PNG Village generosity

(Eli with her maternal pops: Bubu Kandoni)

I stayed home today to be with Eli and to make sure that she’s OK - she’s just had an operation and was discharged over the weekend from Goroka General Hospital after being there for five days.

It also happens that we’re expecting a visit from the local Council whom have threatened to cut off our water supply due to our landlord not paying previous bills going back to early 2005. So far (4:00pm) they have not turned up but I have already written letters stipulating that I will do anything and everything within my “means” to deny the Council lads access to our property.

Two very good reasons to stay home! When I’m next at work I’ll be filling out one of those “compassionate” leave forms. I very PNG thing to do by the way for a whole range of reasons - not only a death in the family.

So with a little spare time and a phone line working again (phone=dialup) I decided to post some more photos to the online album (yep - almost there but still about 1000 or so to go - at last count my online album now has close to 5000 photos published).

And here I was going through the photos we took at Fatao village during our 1st visit to Eli’s Mum’s clan “ples” around the middle of 2007. After all the recent frustrations (as shared in my blog) I needed a little emotional boost and a couple of the photos from Fatao did the much needed job.

(the food that was given to us by the folks from Fatao - there’s sugar cane and karuka (a type of bush nut), pumpkin, kau kau (sweet potato) and corn)

The generosity of PNG village folks never ceases to amaze me - one of those quirks about rural Papua New Guineans that make this country so special.

Each and every time I (or we) have visited a PNG village I (or we) inevitably walk away with a tonne of fresh food. The photo above is the food that was given to us by Eli’s family as we were leaving Fatao and which we had to cart all the way back to Goroka town.

When I first experienced this giving nature of the rural Papua New Guinenans - I was not that impressed! Note that there is always someone to walk from the village back to the H’Way and help carry the extra cargo - but what about beyond the H’Way??

All I could think about (with the rational and planning ahead mind that sits on my shoulders) was having to lug even more stuff from the bus stop in town back home. Needless to say I was not a happy chappy!

I have since relaxed and learnt to appreciate the gift or gifts from village folks. In fact I now know that what is being given is special - food from their own gardens and the product of their toil and sweat. The garden to the Papua New Guinean is a sacred place - for food is the source of life.

So nowadays when I am given fresh food from someone’s garden, I not only appreciate the gift but feel honoured to be the recipient of something that is so full of life force. I no longer think about the effort and energy to get the stuff home but look forward to with anticipation the cooking and eating that which was freely and lovingly given to us.


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