Last Thursday it was planned for me to spend the evening and the night at my Wasfamili’s village. But that did not happen, due to a young woman passing away Wednesday night in their village, which was quite sad. This meant that the village had her funeral on Thursday and I was not able to visit my Wasfamili. But a great opportunity arose due to this. One of the national workmen here at POC, who is an awesome guy, was asked to take me and another single guy to his haus gaden (house garden) and spend the night there with his eldest son. That may sound a bit strange, but all gardens are normally some distance from their houses on this mountain. They have a small open house close to their gardens so they may have shelter there or a place to camp if need be. So this would cover our learning requirement of spending a night in a village.
We left POC in the afternoon, I had little idea of what to expect. All I knew was that it was some distance away and the house garden roof leaks and requires repairing. We had all our supplies and equipment for the trip ready. It had been raining that morning and our national friend was not keen for us to go, due to the trail being so wet and slippery. But we assured him that it was okay and we were keen to go. We hiked for about forty minutes down a very steep and slippery descent to his house garden. It was one of the hardest descents I have done in some time and sweated quite a lot.
We arrived at the house garden and setup camp to rest and cook dinner. It had started to rain as we were hiking. The whole time we were together we spoke in Tok Pisin. For the next several hours we told stories in Tok Pisin while having dinner. Some of the stories I have heard here are quite amazing, some funny and some not so funny. We also played Uno too. It came to bed time and we had to put a tarp over the roof just in case the roof leaked. We also had to setup our mosquito nets which were time consuming. I did not fall over at all while hiking the whole trip. The only time I fell over that day was trying to get into bed. I had a little hiking mat to sleep on with a cover sheet, but the incline of the ground was steep, not flat or straight. So for me not to slide down my bed, I had to hold myself up against a support beam of the house with my feet. I had not slept on such an incline or such an uncomfortable place since my scouting days. I woke up thinking it was surely 0500 in the morning, but it was only five minutes to midnight. It was a difficult and long night to try and sleep through. At 0200 in the morning our friend lit a fire to warm himself up, since it was pretty cold that night. That night I struggled so much to sleep, even though I have been really tired from the course.
That morning we got up around 0500. We walked to his new garden that he is preparing to have breakfast there. Most gardens around here are on the slopes of a mountain (this photo above does no justice) It has an awesome view of the coast but also of the mountain ridge. After breakfast we went off trail through the bush to find an unexploded bomb from WW2 on his land. We walked up the mountain cutting through bush to find the bomb. I had been informed that it was a 500 pound bomb (which is huge), but when arriving realised how big it was. It is only about a 100 pound bomb, which would do a lot of damage if it goes off, especially if you are around.
After our visit to the bomb, we walked back to the house garden and packed up. When hiking I always love walking up so much more than descending. I can get into a rhythm and climb up quickly. And I was really looking forward to walking back up this steep track. But it rained all night and it was quite evident that it was going to be a difficult walk. On the descent I used my umbrella as a walking stick, but this time I needed a real walking stick. I would NOT of been able to walk this track either days without a walking stick. There was one part of the track that was so steep and slippery that I needed to be pulled up some of it. So I was in not able to get into any sort of rhythm. I sweated so much on that climb, probably more than I have ever done. We arrived safely to the top and returned to POC. It was quite amazing to see the national guys to do all this bare foot and hardly raise a sweat. After our experience out in the jungle for the night and the hike, it was really nice to come back to our basic living conditions here at POC. Especially a cold shower, was so refreshing. I am really grateful for the health I have. But it was a great experience and even though it was quite difficult at times, I really enjoyed myself. It would have to be one of my highlights of POC. So things here in PNG are so unpredictable, every day whether things are planned or not, there are always changes taking place without much or any notice.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff (stick), they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
June 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Man thats one fierce beard.
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June 17th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Nice beard Matt, good to see your preparing for Kokoda
“Only a 100 pound bomb”, only 100 pounds! Why didn't you just step on it!
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June 18th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I'm actually really liking the beard brother. Love you Matt.
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