PNG-the meat (aka-Pema)

We finally arrived. WE ARE HERE! (It only took 6 days to get to our actual destination!) Life in Pema was looking good. We first arrived at the school (a 45 minute boat ride down the river from the village and our guest house). We were late (as was a theme on this trip it seems....however, most of us, including me, had no idea what time it was for 2 weeks).

We spent 4 nights in Pema. Here was our adventures:

DAY 1:

We left Siagara late, but who knows what time it actually was. We took the banana boats up the river about 3 hours. We stopped along the river for lunch and swimming. These are the banana boats:



On the boat we were able to try beetle nut. (the drug of choice for the country). It was horrible. Totally bitter. I explained more about beetle nut in a past post so hopefully you remember. The right way to eat it is with lime and mustard root but we did not have all that. The nut alone is horrible.

First you have to bit off the top:


Then "peel" it using your teeth: (That part in the middle is what you eat.)


This is how I felt after chewing it... (and I couldn't stop making that face for almost an hour-the bitterness would not leave my mouth!)



We finally arrived at school and were given such a warm welcome. The area was all decorated!



We saw the building sight and introduced ourselves to the kids. (normally the school is almost built by the time we arrive but because this village is so far up the river it was hard and time consuming to get building supplies up there. They were a little behind schedule!)


We drank coconut milk right from the coconut (cut open with a machete right there for us!)


After being at school it was time to "settle in at home." 45 more minutes up the river in the boat and we arrived at the guest house. It was a beautiful guest house. We had a great view of the river!

We were given another warm welcome when we got to the guesthouse.


And then what better way to end the day than with a tour of the village? We were able to chat with some of the people and play with the kids. The houses were pretty simple but I noticed that there were many styles. All houses were set up with an open seating area down stairs and sleeping areas up stairs (or so we all guessed!).


and a view down the street...



DAY 2:

To begin being a part of the tribe we had to become members of the tribe. All the new members of the group needed to be given their clan. People who had been before lined up with members of their respected clan and us newbies lined up in front of them.


We were then taken one by one to become members of a clan. I think it was pretty random overall. There were some special cases that had to be taken into consideration like some member's father had to be in a different clan then them (as clan relationship is passed down threw the mother) and the one married couple had to be up into different clans (because you cannot marry within your clan!). This is how I became a Bego.

Each clan has a special skill. My clan's special skill is hunting and specifically-pigs! When it is singsing time....a member of the Bego clan will be picking out the pig that will be eaten. If you have problems with your livestock-you visit a Bego and when it is hunting time-you should join a Bego!

Here I am being escorted into my clan...


After we were part of the clan the kids sang songs for us!


After we all had our clans it was time to get to work. We started the morning off with a hike up the mountain to the logging area. The tribe was given this awesome logging machine in order to support and boost the local economy. In normal logging situations, a tree is cut down and then moved to a mill. However, this mill can be taken apart and rebuilt quickly so instead of moving the whole tree to the mill...they bring the mill to the tree. After learning about it and watching them cut logs...we were told to grab a 2x4 and start walking down the mountain!



View from about half way down-it was so beautiful. You can see it all here...gardens, jungles, mountains and the river!



We did do a little work (digging) but after lunch it was time for some fun with the kids. I wasn't feeling well anyway so bracelet making was just my game. The kids were already pros at these types of crafts but were so excited when they had colorful yarn to use!

Troy (in the picture) brought the yarn and some books on bracelets and knot making...the kids LOVED them!


And we learned....who needs scissors when you have a machete lying around!


My bracelet buddy...



DAY 3:

It was Sunday. We went to church in the morning. When we got back we had lunch at the guest house. At this time we were given the option to help lay foundation (aka-stand around) at the school or go on a hike to a waterfall where we could swim and play. You can guess what most of us choose. A few people went to school but most of us were ready for a jungle hike (and oh boy was it ever!)

The scene was beautiful!


And as Naomi is demonstrating...a little dangerous! We crossed this river about 6 times...back and forth to follow the path to the water fall.


