As women in Papua New Guinea, freedom is something we really value. There's safety in numbers here and we don't often get the chance to go outside the gates of our compound by ourselves. Everywhere we go we always have others with us (usually men)...whether it's shopping in town, spending time in the village, or just going for a walk.
Sometimes it's hard always having to find someone to go places with us. My co-worker, Lesley, and I decided we needed a bit of freedom one day so we ditched the men and took off on her 4-wheeler to visit a good friend of ours in the village. Weeeeee!!!! :0)
Esta (in the white hat at left) and her mom, who we call Mama Wiye (sitting between Lesley & myself), live in this hut. Esta had been sick and we were able to bring her some antibiotics. You can see the coffee drying on the right. The villagers don't like to see guests getting dirty so they usually bring us something to sit on - a coffee sack, a leaf...whatever they can find. As I was sitting there a corner of my foot happened to be hanging off the plastic that I was sitting on, and as I was deep in conversation with Esta, Mama Wiye started tugging desperately at the plastic and trying to move my foot to make sure I was all clean. It was pretty cute.
Just watching us "white skins," as they call us, is pretty good entertainment for the children and we usually have a crowd of them wherever we end up sitting.
Esta & myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting! :)