A Week in Konogogo

I recently spent a week staying in a villiage – Konogogo, the village Monica, George, and Will we’re inducted into.  I went by myself when Bruce, Monica, George, Will, Glennis, and Scott flew to Port Moresby for a long weekend.  I stayed with Monica and Gilmay (Kuni and Lucy’s daughters – my “blood sisters”).  I had a lovely, lovely week with them.  We did everyday village life things.  One afternoon we walked an hour up to their gardens and picked food for dinner… cow cow (potato/yam), singapore (potato/yam), capsicum (what this part of the world calls peppers), and bananas.  I carried a basket of cow cow and capsicum back home on my head.  Monica made me a basket in the garden before we picked everything.  How crazy is that.  “Oh, Tawny doesn’t have a basket to carry food in.  No worries I’ll whip one up stat” and she did.  On the way back I was a bit worried about being in the sun for so long and getting sun burnt so Monica cut a paragom leaf for me to use as an umbrella.  I was then dubbed with the title of “Paragom Lady” and later upgraded to “Paragom Queen”.  Walking around the village that I’d just been in the week before was really cool.  A lot of people knew who I was even if I didn’t know them.  At one point on the walk home someone called out and asked, “Is that Tawny under that paragom leaf?”  I’m kind of a big deal. 

Working on the handle for the basket

Attaching the handle to the basket

Gilmay, me, Ais

Carrying capsicum and bananas with my "umbrella"

The second day I was there was a Sunday.  Everyone in the village attends church, though not at the same church.  I went to Catholic Church with Monica and Gilmay.  The service was in Pigin and it was hard to hear so I didn’t understand much.  Throughout the entire service I have the eyes of almost every child in the church glued on me.  I’m certain none of them heard a word the priest said.   All these kids smiled from far away but the second I got too close they’d look away or run away.  There were two kids sitting behind me who were somewhere around the age of 2.  Both of them freaked when I looked at them so in hopes of disturbing the service as little as possible I refrained from turning around.  That is until I felt a finger poking me in the bum.  When I turned around I saw a 2-year old sitting on the floor finger extended going in for another poke… and then we made eye contact.  The kids eyes popped out of its head and it turned around reaching for its mom.  A bit later I felt a poke again but this time it was on my other cheek.  Sure enough the other toddler was having a poke.  It turned into a bit of a game.  They would poke and I’d turn around and catch them.  I learned quickly though that they could touch me but I could not touch them.  When I extended my hand to play they screamed.  Oops!  So much for not disturbing church.  After church we went up to the primary school and played volleyball.  My arms are now bruised (literally) but it was  a great day of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you've noticed my legs matching the color of the dirt and are
wondering why it would be because I forgot to put sunscreen on
so I made sunscreen out of mud

Prior to volleyball I was taught how to play rocks.  You throw
one rock in the air and have to grab as many rocks as possible.
If you touch a rock but don't pick it up you lose.  If you drop a rock
then you lose. If you don't catch the rock you threw up you lose.
I lost... a lot!

Another day was spent fishing.  You’d think my years of experience and expert training from my dad would have given me a leg up.  Yeah, no.  My fishing pole consisted of a piece of wood rounded to become a “pole” with fishing line wrapped around it and a hook tied onto the end of the line.  In order to cast the line you have to swing the line around your head like a helicopter and fling it as far as you can into ocean waves that regardless of how far you may or may not cast it bring the bait right back to you.  To prepare for fishing we had to find bait so we walked along the beach and collected guma (hermit crabs).  We then broke their shells with a rock and pulled their eyeballs off killing them and fixed them to our hooks.  Monica also went searching for lassies.  I have no idea what a lassie is because I’ve never seen one before and Monica didn’t know what the English word for a lassie was.  At one point I said “It looks like a…” and Monica cut me of by yelling “Don’t cast my lassie!!!  You cannot call it anything other than a lassie or I wont catch any fish!” So I did not say what I was thinking but I will say it was part of the male anatomy and when we showed Lucy the lassie Lucy said, “It looks like a…” and was cut off by Monica yelling the same thing about casting her bait.  Lucy and I could not make eye contact for the remainder of the afternoon without laughing hysterically and having Monica chastise us for casting her bait.