Of course we weren't going to let this clean, fresh water go to waste! After playing (like little kids!) in the water fall...it was bath time.


We ended the day relaxing on the rocks and enjoying the company and scenery.



DAY 4:

We were told it was time for us to teach. Naomi and I had prepared a lesson on telling time in English but when we arrived at school....we were not prepared to be the students, not the teachers. After introducing ourselves and talking a little bit about our homes, the students taught us traditional crafts including basket weaving, mat making and they also made fun things for us like arm bands, necklaces and crowns. They decorated our crowns with beautiful flowers (that also smelled great...and covered up the fact that none of us had bathed in a week!)


While introducing ourselves, we realized our group leader, Christian was gone. Later, we were told it was time to greet a special guest down at the river. Much to our surprise, down the river came Christian dressed in chief clothing. He had been made chief for a day. They came in singing and dancing....ready to start the party.


The group on the boat was also carrying the pig we were to eat as part of our singsing. (mind you, in this picture-the pig was alive! Later, Christian actually killed it and helped cut it. We actually divided up the meat...raw, bloody and still warm....between the clans and necessary groups).



After the pig was killed and the meat was given to the appropriate groups. There was a series of dances performed. This was a group of young girls. Everyone laughed at their song and we later learned it mean "little girl, little girl you are too young...you are too young to be getting married" or something along those lines.


We enjoyed the singsing and that night, enjoyed DELICIOUS pork for dinner. It was a sad departing the next day. The school wasn't actually finished (they promised to send a picture) and we never did teach any lessons but the 4 days there were amazing.

PNG-Saigara

There was one day spent in Bau between Lau and Saigara but we arrived so late on the boat and left so early for Saigara that all we really did was sleep.

From Bau we had a 2 hour boat ride up the river to Saigara. This is where the group built a school last year. Many people knew members from last year and asked about people who were missing. It was a very cool experience to see how that relationship and connection had lasted over the last year.

When we arrived in Bau we were "greeted" with threating screams. Those who had been to PNG before didn't think anything of it but us newbies had feelings of both confusion and fear. We could hear drumming and screaming. Then a man came charging out boats and threw a spear at us and then ran away. He came back a few times rubbing fruit on our faces, kicking up dirt on us and screaming right in our faces. As we moved forward there was a group playing on the drums and singing to welcome us.

I later learned more about this and how this type of welcome is a good thing and should make us feel welcome. The idea is that the village is proving that they know how and are capable of protecting their village but instead are choosing to not harm us and welcome us in.


This was the small group playing the drums and shells.

You can see the man in front who is all covered in black (a rock/mud/paint?) who was the one charging us.

We were to "challenge" them and allow them to welcome us into the village. We followed them in. Notice the headdresses-they were amazing. The cloth they are wearing on the waist is called a tappa. It is made from tree bark but somehow is very soft. Then is painted with various designs! You can see the boy on the side and the one in the back are making trumpet like sounds with shells.


Here is a video of the welcoming (sorry-there is no way to turn it the right way!):

We then went up to the school that was built last year. The kids all welcomed us with beaded necklaces and songs.

This song was sung to us and we all feel in love with the tune. When we were playing around the kids later in the day they kept trying to teach us the words (we got some) and then everyone in our group had the song stuck in our heads from the next 6 days before we returned to Saigara (and learned the words!).







This is the double classroom that was built last year.


and the inside...



This sign hung right in the doorway. The item in which you cannot kaikai (eat/chew) is beetle nut...the popular drug of choice in PNG. People chew on beetle nut all day (along with mustard root and lime powder) to gain a high. And yes....we need to remind the elementary kids (ages 6-10ish) that they cannot chew in school!


This is the guesthouse we stayed in. It was really nice!


and the bathroom (make sure you check for spiders first...just knowing where they are hanging out is good!)


The food in Saigara was the best. Their chef had attended culinary school somewhere and was a skilled chef! We ate lots of good things (though I cannot tell you what any of them were!)



