Turtle Dinner

Well this was definitely another first for us!  Jason brought this guy home from Kawito with the instructions to get Agisa and Roana to cook it up for us to try.  Jason so kindly called him Dinner!  Always up for something new, off we went to Agisa's house.  I was a little more hesitant after seeing them kill it.  I guess I am not used to seeing my dinners face before I eat it.  For people here in PNG that is life, if you want some meat, first you have to kill it, and then you will have to eat it shortly there after or it will spoil.  Sam, the Kela's little boy was quite excited about having Dinner for dinner and knew that was just what he was, there was no other sentimental attachment.  Where as our boys came home saying we should get a turtle as a pet.

Here is Kaleb playing with his dinner, not a good idea, but he had no issues later

Dinner is done!  Cooked on an open fire right in the shell, Roanna is now carving him up for us to try.

Carter digs in!  And yes what they say is true, it really does taste a lot like chicken, not a whole lot of meat though.  However there were many eggs inside, I think we counted eleven.  Just tear off the top (the eggs have soft shells) and suck out the insides.  I must say that none of us could stomach that but we did watch Sam enjoying them. 

This little girl was sharing dinner with us.  She had the neck and head and was doing a pretty good job cleaning it off, certainly no squeamishness there, just dig in.  I remember vividly the first time something was put before me that could look up at me from the plate, I am pretty sure mom and dad where trying hard to shush me and not make a scene in the fancy restaurant.  This little girl would not have had any issues.

I am impressed by this little girl for another reason also.  She is not from Rumginae but was medivaced here with her father back in February.  She came in with a huge infected ulcer on her elbow and has been going through treatment ever since.  When the Dr's finally got the infection cleaned up she had to have a skin graft because of all the tissue that had to be cut away.  She then spent many weeks in a cast while it healed only to have it removed and find out she had to have another surgery as she could no long straighten her arm.  Sounds like that surgery went well but now she will need a little more skin graft work.  Amazing! Arm still in a cast, she seems so content, never complaining.  I often see her and her dad walking around the station hand in hand.  Her father also must be a very patient man as his life has been put on hold for many months now.

I guess that is a lesson I can learn from my PNG neighbors, who are much better at taking life as it comes eyeballs and all!

Mel for the Marshes

Rumginae Greeting

Click click, click click, that is the sound that can be heard when ever someone here, in Rumginae, is saying hello.  While sitting in church or walking on the road or any other place, this can be heard, click click.  It is polite to greet people with a hand shake just like at home, but this is no ordinary hand shake.  It is the special way the Akom people here in this area shake.  You start out like a shake as normal but then continue by extending a bent finger which is then squeezed in between two of their knuckles and pull, this makes a sharp clicking noise when executed correctly (something that took me a bit of practice).  This click is done twice once for them and once for you.  It is amazing how quickly this has become habit and now when we head up to Hagen I find myself waiting for a click and they all look at me as if I'm strange.  Well it may be true I may be strange and getting stranger all the time!
Mel for the Marshes

Samuel's Bonnet

Sorry for the picture that 'bonnet' conger's up but that is what his mom likes to call it, and boy does Sam like it.  I recently had the pleasure of sitting along side one of the national women here to teach her how to knit.  Roana's first project was the standard square, turned into a dish rag, but for her second project she wanted to make a hat for her son.  When she choose MAF colors I should not have been surprised as Sam loves airplanes, and rightly so.   His dad is the MAF programmer here in Rumginae.  This means that he is responsible for figuring out the ever changing program that the guys down this way fly each day.  It also has him helping to load and unload planes as well as fuel, along with a whole host of other odd jobs.  However what this means is that like our boys, sometimes Sam gets to go up and help his dad with jobs like washing the planes or just hanging out waiting for the planes to come back in the afternoon.  It also means that while chatting with Sam, at some point, planes will come up as the topic of conversation.

I am not to sure how practical a knitted hat is here in the tropics, but believe it or not there are times when it starts to feel a little chilly, and it gives me the opportunity to get someone else hooked and to in turn learn something; like basket weaving.  Stay tuned for how that one goes! 

Mel for the Marshes

Cocoa Spitting Contest

Okay, I'm sure it is what every good mother of boys should do, have a cocoa spitting contest!  We were recently given a cocoa pod to eat, and like other places in PNG where they grow and process the coco for market, here in Rumginae they grow it only to enjoy sucking off the seeds!  Well the boys and I (while Jay was away) also discovered this pleasure with an added degree of sport.  Taking one seed out of the pod, being careful not to loss it as they are slippery, we popped them into our mouths to suck off the sweet slim.  This being accomplished we then lined ourselves up on the deck to see who could spit it the farthest or have the most accurate shot (never know we may end up with a few cocoa trees in our back yard).  I am proud to say that I hold the record for distance, while Kaleb and I are tied for accuracy.  I have to give the boys something to be proud of their mother for, my knitting ability doesn't quite cut it!

