Life in the Village

It is probably around 4 a.m. when we are startled awake by a sickly-sounding rooster crowing right underneath us. Underneath us?? Yes; we are spending the night with our wasfamili in the village, and like most people here, they live in a house that is raised off the ground. I think the rooster was hiding this week, because last time we spent the night in the village, our waspapa shooed the rooster away early in the morning because it was being so noisy.

Even though our waspapa is in his 70’s, he still sits on the floor and sleeps on the floor. So we sit on the floor and sleep on the floor, too, when we stay with our wasfamili. “Sleep” is a relative term, because we actually haven’t been able to sleep much on our camping pads on a bamboo floor, especially with roosters crowing beneath us!

When we eat dinner at our wasfamili’s, all of the serving dishes are placed on the floor, and we are always told to serve ourselves first. There is usually a huge bowl of rice, a bowl of cooked greens and meat, and a bowl of sweet potatoes (kaukau). After we eat, tea is served. Our wasmama disappears when we’re done eating to do the dishes. I went out with her and discovered that she does the dishes the same way I do them in our haus kuk; in a bowl of water on the ground (with the only difference being that I use soap!).

Our wasfamili usually does not talk much while we are eating, and if they do, it’s mostly in hushed whispers. After the food is cleared away, though, we talk again about some of the things that are common in their lives. One event they told us about is a singsing, which is an old tradition that they still carry out every year for school graduations. Men and women participate wearing traditional costumes, and my wasmama brought out her grass skirt for me to try on.

Later in the evening, our waspapa brought out his Tok Pisin Bible, and he and Eric read from it. Then he opened his tok ples (local language) songbook, and we sang from it together. Some of the songs are English hymns that have been translated, and even if I don’t know the song, I can usually pick up on the melody fairly well. Some of the songs, though, are traditional Nobnob (the area we live in) melodies, which are different enough from music I am used to that I have not been able to sing along with him.

Before bed we visit the liklik haus (literally “little house”). Can you guess what that is? It is about a 50-yard walk from the house to the liklik haus, which is shared between several houses. There is a curtain hanging over the door, but right next to it is a window with no covering! Bring a flashlight, since there’s no electricity in the liklik haus…I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that you can’t see what other creatures are sharing the space with you!