Let The Games Begin

In an earlier post I gave you a peek at the Opening Ceremonies of our annual Katagu Games.  The villagers have been competing in Basketball and Volleyball for weeks now (games are held several times a week and often go all day), and last week I finally got the chance to go and watch some games with Jacob & Beth Devine.  There's no Rec Centres in our end of the bush, so the people make do with makeshift hoops and nets on dirt courts. 

A Different Kind of Christmas Gift

Each Monday morning at 8:00am our local ladies from the village bring their fruits and veggies to our campus to sell.  Since we live about 45 minutes from the nearest town this is really nice and convenient for us, and a good source of income for the village.  The selection varies throughout the year but we can usually count on pineapple, bananas, pumpkin, papaya, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, an assortment of greens to cook with, avacado and green beans to name some.  Where we live in the cool Highlands is the perfect environment for a huge variety of fruits and vegetables and we enjoy it!  If I start complaining about the prices it's good for me to remember that in order to bring us fresh food at 8:00am, these ladies have to get up early, trek to their gardens (sometimes a 1/2 hour walk away), pick/wash/prepare their produce and lug it (usually in string bags hanging from their heads) to our campus.  Although it's acceptable to barter for artifacts and other similar items, we don't normally barter for food. 

Occassionally at Christmas the villagers like to present the Interface staff with a Christmas gift.  They don't have much to offer in the way of material things, but they'll each contribute a bit of garden food to "bung" together (put together) for us to divide between ourselves.  Last Monday the villagers put together this pile of food for us in the middle of the grass above.   

One of the ladies that sells produce each Monday is my "apa" (namesake), Julie. 

While we walk around buying our food the ladies usually sit around working on their bilums (string bags).

 Here we take a look at our Christmas food and decide who gets to take what home. 

With what I'd initially bought at the market plus my Christmas food, this is what I ended up walking home with.  We have lots of bees around here, and occassionally the villagers will show up with honey to sell (in the coke bottle above).  It's cheap and the flavor is amazing.

We have to be a bit creative to make it feel like Christmas in the tropics! 

The lack of snow, Christmas music playing for months beforehand, and commercialism bombarding you do make it easier, though, to focus on the real meaning of Christmas: Christ who was born to save us from the consequences of the sin that we were all born into.  What an incredible Saviour He is, that He would give up His life and humble Himself to give us life.

Merry Christmas!

See more pictures of Christmas in Papua New Guinea HERE. 

Mambu Time!

My friend, Ini, invited me to a "mambu" recently and I was excited to finally get to experience another example of good Highlands cooking.  Ingredients needed:  chicken (live preferably), greens, ginger (lots of it), and bamboo.  So I headed to the market to buy our poor victim.

This chicken market is conveniently located where every chicken market should obviously be - behind the hardware store. 

Our chicken was affectionatly named "kakaruk" ("chicken" in Melanesian Pidgin), and kept inside the house overnight to be kept away from our campus dogs.

 Off to the village we go, bright and early.

Ini's husband, Allen, and another lady help get the greens ready.  I knew they'd be using a leaf I didn't really care for so I picked up some watercress at the market to add to it.

  

Ini.

This is one of my favorite places in our area to go. 

Fresh ginger is ground into the leaves.  They really like their ginger here.

Allen was pretty excited to get dressed up to get his picture taken.  The choir robe and cowboy hat make for an interesting combination. 

Poor Kakaruk.

The chicken is cut up into tiny pieces...ALL of the chicken.  There wasn't a single part that wasn't chopped up and added to the mix. 

The chicken is mixed with the greens and ginger and stuffed into freshly cut pieces of bamboo.  The ends are stuffed with grass to keep it all in and then the "mambu" (the Melanesian Pidgin word for "bamboo" and the name for this particular meal) are placed over the fire to cook.  Beside them to the right are tapiok (cassava root) and to the left some cooking bananas. 

I've seen them put everything in their hair from feathers to clothes pins...it's a pretty handy place to store anything you don't want to hold in your hands. 

The hors d'oeuvre: cooked banana.  After a while the mambu were done and I was sent into Ini's house to eat by myself.  For this I was thankful since I could pull out all the fat and bone without being seen!  I set them aside with the leftover mambu I couldn't eat and Ini was more than happy to finish off the "best" part afterwards. 

2011 Katagu Games

 Each year our community of Katagu hosts their annual Christmas Games, where teams come from around the valley to compete in volleyball and basketball during the month of December.  I knew this went on each year but had never attended, and I had no idea it was such a huge event!  A few of us went to the Opening Ceremonies and got a good dose of PNG culture.

The Grand Stand...PNG style.

 Some of the courts.

Side attractions were needed, of course.

 We were really smart and sat right in the sun.  That didn't last long.

After a long time waiting, the dignitaries and politicians began arriving with much pomp.  My co-worker, Pete, was invited to be a part of the ceremonies to represent Interface.  I love the girls in front all dressed up blowing bubbles and wearing sunglasses.

It looks like two different worlds but they're all amazingly still one.  Each politician/pastor/representative from the area took turns giving elaborate speeches and singing the praises of the Katagu community, and ended with how much money they were donating to the annual games.  

Sellers trying to make a bit of profit from the Games.

For over two years I've been eyeing this bilum (string bag) every time I've seen this lady carrying it, and I figured it was finally time to do something about it.  I spotted her at the Games and sat down with her to tell her how long I'd been eyeing her bilum, and a few minutes later it was mine!  It was a win win situation - I was happy with my long-awaited bilum, and she was happy with a bit of extra cash in her pocket.

Peter works on our campus and has a quirky sense of humor.

 Being rainy season, the sudden downpour came as no surprises and the speeches were interrupted by people dashing for cover.

This was our view for the rest of the event.

Not quite the model Calvin Klein had in mind, I'm sure.

 Time to head home.  Sometimes life is just easier in bare feet.

The pigs run wild here but they know who their owners are and always end up back at home.  Unless they're running loose around our campus trying to dodge hungry dogs. 

Home sweet home - the final decent to Interface.

Thanks, Jack Housley, for letting me use some of your great pics!