And after a delicious meal...it was time to play! Tag was the game of choice...well, not tag as much as me attempting to get the kids. It is hard to run barefoot in the jungle! After a good game (in which I DID finally get them!)...what better place to rest than on a mossy rock right? This kiddo was my new buddy of the night!



After tag we played lots of cards too. We taught people how to play "Go Fish", "Uno" and "Set"! It was a blast!

PNG-Lae

We spent 2 days in Lae. As I said...the second was an accident with the boat being broken. On the first day there, we went to the rain forest refuge. We were able to see all sorts of birds and animals.

This is a Hornbill. It is also the bird of my clan...the Bego clan!

This is a Cassowary. It is the national bird. It can kill someone with its kick and can run faster uphill than down. It is pretty cool. It is really tall too. We saw it during a feeding time and it was swallowing fruits the size of grapefruit whole (you could see it going down its throat!).


It was also feeding time for the crocodile!


There were tons of baby or just little crocodiles too!


And I got to hold this snake!

During lunch that first day...I discovered my new favorite fruit...passionfruit. YUMMY! Strange to eat but soooooo delicious!




Day 2 in Lae was spent sleeping in and mostly playing in the pool at the hotel. We went on a field trip to an artifacts shop and to the Amelia Earhart memorial. This spot in Lae was the last place she was ever seen. The memorial was built on the field area from the last place she ever took off from!

PNG-the overview

I'm home! And more than anything....I am missing PNG. (more than missing PNG, I am HATING wearing shoes again...what's the point?) However, modern technology does feeling good....as does a real shower and not checking for spiders before entering the bathroom.

I had a wonderful trip. I learned a lot, experiences many new cultural adventures and have never smelt worse! PNG might have made it to my number one for places I have been.

On this trip we jumped around a lot and therefore, before pictures and explaining of pictures...here is a quick overview of the trip:

Day 1: leave for Tokyo on noon bus. 6 hours on bus. over night flight (8 hours) arrive in Port Morsby at 5 am.

Day 2: 6:30 am flight to Lae. Off to hotel. Stayed at the Polinesian hotel (no idea on spelling). Went to Rain forest Refuge.

Day 3: Boat was broken....one more night at hotel. Saw the Amelia Earhart memorial. Went to stationary shop and got to pick out books (way too much fun for the elementary teacher in me). Swam at hotel and relaxed.

Day 4: On boat. 10 hours! That was the day! Saw dolphins and glow in the dark algae. Stars were beautiful!

Day 5: Banana boat up the Waria Rive to our next stop-Saigara. This is where the group built a school last year. Welcomed with a threatening dance-little scary but so cool. Kids at the school sang for us. Yummy dinner and played UNO all night. We taught some of the kids UNO and one kid won 4 out of the 5 games....lucky!

Day 6: Finally here...PEMA! Stopped by school. Saw beginning of work. Small singsing at guesthouse and relaxing.

Day 7:Was sick today. Divided into clans. I am Bego. (I'll explain more later). Then off to school. Hiked up the mountain to the saw mill. Carried 2x4s down the mountain. Cards and hanging out at the guesthouse in the evening.

Day 8: Digging at school. HARD! Started to build a solar oven in the afternoon but never had enough time for anything to cook. Made friendship bracelets with the kids after lunch!

Day 9: Went to church. Hike in the afternoon to a waterfall. Played all afternoon!

Day 10: Last day in Pema. Went to school. Learned traditional weaving from everyone. Our leader Christian came down the river later that day helping to carry a pig (live-tied up on a branch like you might see roasting over a fire). He killed the pig (really made me appreciate where my food comes from) as part of the singsing. Many traditional dances were performed. We presented our donations. We performed the closing dance from our musical-everyone LOVED it (even though it looked horrible). Taught the kids silly dances like the chicken dance and electric slide.

Day 11: Back to Saigara. Relaxing afternoon. Had a bonfire. Traditional lighting of fire (literally-rubbing sticks until there was fire!) Then a traditional garden dance was performed. The kids also did a few dances for us. Played cards with the kids again in the evening.

