Papua New Guinea is located at the south of Japan and the north of Australia.
I had a chance to visit my friend, Yuho working as JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) volunteer at Madang on the north coast of Papua New Guinea from 19th Dec 2009 to 9th Jan 2010. It took 7 hours from Narita to Port Moresby, a capital of Papua New Guinea. Arriving at the airport, I was suddenly amongst black people with fuzzy hair with air of 33 degrees and 90 % humidity. I took my first step into Papua New Guinea with 25 kg rucksack filled with souvenirs (color pencils, drawing papers, glue, tapes, T-shirts, Origami papers, etc.) for Yuho who works as a primary school teacher.
19DEC PX055 NARITA-PORT MORESBY 2105-0430
20DEC PX148 PORT MORESBY-MADANG 1440-1540
20th
Airplane arrived at Madang airport with one-hour delay, and I was
welcomed by Yuho with close crop haircut and Mr. Dau, a driver.
I shook hand with Mr. Dau whose smile with bright red teeth shocked me,
but it was because of betel nut he was chewing all the time.
The betel nut contains neurotransmitter which gives slight addictive
nature. In Papua New Guinea people always chew them and
spit a left-over from their mouth when there is no taste.
At night I was introduced to Mr. Sato and Mr. Iwabuchi who work as JICA volunteers in Madang. We talked about international donation over dinner at their JICA flat. Aim of international donation is to promote self-sustainability of undeveloped countries, however Papua New Guinea has already been self-sustained in its own way since old time. People would never starve in this country where banana, papaya and coconut can be harvested throughout the year. Therefore the international donation may not be needed for Papua New Guinea. What is self-sustainability of a country? They told me such opinions.
21th
Sweet potato is called 'kaukau' in Pidgin, official language of
Papua New Guinea. I bought a kaukau roll, steamed sweet potato with
piecrust, at Madang bakery for 1 kina (40 US cent). Kaukau is
important staple food for Papua New Guineans, and there are
much greater no. of varieties here than in Japan.
Yuho and I headed to his working place, Baitabag village approximately 10 km away from Madang town in the afternoon.
We arrived at Yuho's two-story wooden house, and there were reports
written by previous JICA volunteers in his room's bookshelf.
Among them I found an Origami book that let me smile. Yuho explained that
there are about 20 families of primary school teachers living in this
village, electricity is available but with frequent blackout, rainwater
is stored in a rain tank, washing a body can be done with a bucket of
water from the rain tank, and took me to a kitchen separate from the
house saying
'We don't have gas but use fire wood instead.'
The kitchen with a roof thatched with Sago leaves was very comfortable with a nice breeze, and many village people passed nearby. Yuho introduced me as a friend from Japan, and I shook hands with many village people. I really liked black people's smiles with their white teeth.
All the teachers were fluent in English, and the kids seemed at least good at listening. They usually speak Pidgin, unique language formed from a combination of English and a tribe's language in the late 19th century. They say 'Me you na go.' for 'Let's go.' and 'Me no gat.'for 'I haven't got it.'
Mr. Samurai is a teacher and shares a house with Yuho. He told me that origin of his name is Japanese Samurai. His father had a good memory of a Japanese soldier during Second World War, and named his son hoping Samurai spirit would bless him.
Japan occupied Papua New Guinea for 1942 – 1944, and then got defeated by allied forces. A huge number of Japanese soldiers, Australian and American soldiers and local Papua New Guinea people have died. Despite of the tragic history, Papua New Guineans are very pro-Japan. This is because of international donations of recent-years. Madilon general hospital in Madang and Baitabag primary school were built with Japanese donation, and they were very positively accepted by local people.
22th
I sat down at verandah with my binoculars in the morning. After a while
I could identify 2 species of birds. As I didn't know how they were
called, I named the first species as 'black-white wagtail'
which have a very beautiful voice like a flute. The other species,
orange-black finch, was a little smaller
than a sparrow and roost in a betel nut tree.
Yuho did his washing cloth in a bucket, wrung them and hung them out to dry. Then he started splitting mango wood. Cockatoo, a pet of Mr. Semba's family, was singing in a hoarse voice on the top of roof nearby.
Food self-sufficiency rate in Papua New Guinea reaches up to 80 %.
