What I learnt from PNG

Many Marriages

It is alright for a man to have several wives but a woman must be married to one man only!! I met Bundi, a chef at a hotel who has three wives. His Wife No. 3 who is 16 years old was a gift to him from the villagers. They gave him a wife as a present as a token of appreciation for all the financial and moral support he gave the village people.

Innocence
I learnt that lots of people think Indians only live in India. I came across a school teacher in one of the settlements and she asked me “are you from India” and when I told her that I am from Singapore, she was shocked and said “I didn’t know there are black people in Singapore!”. I simply burst into laughter.

Birthdays
Most of the older people in Papua New Guinea do not know their birthdays or their own age! And therefore I think only the younger generations of people celebrate their birthdays.

WanTok System
The most enlightening thing I learnt from the Papua New Guinean is the WanTok system which basically means 'friend' system or those speaking the same language. When someone needs something like money, a room to stay, clothes or has a big event like birthdays or wedding, they go to all of their friends and tell them about it and their friends will pool their resources and help contribute to this event – even as much as donate a chicken for the party etc. On a personal sight, I think this system will make the people poorer as they always seem to be going round in circles within their own kind of people and therefore not exposed to new things that is happening in the world. If most offices and the government is practicing the WanTok system, then I guess most of the offices and businesses are dominated by relatives and friends which may also be the downfall of the company or a government!! I guess in a typical office, all the staff who will then be relatives and friends will have more time to gossip and waste time. Guess what – if someone dies in the family, half or more of the office people will be on leave as they will all be relatives! Though it is nice to know that our relatives and friends will help one based on the ‘WanTok’ system – it also means the system will be able to breed a big chunk of citizens who will become lazy, expecting others to help all the time.  And it will be stressful on the diligent ones.

Pidgin English
They speak Pidgin based English in Papua New Guinea. It was interesting and amusing. Some words I learnt:

• Bagarap – broken – like you would use to break palm sugar. To me it sounded vulgar like the use of “bugger up”

• Balus – aeroplane or bird

• Bilong wanem – why?

• Belo – lunch

• Hamamas – happy

• Haus – house

• Haus meri -lady domestic maid

• Haus moni -bank

• Haus sik -hospital

• Liklik house – toilet

• Kaikai – food or it also means eat

• Kakaruk – chicken

• Manki – small boy

• Man meri – people

• Maus gras – moustache

• Meri - woman

• pikinini - child

• rokrok - frog

• sapos - if

• sista or sousa – sister

• susu - milk

Bilums

A bilum is a bag made by hand using string with a process called string looping. Well it is more like crocheting. It used to be strings made from plant materials but this days they also make bilum with wool and nylon strings. The use of wool yarns and nylon has brought about very colorful bilums that are highly visible especially so with the different color combinations and patterns! Every Papua New Guinean use a bilum for something or another – be it for carrying their shopping or their babies. I observed that men carried bilums with longer handles and women were carrying bilums with shorter handles. Some people carry the bilum using their forehead or neck!!