Day 11

Day 11

The day started very early for us. Having fallen asleep around seven the night before, we woke up about 3:30 and never really got back to sleep. We bathed and dressed and killed time until it started to get light. Then we went outside with the camera to take some pictures of the hotel grounds. We ran into the lady from TCS who was doing advance duty in Port Moresby. She told us how to get to the breakfast area, which was a good thing because we would probably have never found it by ourselves. Breakfast still didn't start for a while, so we went back to the room and watched it getting light from our room's sliding glass window. We got Sam and Dad and headed up to the restaurant. And I mean up. You go up to the third floor of the hotel, and go across a breezeway, and then up a lot of steps to get to there. We went through buffet line which had fruit and bread and I got what I wanted. After eating all of that, they brought me an omelet with bacon and a potato cake. I wish I had known that was coming before I ate all the other stuff. After breakfast, we went back to the room to get our wheelies and take them to the lobby. This was where the different groups were splitting up. One group of people were going to the Sepik River basin, one to the Western Highland province, and one to the Southern Highland province. We were going to the Southern Highlands. The Sepik River and Western Highland groups left the hotel first, and the Southern Highland group after. I'm not sure why it was important other than perhaps splitting up the luggage because when we got to the airport, we all ended up in one big group again anyway. They were all going to Mt. Hagen first. The Western Highland group would then take a bus to their lodge, but the Sepik River group would have to take a second flight, then a boat ride to their lodge. Our flight was a charter, but since we didn't fill up the plane, several locals got on as well. We were in a Dash-8 model 300. There were thirty-six of us plus eight or so locals, so I'm guessing the plane held 45 or so. It's a twin-engine turbo-prop. This one looked like it's had some hard miles. One of the panels with the lights and vents fell open and they couldn't get it fixed while we were flying. Not a problem aerodynamically, but it didn't inspire lots of confidence. The flight wasn't particularly pleasant, but it only lasted an hour and a half.

When we arrived at Tari Station, it was just a gravel strip and no buildings to speak of. It did have a fence, for which we were grateful because there was an enormous crowd of people waiting there. Most didn't seem to be waiting to greet anyone, or send anyone off. It seemed like most just didn't have anything better to do than see who got off the plane. I don't think they were disappointed. They seemed to be fascinated by seeing so many white people at once. There were three trucks to carry us to the lodge, and each held twelve people. Since there were thirty-six of us, there was no extra space. The Williams clan claimed one truck with one extra person. The trip to the lodge was bumpy, but John Thiede said the road is much improved over what it used to be. Along the way, a lot of people waved as we passed, and seemed genuinely glad to see us. We also saw groups of men by the side of the road who, we were told, were gambling, but the nature of the games were not explained. We stopped at a Huli village to see and hear how they live and work. We heard all about the women and the work they do, and how marriages are made. When a young man is of marrying age, and has sufficient means, his parents pick a woman for him. A good woman is one that has worn all the hair off her head by carrying heavy things, has short dirty fingernails from working in the garden, and is generally a good worker. They are a polygamous culture, so second and third wives can be selected by the man based on looks or whatever he wants. He has to be able to come up with thirty pigs, though. That's what a woman costs. An "unused" woman, anyway. Women who have been divorced can be had for less, apparently. You'd better not be caught trying the wares ahead of time, though. It sounds like our guide did that and now he owes thirty pigs to the parents of the girl he got pregnant. I would think as a working man, he would be in a better position to make good on that debt than most men in the area.

After the village, we headed to the Ambua Lodge (Ambua is Huli for yellow. Yellow and red are the colors they use to decorate themselves). It looked homey, but very basic. As people were checking in, we were one of the last to get our key. When I asked, it turned out that our water heater exploded just an hour and a half before we got there and they were still trying to get it fixed. They offered to let us use another room until ours was ready, but we hung around the main lodge area and headed over to the gift shop. The gift shop was loaded with amazing crafts. There were carved and painted figures and masks, necklaces made of shells and boar tusks, woven baskets, and various other articles. I would have liked to take about half of the place home, but Jan wouldn't let me. Our room was ready by this time, so we headed over and unwound briefly. A local woman was giving a talk on the life of a woman in the Huli culture. It didn't sound like much fun. Especially for her. Her husband beat her and took half of her wages. And there's not much recourse for a woman in Papua New Guinea. She ended up saving enough money to buy her way out of the marriage, though. That's not an option for most women, though, because most don't have jobs other than tending their husband's gardens and keeping the pig(s). It's nice that there is at least one happy ending, though. After dinner, they showed a video, "First Contact" about the first white men to discover the indigenous peoples living in the interior of Papua New Guinea. The initial reaction to the white men was almost universally fear. The natives thought they were spirits of their ancestors that were returning, bereft of their natural color. Some of the natives followed them as they answered nature's call, though, and discovered that not only did they have all the normal bodily functions, their excrement smelled as bad as the natives'. They inferred from that the strange looking men must just be normal mortals after all. Many tribes traded goods, food, or work for the steel axes, knives, and other things the natives couldn't make for themselves. Others, however decided to try to take them by force. They learned the hard way that attacking people that have guns with bows and stone axes is suicidal. The video was starting to get into alternating interviews with the two groups involved, and since we were getting very sleepy, Jan and I went to bed. It was very cool at night in the highlands, so the beds had electric blankets under the fitted sheet. Since the bungalow wasn't very tight, it was nice to have the extra warmth.