Comparing to Japan with only 40 %, I thought Papua New Guinea is a very
rich country blessed with a harvest of banana, papaya and coconut all year
round, and taro, yam and kaukau growing to a size of child's head.
A lady in the village said to me
'I am envious that Japan is a rich country. Papua New Guinea is still
behind and poor.’
‘No. Papua New Guinea is not poor at all.’
I denied what she said and explained a Japanese condition. Japan is an
economic power but the food self-sufficiency rate is much lower than that
of Papua New Guinea and has to import the rest. A large number of Japanese
people have to work until very late at night to keep its economic strength
high. It is not uncommon that father can meet his child only during the
weekend.
‘Do you think such country is rich?’
I asked her so, and the same question to myself.
Papua New Guineans view economic affluence highly valuable while Japanese regard a relaxed lifestyle with leisured time as affluence. Splendor of things can only be appreciated when they are not there.
Yuho and I went to Madang in the afternoon, and walked to a beach near a lighthouse. Sitting on the grass, I could see in my binoculars some flying fish were splashing on a sea surface and a flock of tern was flying around. The place we sat was nicely shaded by an enormous fig tree.
It's one of the strangler fig trees which germinate on top of a host tree with many air roots vigorously growing downwards, then strangle the host tree to death as time passes. I wonder how many hundred of years is needed to grow to this size.
On the way back to Baitabag village we pop in Mr. Dau's house. He welcomed us with a smile, opened coconuts with a bush knife and handed them to us for drinking as if it is just a glass of water.
At night songs of birds were replaced by sounds of insects and geckos in Baitabag village. But geckos poops a lot inside a house. A mouse runs around inside a room and bites anything. One night I had my big toe bitten, that shockingly woke me up!
23th
It started to rain from early morning and soon became a squall that
drummed a zinc roof with ear-splitting sound. The squall carried on for a
whole morning and weakened a little in the afternoon. As it was not
possible to go any where, I stayed in the house, did Origami, read a book
and fell asleep sometimes with holding the book.
Rose, a little neighbor, got papaya from a tree and gave it to us. A cut-piece was a size of holding with two hands, and I had two pieces. The papaya had energy-giving sweetness created from absorbing a tropical sunshine.
I borrowed a book from Yuho titled as ‘In the Valley of the Shadow’ about German and Papua New Guinean priests murdered by Japanese soldiers during Second World War. Japanese army who occupied Papua New Guinea Island in 1942 regarded missionaries prayed for a victory of allied forces , and completely destroyed their church and gardens. The two priests were hunted down deep inside jungle and died in a desperate condition.
After finishing the book I thought about wounds left by Japanese army during the war and totally pure devotion of missionaries. A majority of Papua New Guinean people are dedicated Christians at present.
24th
We went to swim in the sea. There was a beach and a resort hotel 30 minutes
walk from Baitabag village. Jumping into the sea with a mask suddenly
allowed me to see shining blue and yellow fish swimming. There were also
huge sea-urchins and ultramarine starfish. Nimo, bright-orange clownfish,
was hiding in a coral whose tentacles were swinging comfortably with waves.
We swam to an small island with a couple of tall coconut trees about
200m away and saw on arrival many boys were playing naked at sandy beach.
An uncle who was splitting mango wood kindly responded to our request to
give us coconuts.
We drank it, ate the white part inside and swam back to the beach.
Lunch we had at the resort hotel; fried kaukau, egg salad and fish sand, was 35 kina (14 $US). I felt guilty for the price which villagers would never afford. As 80 % of the people are unemployed and do not pay tax in Papua New Guine, a large percentage of annual government revenue comes from corporation tax which would eventually be used for building a road, schools and hospitals. Realizing so let me think having a good-priced lunch my not be necessarily bad. I found another function of the resort hotel.
At night Yuho had a phone call from Mr. Sato in Madang.
‘We had an intruder with a gun in a bookstore downstairs last night.
It was lucky that we did not have any injury but as Christmas is getting
close please take care when you come to Madang.’
Yuho told me that there occur many cases of murder-robbery in Madang
and there was actually a murder a couple of months ago near a lighthouse
where we visited three days ago.
