Before I tell you about the village living portion of POC, I would like to ask you a question. Have you ever (really!?!) considered everything that is affected when you have no electricity? Take a moment and ponder this thought, and realize that those of you who are reading this are among a minority who can read it, have the electricity to see it and have a computer and/or smart phone to read it on. You (we) are blessed beyond anything I could have ever imagined without going to see how another part of the world lives. They have no electricity in Mawan; no fan, no air conditioning (some don’t even have screens in their windows or completely closed “walls” in their homes), they have no lights, they have no refrigerator or freezer, or stove, or microwave, they have no running (clean) water. Most of their lives are polar opposite from what I left in America. I was in for the ride of my life… here’s a peek at my recent life:
Living in Mawan Ples (village):
Mawan Ples
My village house, learning to wash myself, my clothes and dishes in the (same) water, and filling water bottles upstream . . .
I arrived with much trepidation and fear of the unknown; now I realize that I gained the best “Mama” I could have ever asked for. She is sewing a meri blouse for me. She is adorable! We were supposed to have the house to ourselves (me and Coralie – another single POC student). But that didn’t work out ~ the “old house” was really falling down ~ and after a few nights of rain on my bed they had to take the copper from the old house and put it over my room.
You should see what it takes to build and or repair a house here! This entire house is handmade… the walls are woven and the roof is morota (leaves) sewn together with vines. It was amazing watching them get the supplies up to the roof, I videoed it! It took a few tries to get it to stop coming in on me. The rain was actually refreshing, so I didn’t really mind. It was the various kinds of pooh that I had to wipe from the top and inside of (!!) my sheets every time I wanted to lay down that bothered me… the fact that my skin looked and felt like bubble wrap from all of the bug bites and mama and the other ladies had to run their hands over them as they were saying how sorry they were that the “bugs like white skin” … the snake in the liklik haus (outhouse) … and the snake in the river when we were “taking a bath.” I have to tell you though… it was a REALLY nice place to wash. If you come to visit me ~ I’ll show you. Walking to wash was interesting.
washing laundry
waswas place
We carry our buckets with our shampoo, soap, washcloth and towel and we go through the village and every person we pass asks us “Yutupela go waswas?” we reply “Yes, mitupela go waswas nau” all the while we are gaining more on our “train” of children on our way. I think I told you that the men wash upstream… I couldn’t let myself think of that very often; certainly not on the walk there, ha! So when we arrive at the waswas area, we are greeted by the ladies who are doing laundry and washing dishes… downstream from where we wash… like literally 50 feet from where I was going to dip my dirty feet into the water. I struggled with that until the day I left. This is the same place that all of my laundry and dishes were washed too. Like the idea of the men’s waswas area, I couldn’t go there; I just prayed. We filled water bottles upstream. So we finish our washing and start the trek back to our house. All the way there; those who asked us the question on the way to the water, are now asking us “Waswas pinis nau?” We answer “Yes, waswas pinis nau.” Everybody in the village knows what everyone is doing at all times. I thought it was pretty strange until one day I talked to mama about it and she explained that if someone goes to the garden and gets hurt, they have communication from their house to the garden and they trace the people’s steps if they don’t come home. She said that they never know if a snake is going to get one of them or another danger, so they keep really close tabs on each other. I decided that I like it. They have good ideas… I found out that bush medicine works! They applied a particular leaf to my ankle and wrist and the pain went away!
My treasured little yellow flashlight
I had a cool fan made from a coconut leaf that I put next to me in bed along with a really cool little yellow LED flashlight from Pam and Bill. I LOVE IT! I cherished it all through POC and village living. It was my constant companion in the village. I needed it every single night. When it started to get dark, I went up on top to get my “torch” so I would have it attached to my blouse when the sun went down. So one night I went to sleep like normal (well normal for my village living time) and put my trusty little flashlight right next to my head like I always did. During the night I had the need to turn it on and really struggled to get it to turn on. I did whatever needed done (probably looking to see what just fell on me to make sure it was only poop and didn’t have legs, or killing something that was biting me. I don’t remember). In the morning I looked at the flashlight and “something” had chewed the rubber off of the part where the on/off button is. Something… I don’t know if a rat, a mouse, or cockroaches were in there right.next.to.my.head … emotionally I can’t go there. None of the answers are good.
What a fun note to end on… got super crawly skin now?
Thank you for always being an encouragement to me! I appreciate you so much… another update in mere days… Watch for it ~ I have to get serious ~ it was the toughest time in the village ever.
Please keep me and the precious people of Papua New Guinea in your prayers.