Well it turns out Monica was right.  That day we went fishing and I didn’t catch a thing.  The next day Monica’s husband, Ais (pronounced Ice) took me out in a canoe to fish but the seas were too rough and at one point he said “Uhh ohh!  Canoe buggar up.”  Any sentence that starts with “uhh ohh” usually isn’t a good sign.  And when followed by “canoe buggar up” is also a bad sign.  It’s even worse when you’re in the canoe that’s buggared up scooping water out with a bleach bottle that’s had the bottom cut off and the seas are rough.  It is, however, a very good thing to be with a PNG man who has a bush knife and can fix such things with bush materials which is exactly what he did.  We pulled into a beach and Ais fixed it right up and we were off again to our picnic/fishing site for the day.   Round two of fishing was yet another failure.  Monica and Ais both caught a couple fish, but I came up with nothing.  Not even a bite! I’m convinced it was my white legs that scared all the fish away.  They’re not used to such a bright light under water and steered clear.

Hermit crabs (guma), Lassie, and 4 fishing poles

Monica made weights for the fishing line by
melting down an old car battery

One afternoon we went to the house of a mother with a deaf son, Ray.  Ray is about 4 years old and has no language skills.   I showed mom a couple signs like food, toilet, sleep, etc. and explained that at first he wont understand but if she uses them repeatedly every time he does that activity eventually he will pick it up.  While we were there he signed mom.  Smart kid.  Ray took to me extremely quickly.  In fact, he’s the first kid I’ve met here that showed no hesitation when approaching me.  Most kids are shy and nervous and take time to approach me, but not this kid.  He walked straight up to me and began petting my skin and looking back and forth between my white arm and his black arm.  He then started petting my hair so I let my hair down and he explored it for a while.  Once the other kids saw this they eagerly came over and began petting my hair as well.  Some of them got comfortable enough to pull it different ways and one girl, Rubina, even braided it… fancy! Prior to braiding it Rubina started pulling my hair into pieces and inspecting my scalp.  I didn’t realize what she was doing until she called out for all to hear “Tawny nogat lice!”  Well, thank you Rubina for confirming my lack of head lice for all to hear.  Apparently everyone here has head lice but I think it’s a different kind of lice than you get in the U.S. because I’ve been in contact with a lot of people and have yet to get lice.  While at this house I met a man named Philip.  He’s in a wheelchair and always has been.  He spoke very good English and said he reads the newspaper as much as possible to practice his English skills.  We spent the afternoon chatting and telling stories.  He’s a musician and after he cuts a record he promised me one.  I do hope he makes it into the studio one day whether I see a record or not.  I saw Philip around the village all week attending rugby matches, going to was-was, being pushing up and down the road.  He’s well taken care of which makes me happy.  Disabled people (in the village anyway) are looked after and are viewed no different than other members of the community.  No one seemed annoyed with having to push him around, in fact, they seemed impartial to the task.

Ray

Ray took a liking to my camera and after I showed him how to
use it he wasn't too keen on putting it down

White meri grass (white lady hair)

More playing with my hair

According to Rubina, I don't have lice and she checked quite thoroughly

Getting my herr did

My new friend Philip

Ray's little brother, Richmond.  He wasn't afraid of me either.

I experienced my first encounter with racism while in the village.  It was not from anyone at Konogogo, but a man on the PMV who got out to yell when they stopped.  I have no idea what he said but I heard something about belonging in Australia and Australians being in PNG.  Monica raised her bush knife that’s a solid 2 feet long and started yelling back.  After the man left I asked what he said and both Monica and Gilmay consoled me by telling me not to let his words get to me and he’s a stupid drunk.  I explained that I wasn’t upset and I couldn’t be upset because I had no idea what he said but I was curious to know what he was going on and on about.  They went on about how he’s stupid and I could still have a good day.  Lucy walked up and they explained what happened in their tok peles (tok peles = talk place meaning village language) so I still couldn’t understand what had just happened.  Lucy got furious and went on about the stupid man then hugged me and comforted me by telling me I was alright and he’s a stupid man.  I did not need consoling or comforting because I still didn’t know what happened.  At this point I didn’t bother asking again and promised them I would not let him ruin my day and in fact I was already over it and happy.  Then we moved on with me clueless about what just transpired and them gritting their teeth muttering under their breath.  After this Monica did not allow me to go anywhere alone even though by this point everyone in the village knew me and welcomed me and I’m 99% sure they wouldn’t let anything happen to me considering I’m Kuni and Lucy’s relative.