I have experienced two times in Tokyo that the train I was on caused bodily injury. I don't know whether ‘two times’ are a lot or few. Japanese population is 120 million and no. of people who commit suicide has been more than 30,000 continuously for last 10 years. It is estimated that a large part of the bodily injury by train is caused by suicide. I wonder which is statistically dangerous, woken up by an intruder with a gun in the middle of night or woken up by the bodily injury in a train in the afternoon.
Next morning I was very blessed to wake up to a beautiful song of black-white wagtail.
25th
A Christmas party will be held in Bunabun village, one and half hour drive
to northwest direction from Baitabag village. There will be priest's talk,
present exchange and singing songs.
‘Would you like to come with us?’
Kindly invited by Mr and Mrs. Semba, we decided to go and jumped into a bus.
Both sides of a road until Bunabung village were continuously planted with
coconut trees.
There were two large mango trees with extended branches making comfortable shade in Bunabun village, and adults and children were already assembled under the shade. After a while, priest's talk in Pidgin has started, followed by everyone's prayer and Christmas songs.
During a break, I became friends with village kids by showing Origami.
Every time I folded crane, box, swan, balloon, rose and boat, they were
enthusiastically watching at a moment of completion. I asked them several
questions.
‘Do you go to church every Sunday?’
(All the kids in chorus) ‘Yes.’
‘Do you like coconut?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you like banana?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you canoe?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who makes a canoe? Your father?’
‘Yes.’
‘How long does it take to make a canoe? About a month?’
‘Yes, about that.’
As Bunabun village is located right next to the sea, kids also canoe in their daily life. And they climb coconut and banana trees.
After the break, the head of Madang Christian Center presented a wooden table and platform to the church.
Then the villagers present in return harvests from the forest; betel nut, coconut, banana, kaukau (sweet potato), taro, yam and alive pig.
Proof of freshness and heartiness. This is same as alive fish in a tank right before they are prepared in Japanese Sushi restaurant.
At night, Mr. Siwi's san, Megira, told me names of black-white wagtail, tintreek, and black-orange finch, siksik.
26th
We went to Madang town by bus. Though I had a sunshade, it was so hot
that I nearly lost my judgment
whether it is right or left while I was walking.
Looking at 2010 diary in stationary shop, I noticed weather sun mark looks angry and scary.
I was convinced. Here in Papua New Guinea, the sun ray is so severe that it becomes a threat to humans rather than blessing. However, the sun grows banana, papaya and coconut which all become blessings to humans. I decided to use the diary for the coming year to remember the sun of Papua New Guinea.
We had a lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant. All my body cells regained their lives with a relief. I thanked for existence of modern technology.
At night, Yuho has started to feel ill. I could tell he was losing his focus from moment to moment. He claimed symptom of malaria; fever, stomachache and joint pain, and slowly climbed stairs to his bed.
27th
Yuho could not eat or drink and just continued sleeping for a whole day.
Being unable to do anything, I have read Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl;
8000-km adventure on a raft from Chile to Tuamotu Archipelago across the
Pacific to prove that Polynesian ancestors are South America in origin.
Heyerdahl and his five colleagues on the wooden-raft caught flying-fish,
fought against storm, determined a current position by star watching, and
finally reached an island of Tuamotu Archipelago after over 100 days of
voyage.
However other anthropologist succeeded to cross the Pacific on a raft from
South East Asia to South America, which leads the origin of Polynesian
ancestors unclear and still controversial today. Polynesian waters framed
by Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand are such a vast area that it is
likely that each island has its own history of migration possibly both from
South East Asia and South America. Then, after thousands of years passed by,
a mystery why stone statues of Peru and Moai statue of Easter Island are
very alike will be left to us.
28th
Mr. Embe kindly offered to drive his car to take Yuho and I to a clinic
in Madang. When going to the town, it is needed to have one or two extra
people apart from a driver. It is because parking a car without people
inside quite often draws robbery. Today Mr. Ben's san, James, also got on
the car with us and guarded the car while Yuho and I went into the clinic.
It turned out from a result of blood test that his ill was not malaria but intestine infection. He was given pain-killer, antibiotics and advice from a doctor, ‘Please drink coconut juice to make up for the lost minerals and salts.’
