A Simbu village special and photos from last weekend!

(You will have to read on for the “special bit”)

As with all our visits to the “Hut” last weekend was very relaxing and as usual - always hard to drag ourselves back to Goroka.

I managed to take a a couple of dozen photos and these have all been posted to the online album. If you click here you will be able to view them. Our garden is coming along very nicely and some of the flowers that we now have are absolutely stunning. Here’s a photo of a red rose I took on the Sunday morning…

Each of our monthly visits always ends up with a theme and this past weekend was no exception. A few things eventuated that I would like to share with you:

• Our friend Paizil came to the village with us for the weekend. Paizil is from a village called “Maruaka” which is located way south of the Eastern Highland’s border - near the Morobe province. And although the blokes from this part of PNG tend to be on the short side - they are a master with the bow and arrow - in fact they have a reputation right throughout PNG to that effect.

• The olds folks in the village have become a source of joy and reward for me. I have a soft spot for them and have taking some photos each visit and then on the next return been handing them out to the local oldies. They absolutely love it! For many its a first time that they get to see a photo of themselves and will stand or sit there for ages just staring at there own photo.

(Don’t ask me the name of this old fella but I know there’s an uncle, a papa or a bubu in there somewhere!)

• Another item that came in to conversation with Uncle Joel was the issue of land. Land ownership is a huge thing no matter where one is in PNG but especially in the Highlands region. The subject of land came up in talks with Uncle Joel and he has made a decision to let some of the family land go. He is being forced to do this due to him being the only brother left in the village and it makes it incredibly difficult for him to look after all the family’s plots, gardens and acreages spread throughout the hills.

• We did have a our monthly Association meeting and last weekend’s meeting went rather well - we seemed to have a greater that normal amount of feedback and interaction with the locals on the subject of potential projects. We still have a long way to go with the association but should have completed the formal registration very shortly. Towards the end of the meeting the locals did something very sweet and generous - they decided to do a collection for Eli and myself to basically cover costs of paper, electricity and internet connection! A total of K67 was collected - magnificent stuff!!

(Some of the locals chipping in for a collection that was organised for us)

• And the last point I want to share is a test to see if folks actually get this far in my story. If the family back at home get to read this I will be emailed, Skyped and maybe even telephoned! Uncle Joel and his wife Rose sat down with the two of us late Sunday and brought up the subject of adoption - the two already have 5 kids and Rose is expecting another very shortly - the two have basically offered the soon to be born toddler to Eli and myself. What does one say to such a gift?

No more on that last point for now other than… I’m thinking about it!!

And to quickly get of the topic of kids, responsibility and commitment here’s one more photo I would like to share with you. This one was taken just before we left the Hut to come back to town…

(Paizel is the dude in the white cap - hiding behind Uncle Joel)

And if you want to see a photo of some village lads playing pool on the worlds smallest billiards table then head over to the “Kaubasis Visit 20080726 - Paizil” and check out a couple of the snaps on page 4.