This is what the locals use as weights to make sure their line reaches the depths. 

We had a brilliant morning. I could have filmed a whole BBC planet earth documentary on the wildlife, it was that beautiful. Between finding nemo and fish that can fly (they are real), I think it would have been a pretty good episode. David Attenborough better watch his back. 

Wish you could have seen it in real life.

Love

Emma x

 

DAMI

Yesterday i went to Dami beach with lots of people from the base and my new housemate Martina. Martina has just arrived from Holland and we are living in a new house together just up the road from Simon and Annika. I still go and see them lots and help them eat their food.

 

Martina has just graduated from doing a child psychology degree and is going to be working with the special needs children here at the school. I'm so glad she's here, i was beginning to feel a little bit lost with no one my age around. 

It still doesn't really feel like I'm in PNG even though I have been here almost a month. I think it's because I'm still inside this mini america most of the time. It's different from Mozambique in that I'm not constantly with nationals. I see them and have conversations with them everyday but I'm not totally forced to live in their culture if I don't want to. It's a different kind of relationship building you have to do here, It's weird but I'm getting used to it. Although, sometimes I don't feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to if I'm not in the middle of the jungle somewhere eating out of a banana leaf. Hopefully I'll get to make some more national friends soon.

Love,

Emma x

Ps: This is me and Martina at Dami beach.