The Boys on the Bus

Tomorrow we fly in a little charter flight to Karawari Lodge down on the sepik river. For those two nights we will not have any connectivity (I think). So try not to worry about our radio silence.

Today was our last day here in Hela province with the Huli tribe. We saw a demonstration of the sun dance. And another of how widows dress in disguise and only travel in pairs so their dead husband's spirit can't recognize them to kill them. (Lovely). 

And how they used to bury their dead before the gravesites with little houses on top. Back in the day, they built a little platform maybe 15ft above ground so the smell would waft away  Created a box with the gaps and holes sealed with sap and left the body up there until it liquefied. Then they would poke a big fat bamboo "drainpipe" into the bottom of the box and down into the soil so the"juices"could drain out. (Lovely)

The final demonstration was with the medicine man to explain how a married couple had to go to spend time with him to be schooled on how to be successfully married. Everything from how to be patient and frugal (if someone gives you a pig dont kill it and eat it right away. Wait until it produces more pigs for you. Let your sweet potatoes full on mature before harvesting for maximum yield. Etc. ) To Sex Ed.  Women and men live separately. So the couple had to be instructed to only"get together" for four or five days a month. Once the woman gives the"peace sign" signal that she is pregnant all that stops until after she had the child and then some. Apparently proper spacing of children dictates that they can't start trying again until the baby is old enough to follow instructions/fetch things for you. (Okay)

Getting in and out of all these clearing for all these demonstrations over the last few days required traversing variable terrain (cobbly rocks, tiny bridges, slippery mud, rooting wooden planks) and always started with getting through a wooden door. Had I realized I would have taken pics of all of the doors. The Hulu are a small people. The first doors were so short that Michael nearly had to limbo to get through them Others were perched on top of steps on both sides. And one of the ones today was so narrow it was quite a squeeze to get through. 

It appears that getting through that one Michael scraped the side of his elbow. No worries though. The medicine man noticed and came to the rescue. Not with spirit potions or poultices but with handy dandy bandaids. He was so happy and excited to be able to help. 

Really the people here have just been lovely. So appreciative of our coming such a long way  and at such great expenses just to visit them. Always smiling and laughing and clearly enjoying their presentations. It has been a joy. So it was especially fitting today that because of a scheduling change we had to give the guys a ride in the bus with us to that last presentation. 

We absolutely could not resist taking a group pic as a metaphor for this melding of the old and the new times.