Since I arrived at Baitabag village, I had 4 times of blessed opportunities to have coconuts. 1 time in the small island which we swam from the resort hotel beach, 2 times in Mr. Dau's house and 1 time in Baitabag school ground. All of them were just taken from a tree, so fresh and nice that it helped us from a heat of the tropical sun. Coconut is called ‘fruit of God' in Papua New Guinea.
29th
Mr. Siwi's daughter, Didira, Catherine and aunt took me for a walk to
Amron village located behind Baitabag village today. This village is on
top of a small hill, and there are church and Evangelist Training Center
right next to it. Men and women in their 20s or above who wish to become
a priest study theology here for 2 years.
I have asked names of various plants along the way. They were very
knowledgeable and told me what they are used for.
‘That tree is bread fruit. We have two different kinds. One is for
eating fruits and the other is for eating seeds after boiled.’
‘This is medicinal plant. We boil leaves and put a liquid to wounds.’
They told me a tradition of their home village, Nondukul in Highland. When a boy grows up, he challenges to live deep inside forest for three months only by himself. He has to build a house, hunt and collect foods on his own. When he completes it and returns to the village, he is admitted as a man to have a family. Then he can marry a girl who touches him for the first time at a celebration party.
Catherine picked up little purple flower and said
‘Don't you think it looks like a duck? It is called duck-flower.’
Didira showed me another white little flower and said
‘This long stamens look like tail wings of bird of paradise.’
Rose, little girl living nearby, came to the house in the afternoon.
‘Let's play joining flower.’
She said holding bright red flowers in her little hand.
She picked a flower, pulled stamens
out and sucked nectar. Then she joined the second to the first.
‘Did you get it?’
She said with a smile, and joined the third and the fourth. Finally she made a beautiful flower
crown and put it on my head.
Little girls play flowers all over the world.
At night, Ms. Yayoi, a diver working at Madang Resort Hotel, came to Baitabag village to see Yuho. As he is still recovering from the illness, she kindly offered to take me snorkeing on 31st and sinsin dace tour on 1st.
30th
There is a Mt. Nobnob 3 hours on foot from Baitabag village. Since late 19th century
German Lutheran missionary has started its activity, and there are church and a
primary school surrounded by many houses on top of the mountain. I, accompanied
by Didira, Catherine and aunt, went to visit Mt. Nobnob today. Heavy rain has
suddenly started half hour after we started the walk, but we carried on.
When we turned a main road to an unpaved uphill trail, the rain has little weakened.
An old lady we came across on the way was a relative of Mr. Macao, a teacher of
Baitabag primary school. She shook my hand and gave me a bag that she was carrying.
There were more than 10 bananas inside.
‘Please eat them on the way to the top.’
She said with a decent smile.
They pointed at some conspicuous trees.
'Sago palm.'
‘Can you see cacao fruit on a tree?’
‘This is Guava.’
Cacao and Guava are familiar with Japanese people.
‘Do you have coconut trees in Japan?’
‘We don't have them in Japan, but we have many apple trees.’
Papua New Guinea is too hot for apples, but there is a fruit called lau-lau similar to apples.
We enjoyed our plant-watching walk upto the top of Mt. Nobnob for nearly 2 hours.
We finally arrived at Nobnob primary school. Since Mr. Siwi has worked as a teacher for 15 years at Nobnob Primary school, Didira was a graduate of here. She showed the school buildings and play ground remembering her youth.
There were church and houses of German missionaries on top of the mountain. As written in 'In the Valley of the Shadow', Papua New Guinean priest, Mr. Yot Begbeg, was tortured to death by Japanese soldiers here. However, after Japanese army retreated, the missionaries took the place back, plowed up the land, and re-started missions and education. Their dedicated activities still continue today.
The villagers carry crops they can harvest from their forest gardens; betel nut, papaya, pineapple, taro, kaukau, etc. to a small market along the main road and sell them for a whole day. This is the only money income they can get.
I was bitten by flea during sleep. Red spots appeared all over my arms and legs, and sometimes I couldn't help scratching my body crazily. No matter now nice all the tropical fruits are and how beautiful the sea is, when I come across body troubles caused by insects and mosquitoes I truly lose my spirit.
Anti-itch cream made in Australia was sold 35 kina (14 $US) in Madang pharmacy. But the price was down to 9 kina (3.60 $US) as its expiry date was December 2009. I bought it, hoping it will still be effective until I go back to Japan on 9th January.
