Simbu – On sleeping arrangements and ablutions

I have been lucky enough to have stayed in a few PNG villages now. Each village having its own uniqueness and its own brand of simplicity. I love the experience of the village life and hope to visit many more, in fact I hope one day to extend my stay beyond a few days should the opportunity and circumstances arise.

Needless to say that village life does have its ups and downs, its pros and cons, its advantages and disadvantages. There are two items relating to village life that for me personally are rather challenging or perhaps better described as awkward, the first being the sleeping arrangements and secondly, the business of toilets.

Before I launch into an account of either of these peculiarities of PNG village life, let me tell me you about my bed. My bed cost me AU$1800 to ship to Lae, there was no way I was leaving it back home or giving it away to anybody. It was less than 2 years old, cost me AU$4000 brand new and besides, it’s the best dam bed I have ever slept on. I love my bed! Every single night, as I prepare to journey to the land of “zeds”, I can’t get over how comfortable my bed is.

In PNG and in Melanesia for that matter, sleeping arrangements are much simpler. Mattresses are a luxury and single rooms are almost unheard of. To cut a potentially long story short the 4 nights in Eli’s village saw me share a sleeping area with not only Eli but also her Dad and younger brother Lumba, the four of us basically slept next to each other!! The 1^st three nights were very restless but the 4^th night I slept like a log – with Eli on one side and her Dad on the other!! Its more than fair to say that for me communal living has now taken on a totally new meaning.

Regarding the toilet business, I will use the terms #1’s (weewee) and #2’s (poop). The words in brackets will not be used again in this story!! Just #1’s and #2’s. The #1’s aren’t a problem in the village – if one needs to go, one just does exactly that, you find a tree or some bushes somewhere, male or female and ppssssssssss…. Beautiful!

#2’s a slightly different story (for me anyway) – see, I have been toilet trained to sit down, on a chair type device specifically built for the purpose of you know what. No squatting and no holes in ground, no flies buzzing around trying to gain “access”. Simple enough – not so in the village man!! The half a dozen times that I have stayed in a village to date – I have somehow managed to hold off with #2’s – two, sometimes three days. Four days is far too long to go without a good “sit”. So on this trip I had to adapt, it was adapt or suffer the “messy” consequences. Besides, I only had one pair of trousers with me – so adapt I did. My squatting technique certainly needs some work.

For photos of this trip to “Kaubasis” in Simbu please check out the Kaubasis visit (7/7/06) photo album. !!