Day 12: Back to Bau. Nothing exciting-swimming in the sea, relaxing and reading by the Solomon Sea.

Day 13: Stopped by Bau Elementary and then another school (name is slipping) and then to Bau Island for lunch. Went snorkeling. The coral was beautiful but it was so shallow. Relaxed at the guesthouse in the evening.

Day 14: 6 hour banana boat ride back to Lae. Sang on the boat. At at the Club (which killed every one's stomachs!) Relaxing night at hotel.

Day 15: (AKA-4 am) off to the airport for a long day home.

Sorry of the spelling and grammar errors.

This is just a short overview of the trip. I will post pictures with more explanation later but wanted you to have this timeline to compare pictures to.

sorry I suck.

I know, I know. I am HORRIBLE about blogging. It just isn't me. I don't like writing and most certainly, I do not like writing about myself. It has been over a month though and therefore, I feel I should do something. A LOT has happened in the last month and a half....so let's catch you up on it...

1. Winter FINALLY came.

The average temperature is right around freezing and therefore, snow is something that is hard to come by in my lovely area of Toyosaka. We mostly get a small layer of snow in an overnight storm and it is gone before lunch. We mostly just get icky, slushy rain. But, there was this one day...it would NOT stop snowing!! The snow feel for over 10 straight hours and when I left school...I had to dig my car out. (there was NO snow on the ground when I started school 7 hours earlier)

and just to show you how much actually fell... (I just pushed the scraper over the top of the car)


One thing that I LOVE about Japan is that they use a watering system to clear the roads of snow. Little fountains pop out all over spraying water to melt the snow. This is the one right infront of my apartment building that clears the parking area.


2. We finished the MUSICAL!

I was too busy acting to get any pictures of the show- you will have to use facebook to see them.
The show went really well. We had 6 totally performances and ofcourse, the show only got better as they went on.
Our group's goal was to raise about 100 man (1,000,000 Yen or about $10,000) and we earned about 105 man!! All the money will go towards building a new school in Papua New Guinea. (a trip which I leave for on SATURDAY!)

Below is a picture of me with my friend Naomi. We were both ninjas in the show...me being the red ninja and her the yellow!


3. I learned just how DUSTY Japan is!

I am a neat freak (we all know it) and I do clean my apartment...much more than most ALTs. However, this serious pile of dirt and dust comes just from the small living, dining and kitchen area. My mother says it is because we do not use filters through the heating system like in America (which makes sense) but seriously...I had just cleaned my apartment 4 days earlier!

YUCK!


4. I rode a bull!!

My friends Martin, Chigusa, Jon and I went to this AWESOME game center. Pay your 1500 Yen and for 3 hours it is unlimited playing of karaoke, rollerskating, bowling, batting cages, pool tables, ping pong, video games and many more. The first thing we did was ride the bull. It was my first time ever trying and was lots of fun!


But ofcourse...leave it up to the Texan (Jon) to ride like a pro!


and last but not least....

5. We celebrated Girls day on March 3rd (3/3)

I do not actually know the meaning of this celebration but it is considered girls day. On this day people put out these beautiful old dolls. It is celebrated by eating certain foods and special sweets. Colors are something of importance...pink, green, white and yellow.

Chigusa made us a delicious special dinner...
rice (white)
topped with...
shrimp (red)
seaweed (green)
eggs (yellow)
and pink sugar (pink)

We also had a delicious Girls Day treat at school... we had manjuu (rice cakes). The cakes were layers of pink, white and green. From the little amount of Japanese I can understand, the back said something about how the pink represents flowers, white represents the snow of winter and the green represents spring. It was yummy!

Here is a picture of Chigusa and I with the little dolls we made!


6. and lots of other things have happened too...

*started the process of getting my Japanese licence (aka-learning to drive like a maniac!)

*the weather has started to get up into the 60s....can't wait for spring to come!