31th
Today I joined Yayoi's snorkeling tour which took me and 4 other Japanese
people to an uninhabited island off the Madang coast. Jumping off a boat, we were happily
amazed at beauty and blueness of the sea. We played and swam there for nearly 3 hours.
There were more than 20 different kinds of tropical fish,
various colorful corals and also small stinging jelly-fish.
4 Japanese members were father, mother, daughter and her friend. Father had been
working until 20 years ago as a Papua New Guinea tour guide for Japanese families
who lost their family members during the war and wish to visit a place they died.
He came to visit Papua New Guinea again with his family this time. Looking at
the sea, Madang town and a huge mountain range behind, he said
‘There is a place thousands of Japanese soldiers died from malaria, coldness and
hunger when tried to cross over 3000-4000 m mountain pass from Port Moresby to Madang.’
In the tropical ocean, Hawaii, Indonesia, Malaysia, Okinawa and Papua New Guinea, where thousands of soldiers were killed, now peaceful tropical fish quietly welcomes tourists.
At the beach, we collected fire wood, made a fire, peeled off the skin of taro and yam, and boiled them together with chicken and other vegetables in coconut milk for lunch.
Coconut milk plays a magic. It cooks everything; all kinds of potatoes,
banana and chicken, in perfectly sweet and delicious way. When Yayoi said
‘This is what local people usually eat.’
‘I think this is very rich food life.’
Mother said in reply. Enjoying the food, I wonder what richness means.
Yuho and I kept awake until 12 o'clock. When a new year 2010 has started,
people went out of a house, put firecrackers, and began to sing. Yuho's
aim for 2010 is not to get malaria or any other diseases and to do good and
rhythmic classes. My aim is to read more than 10 books written by Ryotoro Shiba,
a famous Japanese historical novelist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%8Dtar%C5%8D_Shiba
1th
I woke up to a beautiful sound of tintreek. Yuho was doing his washings, and cockatoo was
vigorously crying on a tree behind him. It was the same morning as usual.
We went to Good-shepherd church, half hour on foot from Baitabag village, to listen to priest's talk for a new year. As it was talked in Pidgin I did not understand anything, but an atmosphere of everyone who eagerly listen to the talk made me feel worshipfulness.
After the talk, I had a chat with Mrs. Semba who has been working as a primary school teacher for a long time. She told me that a big problem in Papua New Guinea is that more than 80 % of citizens are unemployed. At present government promotes mining development which hopefully creates employment opportunities. However this will destroy Papua New Guinean's life style which deeply depends on harvest from the forest.
Mining development and keeping the forest life, they are essentially contradictory and not achievable at the same time.
In a daily life,
enough time and enough money,
appetite and wish to lose weight.
In Japanese society,
recovery in economy and decrease the amount of CO2 emissions.
Being impossible to achieve them simultaneously, driven by a sense of value
created at the time, the people and the society just keep going.
In the afternoon I had a plan to go to sinsin dance tour with Yayoi,
however all the local bus stopped today. Thinking how to get to Madang
without a bus at a main road, a car has stopped in front of us.
Inside the car Papua New Guinean couple looked decent and it was air-conditioned,
and they kindly offered to hitch-hike me to Madang Resort Hotel.
As he drove he asked me
‘You are from Japan right? How much was the flight?’
‘It was about 2000 kina (1000 US$) in return.’
‘It is not that expensive. I think I can go to Japan with the price.’
I was surprised at his answer and wonder what he does.
He explained his job was to get shark's fin and sell them to Chinese who
love making soup out of it. He owned an fish export business company on his own.
I was safely sent to Madang Resort Hotel and thanked to wealthy shark's fin couple.
In the bus to Haya village of sinsin dance, Yayoi told us about Papua New Guinea's population. The population census held every 10 years showed it was 6.8 million last time. No. of children a woman give birth in her life time was 8.2 on average. Therefore the population is expected to expand to 7-8 million at the next census. Japan, facing with low birthrate and aging population, is at the other end of the spectrum.
The bus drove a long uphill trail and Haya village was located at the end of the road. There were primary school, church and many houses. I found a cassowary kept in a cote at the back of a villager's house. This is the third biggest bird in the world after ostrich and emu, and the villagers keep them for eating.