Picture of a cocoa pod and seed ready to be harvested and dried.

Many seeds in one pod

picture of cocoa beans after they have been roasted.  these beans where in Munduku where they grow, dry, and market them to international markets.  I also tried one of these beans, they taste pretty bitter and not enough like chocolate!  Much rather have a Hershey's!

Mel for the Marshes

Home Sweet Home

I had the pleasure of being able to take this family home this past week and boy were they ever happy to be home. We have it pretty easy in Canada, where we have easy access to basic and life giving attention in our hospitals and medical clinics. Out here in the jungle, women who are pregnant do not have the access that women back in Canada have and if there is any difficulties they may have to walk several hours and possibly days to get access to any medical attention. Fortunately this family lives in a village that has Community Health Care Workers, a radio and an airstrip.

When this woman started to have some complications with her pregnancy she was able to see a Community Health Care Workers right away. When the Health Care Workers realized that this was something more than what they could handle, they went to their HF radio and made a call to the Dr's here in Rumginae, who in turn advised that she should come to Rumginae to deliver.

This is not the end of the story, she then had to pack up herself and her little daughter and then fly to Rumginae. You maybe wondering why the husband did not go with her, but he had good reason. She was not expected to deliver for another month and her husband is a teacher, the only teacher in the community, so he was not able to leave then. Not only was she going to be in Rumginae without her husband she was also responsible to feed herself and her daughter as well as doing all their own laundry. The hospital here does not have the staff to do these things.  Patients here often come to hospital with a guardian to help out with these things.

A few days before she was to give birth I was able to bring her husband to Rumginae so he would be able to help out with their daughter when mom was delivering. A week later they were very excited  to be returning to their home where they would have the support of family and community.

 Home Sweet Home!!!

Jay for the Marshes

Unexpected Visitor

How Jay saw it I'm not sure but it's a good thing he did as I had just sent Kaleb out onto the deck to get a dish that he had left outside.  I can just imagine the scare he would have got!  Instead we all got to join in on the fright.  It is not everyday that we get a snake out on the deck, especially since we gave the one back that we were snake sitting.  We decided that we should go get a closer look and "Mel go get your camera"! Out we go onto the deck to get a better view,except Carter, the smart one!  Of course I, Mel, end up being the closest while trying to get a good picture so we have some proof and maybe we can figure out what it is.  So far the whole time we are out on the deck the snake is going about his business of climbing up the veranda, seemingly oblivious to all the on lookers.  Then Jay decides he is going to get a broom handle and give it a poke, but before he can do this, all of a sudden the snake senses he is not alone and starts meander off of the pole to get a closer look (amazing how they can do this, hanging out in mid-air, I wish my abs were that strong!) .  At this point I am getting a little nervous and stepped back, then the snake follows suit, except he is much faster which makes me scream and jump for the door.  Unfortunately Kaleb and Jay were in my way and I ended up sandwiching all of us up against the closed door, which may I add, Carter, who is on the inside, is not helping to open.   Long story short, turns out we are scarier than the snake and he made a better get away than we did!! 

 We have been told that poisonous snakes here can not climb, if that is of any reassurance to Grandmas. After our heart rates returned to normal, we figured out that it was probably some sort of constrictor coming up to help us with critters in our attic!  

Next time we will leave the door open for a quicker get away!

Mel for the Marshes

Fungus Foot

Welcome to the tropics where everything grows well!!  Ever since we have arrived here in Rumginae I have been battling a case of what we would call athletes foot.  It has kind of come and gone and at some times drives me crazy, my feet and toes are so itchy, however since arriving back at Rumginae from Hagen it has stepped it up a notch.  Now patches of skin on my toes is breaking down and falling off.  This creates a problem as there are open sores on my feet which are now infected, not terribly surprising!  Best thing for fungus is to keep the area dry, a difficult task when every time I step out the door I am walking on squishy grass.  We are now into rainy season here and if we thought it was wet before...  last night over 5 inches of rain fell and not very quietly I might add, lots of flashes and crashes!
Well I think that I have the infection just about under control and am now slathering on the fungal cream Jay was given for his Rumginae rash (another one of the treats experienced here and different from the heat rash!) 
I will spare you pictures but only wanted to share with you a little bit more of the day to day at Rumginae.
Mel for the Marshes