Kidnap Capital World Tour Day Seven
Dazed and Confused in Brunei
Property, Pigs and Women, In That Order
The Southern Highlands of Papua, New Guinea are far away. I cannot get Alice and Paulo out of my mind. They represented the yin and yang of my Southern Highlands PNG experience. Alice had two scars going down each cheekbone, and Paulo showed me the scar on his arm. Alice was attacked in the dining room at Ambua Lodge by her husband, who cut her face with a switch blade. She had the two scars immortalized with black tattoos, then decided to divorce her husband. She had to give him back twenty five pigs, down from the thirty one he had given her family to marry her. She was able to get hold of a mother pig and within a few months managed to hand over to her husband enough pigs to get away. After that she continued to work at the Lodge, and the Canadian manager kept her money in a safe so that her ex-husband couldn't steal it from her. She had a lot of affairs, old men, young men, men from other clans, even white men. Those were good days. Alice got the idea to buy chickens so that she could sell them and the eggs to make more money. Then it dawned on her that other women could buy chickens and do the same thing to get away from their abusive husbands. There are no NGOs in PNG so Alice is a pioneer. Paulo was my guide and like Alice, spoke excellent English. He had a seventh grade education which is typical for the Hela province. He learned his English from tourists. Paulo said that Alice was too Westernized and was now only worth about three pigs. He showed me the arrow scars on his back and the scar on his right forearm. He found out his wife had been seeing another man and he told her to leave, so she attacked him with a machete. He said he made her give him back his pigs, and that he would kill any man who tried to steal them. I asked him how many men he had killed and he said he didn't know. He shot his arrows into the forest because if you see the face of the man you kill, his ghost will come back to haunt you. Paulo became flirtatious with me and told me that I should stick around awhile because I was still worth a few pigs.
Dazed and Confused in Brunei
Property, Pigs and Women, In That Order
The Southern Highlands of Papua, New Guinea are far away. I cannot get Alice and Paulo out of my mind. They represented the yin and yang of my Southern Highlands PNG experience. Alice had two scars going down each cheekbone, and Paulo showed me the scar on his arm. Alice was attacked in the dining room at Ambua Lodge by her husband, who cut her face with a switch blade. She had the two scars immortalized with black tattoos, then decided to divorce her husband. She had to give him back twenty five pigs, down from the thirty one he had given her family to marry her. She was able to get hold of a mother pig and within a few months managed to hand over to her husband enough pigs to get away. After that she continued to work at the Lodge, and the Canadian manager kept her money in a safe so that her ex-husband couldn't steal it from her. She had a lot of affairs, old men, young men, men from other clans, even white men. Those were good days. Alice got the idea to buy chickens so that she could sell them and the eggs to make more money. Then it dawned on her that other women could buy chickens and do the same thing to get away from their abusive husbands. There are no NGOs in PNG so Alice is a pioneer. Paulo was my guide and like Alice, spoke excellent English. He had a seventh grade education which is typical for the Hela province. He learned his English from tourists. Paulo said that Alice was too Westernized and was now only worth about three pigs. He showed me the arrow scars on his back and the scar on his right forearm. He found out his wife had been seeing another man and he told her to leave, so she attacked him with a machete. He said he made her give him back his pigs, and that he would kill any man who tried to steal them. I asked him how many men he had killed and he said he didn't know. He shot his arrows into the forest because if you see the face of the man you kill, his ghost will come back to haunt you. Paulo became flirtatious with me and told me that I should stick around awhile because I was still worth a few pigs.
Great post, Christine. Enlightening and heavy, but you also made me laugh. xoxo
ReplyDeleteHeavier than I would have liked. I promise more lightness next po
Deletesting!