Village boys put red squashed seeds on our face so that we can dance sinsin together. I noticed the seeds were same as the plant Didira taught me used for painting. Pic
Then villagers decorated with beautiful evergreen leaves started to dance.
Rhythm from a rustic wooden drum covered with a lizard skin. Hair accessory made from wings of bird of Paradise. The villagers dance sinsin for weddings, funerals and other important events as well as for the tourists.
On the way back to Madang Resort Hotel, we went to see a light house. It was already dark, ending 1st January of 2010.
2th
A pool of Madang Resort Hotel uses ocean water therefore my body
feels easy to float. I was happily swimming here for a whole morning.
Crawl 700m, breaststroke 1000m and crawl again 500m. It was very comfortable
to get a feeling of floating.
Yuho, who came from Baitabag village, Yayoi, who just finished the work in the morning, and I had lunch together at pool-side restaurant. Though a staff showed us Chinese menu, he said there are no shrimp and pork as a market is not open from New Year holiday.
As we had sweet and sour fish and fried rice without shrimp, I said
‘I really wish to see a bird of paradise, but it can only be seen
in Highland. Is it right?’
‘No. If you go to Haya village, you can see them almost everyday in the forest.
Do you want to stay there overnight and ask someone in the village to take you
into the forest in the morning?’
Excited at what she said, I asked her to arrange it for me.
After Yuho and I went back to Baitabag village in the afternoon, Rose climbed Papaya tree and got a ripe one for us. Papaya ripens every day absorbing the tropical sunshine. Rose knows well which tree's which papaya is just about to eat, and climbs the tree without any difficulties.
3th
While Yuho has gone to church with village people, I stayed
in the house reading Il milione written by Marco Polo. He, born
and brought up in Vienna, has served for Kublai Khan for 12 years and
traveled around the world during that time. Extent of his journey covers
China, Siberia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, India and Middle East.
This book written in 13th century describes ‘In north India, people's inside
the mouth is bright red because of betel nut they chew all the time.’
I was surprised to know this habit goes back to such an old time.
Papua New Guineans also chew betel nut all the time. Adults, children, men and women, everyone chews. Then they spit bright red left-over from their mouth. Therefore there are a lot of red blood-like marks all over Madang streets. I believed they were bloodstains at first sight and thought Madang was such a dangerous place with many gunfights. When heavy rain falls, they all will be washed away.
In the afternoon, Yuho has come back from the church and we started to cook. He split mango wood, make a fire and I poorly fan to let the fire going.
As there is only one fire, cooking rice, boiling water and cooking vegetables take nearly 2 hours. Japanese style where convenience store is 5 min walk is convenient and lazy while Papua New Guinea style where splitting mango wood is the start is inconvenient, training and literally slow-food.
4th
I headed Haya village again in Yayoi's car, hoping to see bird of
paradise this time. A village mother who looked after me
had 5 children. She could speak good English so we got along very soon.
Mother told me that as there is no electricity here, they use a kerosene lump
at night. Kaukau, taro, yam, banana and greens can be obtained from gardens but
rice, sugar, salt, kerosene have to be purchased. Money mother can
earn by selling betel nuts at market is about 10-20 kina (4-8 $US) a day.
Mother cooked coconut milk rice, soup with chicken, tuna, greens and hard bananas stewed together and boiled taro for dinner.
Before meal everyone prayed in front of a poster of Jesus Christ put on the wall. Coconut rice cooked over the fire was very nice.
5th
6 o'clock in the morning, I, brother and a boy from the village
started walking to the forest. We found a white-headed eagle on the
top branch of a tree standing in the garden. On the lower branches was a
flock of black starlings with red eyes.
It seems rank of the birds appears in height of the branches.
Entering into the forest, we could hear high-pitched striking songs of birds.
The brother said
‘This song is bird of paradise.’
He with his naked eyes and I with my binoculars walked around looking at
forest canopy 50-60 m high. Suddenly vivid orange tail wings flew across from
left to right among canopy trees. That was the bird of paradise.
I, before coming to Papua New Guinea, have seen a bird of paradise presented from Papua New Guinea government in Tokyo Ueno Zoo. I could not believe such a beautiful bird does exist in the forest of Papua New Guinea.
