Stanley The Tour Guide
Papua New Guinea is a country in Southeast Asia. We will be visiting the jungle area in Madang Province in the mountainous area called Amber. This place can only be reached by walking or in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. It is a six hour drive from any town. The photo shows an example of the trail.
There are thousands of these trails in this area. This trail leads to a house on the mountain. The soil here is red clay so, most of these trails are very slippery when it rains.
Once you have reached the town in this area, we see a young lady standing in front of her family home. This is called a "Haus Win", which means House Wind. These houses are made of bamboo sticks and saga palm leaves. They are very cool and comfortable.
Generally a house or structure has to be replaced every five years, since it turns to compost. Because of the natural cycle of the jungle, their homes and toilets returns to the soil.
Most of the structures are made of Saga Palm leaves. They are woven together with various saplings used as a frame. The walls are made from split, woven bamboo. The houses are generally for sleeping.
Sleeping in this part of the world is very dangerous. A mosquito net is an essential tool in the house. The mosquito carries the malaria parasite which kills thousands each year.
This mosquito net was specially constructed with the shower curtain on top. This keeps the waste from the insects that eat the palm leaf roof from dripping on your face at night, since the waste is small enough to go through the netting.
As a result of these environmental hazards, the Health Department treats the netting with an organic insecticide to kill the insects that make contact with the netting.
This picture is a typical outdoor toilet. There are no doors. The inside of the toilet is a dirt floor with a deep hole in it. Here the toilet houses all sorts of creatures; big, bird eating spiders, pythons and other insects. The spiders eat the roaches that live inside.
You might ask what's inside of the house? Absolutely nothing . . no furniture, no electricity, no running water. Other questions may come to mind. How is the food prepared? What do they eat?
The kitchen is either a separate building or is located underneath the house or the sleeping area of the house. This native woman is cooking with aluminum pots. The stove is a wooden platform with clay dirt packed in it. As noted, the pots are sitting on tin cans with a fire built under them. She is holding in her hand a vegetable called Pit Pit. It tastes like corn but looks like a pork sausage. It takes a lot of effort and time to prepare a meal.
A typical meal consist of Sago, fresh greens, corn, yams, sweet potatoes, cooking bananas, and coconut. A typical meal does not contain meat, tea, coffee or rice. These items are luxuries. The towns people have to walk too far to obtain these items and bring them back.
Related link
There is more about the people in this village in part two.
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