"Church and Visiting Lucy" by Chana

We went to two different churches: a Baptist and Four Squares. the Baptist had no singing but it had Pidgin English and Engan. The person who was talking in Engan was shouting. (It's a wonder he doesn't get a sore throat). In the Four Squares church there was a lot of singing that was mainly in Pidgin and English. They only started talking when the children's program started. When the singin was happening there were even synchronised tamborine players/dancers.

We went inside Shamaia's mum's (Lucy's) cookhut. When the fire was there it was very smokey because there was no chimney. It was made from the same things as house materials. (See Information Page, number 10). Lucy was making a bilum because it was raining. She showed us the way she sometimes cooks sweet potatoe. You put it underneath the fire, buried in ashes.

getting the fire going by blowing through a pipe

this is Lucy making my bilum

having a "sleep" in the cook hut

"Getting ready for a wedding" by Everyone

Abram: We went to the market and saw a wedding.

Judah: We saw a bride and bridesmaid. They were singing.

Chana: One day we heard some singing so we decided to see what was going on. We found out that a woman from another tribe was going to marry a man from Kompiam. the women were the ones that were singing. They dressed up in their traditional wedding dresses. Here is a picture.

After a day of telling everyone about the wedding, there will be a ceremony where the people in Kompiam will pay a certain number of pigs to the lady's family. This is called the bride price. Then there will be the actual wedding ceremony.

"Swimming, School and a Hospital Visit" by Abram and Judah

About School

Abram: They have no bags. There is no playground.

Judah: They have grades in only one room. They do singing first.  

A prep classroom in Mt Hagan

The classroom in Kompiam

About Swimming

Judah: We went swimming. I jumped where it was extremely deep. It was super fun.

Abram: We went to the lake. We made slides. It was very watery and we made a shop.

About a Hospital Visit

Abram: There was a boy in hospital. He got burnt hands because he was by himself and playing with the fire.

"Comparing PNG with Australia" by Chana

 There's few cars so people carry everything in their bilums.

 PNG fashions

taking the pigs for a walk

"Experiencing the Culture" by Chana

We went to a Moo-Moo. Instead of having a party if there was a celebration, the people of that tribe would have a moo-moo. My grandpa said that how to remember the name of a moo-moo you remember that you eat Kou-Kou (pronounced Cow-Cow) at a moo-moo (get it? A Kou-Kou says moo-moo). We ate greens (disgusting), cooking banana (disgusting), sweet potatoe (ok) and pig cooked in the traditional ways on a spit (ok). There also was a table of “western” food because a lot of us were from Australia.

here is the food served up on a banana leaf

We went on a walk which was a bit like the hill walk. (Mentioned in the post “First week at Kompiam”). It leads down to a waterfall. I went underneath the waterfall. It felt like someone was jumping on top of my head.

We went to the market and bought sugar cane. Here is a picture of it. You peel off the skin, chew up the insides and spit the rest out. That is almost how they make sugar. People make sugar by crushing the cane, which squeezes out the juice. Then they dry the sugar cane juice, which makes the sugar solid.

sugar cane growing at Lucy and Shamaia's village

eating sugar cane

"Bananas" by Nobody

video of chopping our bananas

Peter, the dentist, wrapping his bananas to help them grow fatter

"More Life in Kompiam" by Judah

I went down a hill. It was fun. It was a slippery track.

We went to pick bananas. They use big knives to cut the tree down so they can get the bananas.
We made card houses when it’s a rainy or cold day.

We have to do 100 pumps for water every day.

We saw some boys who had a sling shot and we had a go.

We saw a big eel it is about 1 metre long.

I went to to the moo moo. I ate pig, greens, pumpkin, cooked banana, rice, chicken and taro. We played “do” which is tag.

the moo moo food is dished up on banana leaves

I went on a sleepover. I watched Ice Age 4 and played Tin Ball. That is where you defend yourself and put up the castle. At the start you take it in turns to knock the castle over.

We saw a MAF aeroplane. It was noisy.

 I ate sugar cane. It was juicy and sweet.

Me and Grandpa went on a walk that wasn’t a track. I slipped one time and I had fun.

coffee beans on the walk with grandpa

a good way to dry your washing.. put it on a hot rock

bush bashing on the walk with grandpa

you can't tell from the photo but this is steep