The brother pointed at them perching in positions easy to see many times. And I could find beautiful orange figures every time in my binoculars. A scene of male and female birds together. A scene of a bird dancing with its wings fully opened. We were blessed to have a nice weather on this day. Bird of paradise, one of the most beautiful birds in the world, is known to have 42 species and 38 species inhabit in Papua New Guinea.
In the afternoon, I did origami paper-folding with mother and kids. It is common in all countries that all the kids love jumping frog. I folded also bird, box and pig. Mother showed me in return coconut leaf craft; star, box, square ball, rectangular ball and crown. I was truly amazed how profound it is.
I stayed at her house this night again. Same as yesterday we prayed, and had rice and soup with hard banana, greens and chicken stewed in coconut milk.
We talked about languages of Papua New Guinea. There are more than 800 languages, different in each tribe, in Papua New Guinea island and they are not dialects and completely different with their own grammar and words. Sometimes villages only 10km apart in an airline have totally different languages. Why is this? It is explained from a view point of linguistics and cultural anthropology as follows. Rain forest all over Papua New Guinea Island have limited migratory property of the people living there, who become to live within their village getting food from their gardens and adjacent forest. As time passes for several ten thousand years, each tribe evolved to have its own language.
Mother's explanation was different.
‘It's because of Tower of Babel.’
She said. Once upon a time people started to built a tower reaching heaven to see a
figure of God. To lesson boastfulness of the people, the God has given them different
languages. The people suddenly became unable to communicate and then the tower just
fell down. Origin of different languages described in the bible.
‘That probably happened in Papua New Guinea.’
Her voice echoed in darkish room.
6th
I got on a truck with Gibhan who is a staff of Yayoi to go back
to Madang town. On the half way, a village aunt got off at the local
market with a huge bag, seemingly more than 15kg, full of betel nuts.
I was at Yayoi's dive shop waiting for Yuho and Aya who was a JICA volunteer in Solomon Island. Aya was on holiday visiting Papua New Guiena from 5-8th and we went snorkeling to an island together. The island we arrived was the one I came on 31st with Japanese family. As it was second time for me, I was familiar with shapes of corals and cove, and could swim comfortably. There were yellow, black, blue, orange and purple fish. I noticed that angelfish and clownfish are the only fish that I know names. When I go back to Japan, let's look at a picture book of tropical fish.
Aya is teaching vegetable farming in Solomon Island. As she stays in mountainous village for her work, she said she feels happy to swim in the sea.
We went back to Madang by boat and to a market together, bought kaukau, onion, tomato and carrot for tonight. Aya bought a large belum, Papua New Guinean bag made by knitting, and I bought two beautiful tropical clothe.
After we went back to Baitabag village, we started to cook dinner. As Aya stays in Solomon Island, she is good at making a fire and grating coconut. As usual after 2 hours, vegetable coconut soup and rice were well prepared.
Ben came to out kitchen and joined out chat. Knowing Aya is a teachter of vegetable
farming, he started to talk about his garden behind Baitabag school.
He grows various crops; banana, yam, taro, corn etc. Tips to keep good soil is to
grow different crops every time and grow leguminous plant like peanut. As it is
located at the foot of a hill, good nutrients are carried into the garden after rain.
‘I know my garden the best.’
He said proudly.
7th
We planed to canoe to an island where Mr. Dau was born. We went to his house
with a watermelon to eat on the island, but he wasn't there. Instead kids said
they can take us to the coast where we can
get on the canoe. Therefore we started to walk under the bright sunshine.
After half an hour we arrived at the coastal village with many kids and adults. Yuho introduced himself and told them that we would like to canoe to Mr Dau's island. But they said there is no canoe available. Yuho asked availability of boat with an engine, they said there is no petrol. So Yuho and the kids started to walk around the village asking for petrol. Being told there is some petrol, but when they went there the person was already gone to somewhere. Being told it is possible to borrow a canoe in a neighbor village, but when they went there it was not possible today.
Aya and I waited hungry for more than 2 hours and half. Then the time has become too late to go and come back from Mr Dau's island today. We and the kids gave up and walked to a nearby Resort Hotel, where we at last found that it was possible to rent a rowing boat to go to a small island off the coast.
