PNG: The Sepik River Village

After i arrived with the ship in Wewak, the family already organized transport to their village. We drove with a people and goods full packed 4wd on a dirt road with lots of waterholes and muddy ground, all the way down through the jungle to a village called "Timbuke". The drive lasted for about 4 hours and we arrived in the dark night. From Timbuke, we changed to a motorboat and drove for about 30 minutes along the sepik river to the final destination "Tambunun". The boat dropped me and the father of the family at the families house, right beside the sepik. And there i was, in the middle of nowhere, with a 7 headed tribes family, some chickens and a dog with 5 puppies which were born the day before i arrived. The family owned two wood houses and a wood canoe. One house was for cooking, eating, served as sleeping room for the children and now also as accomodation for me. The other house was the sleeping room for the parents. Per house there is one room. So cooking, living and sleeping is all in one. No lights, no electricity, no beds, no toilet. Thankfully i had my sleeping bag and the mosquito net with me, which i was very lucky of. When i arrived, it was actually a bit scary, cause in the dark there were just the black skinned people and i didnt have a clue where i gotta have to live and how i gotta have to live. Raymond, the father, speaks little bit english and mother Christine, a few words. My challenge that first dark night was try to come across as a friendly person and finding the right words or gestics to keep the tensioned atmosphere calm. Just not make any mistake.

Tambunun is a tribe village with catholic background. They have something like a church and a school on the other side of the river. But there are no shops. Just some families are selling fish or a couple of packages of bisquits.
On the second day Raymond wanted to go to church and wanted to take me there too. So we left the homestead with the 40cm thick, 5 meters long wooden canoe and crossed the 150 meters broad Sepik river. Actually it is a very uncommon feeling driving with this tight midage canoe along a strong flowing river, which is filled with crocodiles and snakes. We were 45 minutes to late at the church and so we waited infront until the the people came out. Its a little bit a strange feeling, being the only white person between all these tribes poeple who havent seen a white one for weeks. Everybody stares at me and i didnt know what expression i should put up on my face. Smiling, starring on the ground, greeting them? But then some of them came over and welcomed me with shaking hands. So from then i knew these people are all friendly and somehow civilized.

 

Raymond guided me through the villages and introduced me to all this relatives and friends. And im impressed how big these families are. Everybody in the 1500 people village is somehow with nearly everybody in relative. Later the day we went to a spot somewhere along the sepik, where the people kept the catched crocodiles. They keep them there, grow them and when they are big enough, they eat them. I also was able hold one of the small crocs and its impressive how strong these little things already are.

After arriving with the ship in Wewak i stocked up with corned beef, biscuits and some water. This was my dinner in the village and i was thankfully, that i bought that stuff before i went here. Cause now i have a impression of what it means to be poor and not having always enough to eat. Cause when i didnt have bought my food, i would have eaten the family the food away. They only had some parts of fish and a dish called "Sago", which looks like pizza without anything.