*stayed out all night for the musical after party and caught the first train home...that was a blast

*and more day to day boring things. nothing all that exciting is happening here

I leave for Papua New Guinea in 2 days and will be gone for 2 weeks...I promise to be better about blogging when I get back!

Back in Bangkok-part 1

We were happy to be back in Bangkok. We had lots to see...lots of shopping to do and the like.

We were originally planning on being in Bangkok one night and then heading out to the island but stayed for two. We didn't do much in our one day but shop and get pampered (massages and facials!). We happened to run into Laura on the street (Laura is a ALT friend of mine in Niigata)...small world. We went out to dinner together that night. We realize now that we should have taken a picture because the chances of us running into each other in Bangkok were so small.

Laura directed us to this small street vendor for our first meal. I had rice with sweet and sour pork. It was pretty good. It cost me a total of 30 cents. Good deal if I do say so myself!


And here was the whole operation...don't look to hard because if you do you will just realize the unsanitary-ness of it all...


We went out to dinner with Laura at a curry place. We laughed at the Engrish in the menus....

After this is when we went to the island.

And now we are back.

On our first day back we stood with a map and many places we wanted to see. While walking the streets a man approached us and told us of this "last day" "great deal" to ride the tutus. (ok-I have NO idea how to spell that but I hope you know what I am referring to...those motorbikes with like the little carriage) Anyway. We thought we would let the wind take us where ever. It was a total of 30 cents each and we would see 3 major Buddhas. We knew it was a scam and that they would try to sell us something (they tried) but it was worth it!

(We learned that the reason it was so cheap is because the government was providing the drivers with free gas. This is because there are a certain number of days in which everyone visits all these different temples after New Years to pray. This was the last day of this deal).


We were able to go to three major temple sights and see 3 significant Buddhas.
The first one was the Giant Buddha. It was giant...


There were many parts...ready?

The people would buy the flowers, incense and candles.
The would light the candles in these lanterns.


And place them in here....

(and pray)

They would also put the flowers in front of Buddha.
You can see flowers in the background (top left corner)


They would also take one of these and put a coin in everyone of the metal bowls. There are 109 bowls. This is like a version of the rosary (and actually...where the rosary originated...thank you Buddhism!) There was a person who would go and collect the coins and refill the little trays.


Next to the Giant Buddha was this temple. I thought it was beautiful. Like all the temples we saw it was full of so much detail. The colors were bold and it just captured you...


Same temple...just the window


Next we went to the Lucky Buddha. We actually were very lucky with this one. When we walked out, a guard asked us how we knew we could come. After further explanation, he told us that this Buddha was only open to the public 2 days a year. Lucky Buddha brought us some luck!

This Buddha is in a resting pose (there are 9 poses [I think] all together).


and a close up...


Here is an example of the flowers people place in front of Buddha...


The third stop on our tour was to Wat Benchamaborphit. (I can't actually say this but that was it's name). It is the marble temple. This is a large, active temple that included a place where monks lived, learned and prayed. The grounds were HUGE and beautiful. The whole temple was made of marble. The detail was amazing, the colors were bright and bold. Just amazing...


Even the doors told a story...



Here is one of many arch way entrances. Just look at the detail!
(sorry, I really can't say it enough!)


There were status of holy men as we cross the bridge.


Don't know what this build is...place or residences, classrooms, something holy...don't know but I thought it looked amazing... (it was to the left after I crossed the bridge...)


(Bad picture I know) The monks were just finishing with their prayers and were walking around the grounds and (guessing) towards their living area.


Like I said, Buddha has many different poses.
There were many different Buddhas at this temple.


But of course my favorite is Buddha teaching...


Oh...and I should mention. At this point, we hadn't paid for our ride. We got kicked out of the temple as they were closing the gate and our driver had left us. We are guessing he thought we ditched him but it was a lovely 30 minute walk back to our hotel. We saw other sights along the way...so it was fun!

We were able to see this...the Democracy Monument. It was lovely at night!


I don't remember when we went shopping but this was in the mall..."God make you a man, we make you a gentleman!" Oh Engrish...