Sitting on a bow of the boat let me feel we were voyaging into the ocean like Heyerdahl. But our journey is not 8000 km but only a couple of hundred meters to the small island in front of our eyes. We soon safely arrived, enjoyed watermelon and swam around the island for a while.
By the time we went back to Baitabag village, it was already getting dark. Since I hardly ate anything for breakfast and lunch, I was starving without any energy left and did not feel like speaking even a single word. But it takes 2 hours to prepare food here. When it became totally dark, coconut rice and vegetable tuna stir-fry became ready. The food cooked on the fire and seasoned with hunger tastes better than anything else.
We went to Mr. Siwi's house to present an Origami decorative ball at night.
Kids excitedly looked at the ball which is made out of 40 paper flowers tied together, and said
‘This looks like a pineapple!’
While they were occupied with it, I talked with Mrs. Siwi who told me that the way of
chewing betel nut is different in India and Papua New Guinea. Here people chew the betel
nut together with limestone and a fruit of mustard. In India people mix the betel nut
with various spices and chew them.
‘I don't understand at all Indian's way of chewing betel nut. Why they put spices?’
Mrs. Siwi said with a shrug.
From my point of view, no matter whether in India or in Papua New Guinea, a habit of chewing betel nut stains people's teeth bright red, makes road dirty with spit left-over, is very unsanitary and disgusting. However, Japanese are notoriously known to enjoy eating rotten soybean called natto. This habit is truly not understandable for foreigners. Which is worse? No one can decide.
I woke up noticing myself scratching all over my body in the middle of night. I could see positions where scabs were sloughed were wet with body fluid; a very bad symptom. Such positions draw flies, come to a head, and then skin slowly becomes like rotten meat. There are 2 more days to go back to Japan. I have to protect my body with a long-sleeve shirt from mosquitoes and flies.
8th
Aya goes back to Solomon Island today. Yuho, Aya, I, James and Seine (Mr. Embe's son)
got on Mr Embe's car and headed to Machinegun beach in Madang.
This was a place where Japanese army fought to death against allied forces trying to land. The machinegun of over 60 years ago become totally rusty with sea water and clearly marks the severe historical moment into the beach.
Then we went to the airport, wished Aya's safety and success in Solomon Island for another six months and sent her off.
Coming back to Baitabag village in the afternoon, Rose came to our house with a smile and said
‘Let's go to the garden to pick some vegetables.’
I followed little Rose along a trail to the garden. On the way, she picked
mushroom growing on a fallen tree. Arrived at the garden, she picked a corn, greens
and tomatoes and asked me to pick long beans as it was much taller than her height.
Then she took sugarcane, broke it into two and gave the one to me. As she showed me,
I peeled a skin of the sugarcane off with my teeth,
‘You are really good at it!’
She said.
Then we cooked dinner together with the harvested vegetables.
The last slow-food dinner in Papua New Guinea was also very delicious.
At night I was presented a belum made from tree bark from Mrs. Semba and
her daughter, Jois and a hand-knitted belum from Mrs. Siwi, and a shell necklace from Didira.
‘Please remember Papua New Guinea with these.’
I was moved with the words.
9th
Early in the morning, we headed to the airport in Mr. Embe's car. I looked at the
scenery from Baitabag village to Madang that I have seen many times. There were coconut
trees along a road, a local market where village mothers sell vegetables, a small bridge to
cross a creek and a fish cannery close to the town. Everyone except Yuho and I; Mr. Embe,
James and Seine were chewing betel nuts as usual. I am sure it will be the same tomorrow.
After checking-in, Yuho presented me a cowry necklace. I received it, thanked for looking after me for 3 weeks and promised to meet again in Japan after completing his volunteer for another 1 year and 3 months.
Airplane flew from Madang to Port Moresby and from Port Moresby to Narita. Memories of 3 weeks come back in my mind many times above the sky. This journey let me realize that fruits and vegetables just taken from a garden and rice cooked on the fire are very delicious, and cooking food actually takes a very long time. To remember this, when returning to Japan, let's grow some vegetables and don't rely on fast food. I promised so looking at the sky from the window.
09JAN PX149 MADANG-PORT MORESBY 0830-0930
09JAN PX054 PORT MORESBY-NARITA 1415-1955