Another fun thing about being the only white person in a village is was-was.  I got to be the source of entertainment for all the women and children everyday at the stream while we bathed.  I walked up and all washing came to a stop.  They stared while I washed my hair and then showed me where to rinse it.  Then while I washed my body they stared some more and again pointed to the exact same spot in the river of where I should rinse.  When it came time to wash my clothes everyone would grab a piece and start scrubbing even when I asked them not to and said I could do it on my own.  If I weren’t scrubbing well enough one of the women would take the garment from me and begin scrubbing while everyone else stared at me.  They all got a kick out of my belly button ring and asked questions.  By the end of the week if I passed a group of kids with my towel and they all suddenly felt the overwhelming compulsion to have a bath and would join my entourage to the stream.  For one week all the village children at Konogogo smelled of Dove Body Wash because I shared my special white bathing soap.  It was really sweet but extremely awkward to bath with 10, 15, 20 sets of eyeballs glued on you. 

Getting attacked by kids on the way to was-was.
After this photo they all decided they, too, needed a bath

I loved being in the village and loved playing with all the children.  There’s no judgment even when there is hesitation.  After a week most of the kids called out to me when I’d walk by and one girl who is 4 or 5, Susan, would stand at the end of the driveway on the road and call out for me.  She would greet me with the appropriate greeting for the time of day in her tok peles. “Gavovo moran (good morning), Tawny” or “Hakein moran (good afternoon), Tawny” or “Domon moran (good evening), Tawny”.  After I replied she would continue on her way.  On the day I left Susan was waiting for me halfway down the driveway and she held my hand while we walked to the PMV.  We said our goodbyes and as I drove off she stood and waved with several of the other kids.  Another group of girls probably 8-12 years old kiss their hand and raise it up when they would see me.  I would kiss my hand and raise it up in response and they would all giggle and continue on their way.  It was rather endearing.

The lovely little Susan.  On the way home from was-was she held my hand and talked in her native language so I had no idea what she was saying.  Every so open she would pause for a response from me and I would say "yes" or "uh huh" and she would wrinkle her nose and look at me confused.  I had clearly responded incorrectly.  After a few moments she'd continue on with her story.

About 2 seconds after the previous photo was taken we got photo bombed by several other children

Monica would not allow me to take the PMV to Namatanai alone for fear that someone would be rude to me so she came along.  Once I was safely with Melanie and Belinda she was one her returned home. 

All kids here carry around knives.  And the ones
who aren't afraid of the white lady are more
than happy to pose for a photo.

Who needs shoes when you've got two empty
rice bags that you can put on your feet

Scary white lady photo

The kid sitting with his back turned to the camera was paralyzed
with fear when I sat next to him.  Though you can't see it he's
crying hysterically in this photo.  Oops!

Davos ran disappeared while we were
walking down the road and this girl
was kind enough to return him to me

Davos making friends with a pig.  Immediately after this photo was taken the pig moved and Davos took off running.

Me with Grandma Ruby on my right and Mama Doreky on my left.
I don't know the other woman's name.

Augusta was kind enough to show me a dance
(shake your bum) and then after I copied her she
avoided me like the plague.

Our walk to fetch water.  It was upstream from
the place we bathe.

This little lady was practicing for her swim suit modeling
for her future spread in Sport Illustrated 

Me scraping a coconut and Davos plotting how he can descretly sneak some

My lovely sister Monica

Monica and Ais