Uncle “Hae”…

Meet my friend “Hae”…

“Hae” (pronounced “Hi”) is a village boy from the Kerema district in the Gulf Province. Hae is 19 and the name of his actual village is Ihu. About 6 weeks ago he left his village and walked all the way up to Lae. Probably the equivalent of walking from Sydney to some place like Coffs Harbour. Took him about 2.5 weeks.

Hae is village born and bred and great to soend time with. One of the many friends I have made since arriving in PNG mid April. Many a nights we sat down drinking coffee (or beer) and telling stories. The PNG people have the most incredible and wicked sense of humour. I love it !!

Why do I refer to him as Uncle Hae ?
You will require access to the “Secret Stash” to find out more. Classified !!  (has something to do with females if you must know). Sshhhhh…..

Anyway…

One of the funny stories that Hae shared….    back in his village there is a toilet pit (as you would expect). Basically a space allocated for people to go and shit. There are also many pigs in his village (Ihu). The pigs basically hang around the toilet pit waiting for people to do their business and guess what ?  There are times when the pig gets impatient and will try and push the “pooer” out of way so they can get to their “warm meal”. The way Hae told this story, with a few snorts and a bit of acting thrown in and we were all in stitches with laughter.

If I ever head down to the Gulf Province…  remind me never to eat any pork !!   Also, I might have to think through very carefully my  squatting “technique”…  (just in case one of the local pigs developes a yearning for a certain food source).

Anyway, enough of “poo” stories…

Last night I went over to Goasa and Edna's place and watched Hae climb up one of the trees in tehir backyard and cut down some coconuts for dinner. Like anything that Hae does or says, you can normally guarantee a laugh somewhere and sometime. So what happened last night that cracked us up?  By the time Hae got down the tree he was covered in these orange ants that bite like buggery. He was absolutely covered in them, from head to foot. All over his hair and beard. A couple of dozen even managed to get into his pants !!!   Should have seen him jumping up and down, he was yelling like crazy (in pain) and the rest of us were rolling around the ground with tears in our eyes.

Yes!!   Plenty of photos. Just go to the following photo album for a squizz : Hae climbing coconut tree at Goasa's (18/11/05)
Even managed to snap a couple of Hae jumping up and down trying to rid his body of the biting critters!!!.

And Hae heads back to Kerema tomorrow…  yes walking !!