Papua New Guinea

After several delays due to COVID, Heidi, Linda and I finally met up last Sunday for Papua New Guinea. We have a pattern now. I cook the food; Linda reviews the history, music, and culture, and walks a trail; and Heidi finds literature and a movie. I am so grateful to them, because my research so far had found anthropological studies and missionary stories, all interesting, but Heidi and Linda found what is happening now. That makes such a difference in recognizing that people are people wherever you go.

I’ll start with the food because that was my part. I lined a pan with banana leaves, then kale, sweet potatoes, taro, green plantains, chicken, pineapple, and coconut milk. Yes, the recipe calls for putting it all in a grill, which is a replacement for burying it in the ground, but it came out great in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour: https://www.internationalcuisine.com/mumu/

The dessert for the Papuan meal called for “sago pearls” which the Internet tells me is whole tapioca. I went to three different regular grocery stores and, although they all had minute tapioca, they didn’t have what I needed. I finally found whole pearls at the specialty grocery Gerrards in Redlands (thanks to Raquel for suggesting it). Ordering online would have been another option. The tapioca and banana dumplings are mildly sweet and chewy. Heidi, Linda and I enjoyed them: https://www.internationalcuisine.com/saksak/. Coincidentally, looking for sago pearls made me aware of people talking about their sago palms, so I’ve now experienced that part of Papua New Guinea as well.

As an aside, this isn’t the first time I’ve made Papuan food. In April, I made kau kau for Bea and Lynn because we all love sweet potatoes: https://www.196flavors.com/papua-new-guinea-coconut-kau-kau/

I love the food, but I am even more excited about what Linda and Heidi found to experience Papua New Guinea while staying at home! Linda has been sending me postcards from her virtual trip on the Kokoda trail, the scene of many battles between the Australians and the Japanese during World War II. As she walks 56.5 miles here in Southern California, her phone tracks the distance and she receives emails with postcards written in her name as well as historical information from each area she has passed through. Linda has done walks like this in other parts of the world, and she tells me that she is pleasantly surprised by how many postcards she received with the Kokoda challenge: https://www.theconqueror.events/kokoda/

Linda also pointed out both traditional and current music and dance:

· A massive instrument played with what looks like flip flops! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jjDv7aXfo

· A dance at the Croc Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qpXijODGmc

· The Mount Hagen Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff_hecMI6L4

· Kiki Geno, a well known singer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaJQnxxQHTM

· Anslom Nakikas singing Papuan reggae: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85PSRRwxc90

I was surprised that in the movies Heidi found, everyone spoke English, so we didn’t need subtitles. English is one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea. Together Heidi, Linda, and I watched Mister Pip. Linda didn’t like it because of the violence of the civil war on Bougainville Island in the 1990s, but Heidi and I found the connection between the Papuan protagonist Matilda and Pip, the protagonist of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, to be fascinating. If I get the chance, I will also read the book Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones to get more of the nuance. The movie is here: https://tubitv.com/movies/461306/mr-pip

I watched the second movie that Heidi found on my own. Lukim Yu is set in Port Moresby and occurs in the classrooms, houses, and gardens of a modern city. The characters discuss diverse points of view and illustrate that high school students in Papua New Guinea are struggling with the same ideas as others around the world. Between the two movies, I enjoyed Mister Pip more, but appreciated learning more about city life in Papua New Guinea: https://tubitv.com/movies/641790/lukim-yu

My favorite thing that Heidi found is the podcast The Amateur Traveler with Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick being interviewed about her trip to Papua New Guinea. I enjoyed both the adventures and the recommendations, such as taking a guide with you wherever you go and bringing protein bars for when you don’t have easy access to food: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/72beee1f-767e-4c99-ad5d-a14a1f38fb51/episodes/1131a68d-f7a0-4e5c-b5dd-86120c410167/amateur-traveler-travel-podcast-at-251---travel-to-papua-new-guinea

By the way, follow Heidi on Instagram at heidiannette47. She posts beautiful pictures that make me smile.

Let’s still acknowledge the missionary stories and anthropological studies. Project Gutenberg has Papuan Pictures by H. M. Dauncey from 1913. Besides doing missionary work and providing healthcare and education, the author perceptively states he is writing about "men and women, and boys and girls who have their lives to live" (184) and that his aim is to make Papuans real by pictures and stories of their daily lives: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57739

The anthropological study I read was The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond. Several reviewers on Goodreads complained that Diamond spent too much time discussing Papua New Guinea. My complaint would be the opposite, that I wanted more time there. I enjoyed learning about the long-term development of the world as illustrated by the more recent development of Papua New Guinea.

I found unique artwork from Papua New Guinea through the Khan Academy including:

· Malangan: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/oceania-peoples-and-places/melanesia/a/the-life-of-malagan

· Masks: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/oceania-peoples-and-places/melanesia/v/buk-torres

· A stone carving: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/oceania-peoples-and-places/melanesia/a/ambum-stone

Here is a list of great things to do in Papua New Guinea https://www.rebeccaandtheworld.com/things-to-do-in-papua-new-guinea/ and yes, I would love to go! I look forward to a time when we can all travel, and hope we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Papua New Guinea and throughout the world.