My Sepik Adventure - Part I

It’s almost too big an adventure to write about, this Sepik trip, so I think I might just start in point form, otherwise my unfailing ability to turn a 5 minute event into a 500 word thesis might prevent this blog from ever being written (see what I mean? Just re-read that sentence!!)

 Thursday night - the night before the big adventure begins, and Josepha comes to our place to scare me with stories about what I’ll have to do and eat and climb and crawl through and sit in… Pia and Jono are rolling with laughter as I begin to just roll my eyes. What am I getting myself in for?

 Friday morning – a sad farewell to Jono, who by unfortunate timing was leaving on a flight about 4 hours after mine. After a morning of waiting around, we eventually pile into the school bus to drop me and Josepha at the domestic airport before taking Jono to Airways to wait until the afternoon to fly to Brisbane. (It was a great visit, BTW, and for some of his photos, incl our trip to the Botanical Gardens to catch up with my girls, see his website)

 Joseph nearly gets hauled away by airport security for trying to carry kitchen knives onto the plane. (slight exaggeration)

 Arrive at Wewak to be greeted by Father Lawrence, Josepha’s Indian priest friend, who is also good mates with Neil and very young to be a Parish Priest (about 30). We pile our cargo into his ute, jump in the back with a few other people from his parish, and start our 3-hour trip down to Angoram, his station.

 A LONG journey, deafeningly windblown in the back of the ute, and extremely uncomfortable despite sitting on a foam mattress with a cushion at my back. The first of 10 days of learning how to disappear into the bush with a toilet roll when nature calls (my bladder seemed to be on perpetual speed dial), with Josepha warning me to dodge the Japanese bombs of where other nature lovers had been before me! BEAUTIFUL countryside, from jungle-filled mountains to swooping hills and savanna - almost like the Kiama-Berry landscape but with coconuts and palms instead of gums, and gatherings of bush houses every few hundred metres. Well worth the discomfort for the views.

 Finally arrived at Angoram Station, where Josepha and I would be staying with Lawrence and Sister Jaqueline, an Indian nun who was taking advantage of our being there too to come along for a visit. Angoram is an old missionary station, and so has quite a lot of permanent buildings as well as the bush houses, and is positioned right on the Sepik River. My first glimpse of the river from the road was a shock - it was so huge! The sight/site of the town on the water conjured up the word delta to me, but my geography is so bad I could easily be using the wrong word there – but whatever the correct geographical terminology, the tourism brochures certainly got it right when they call it the mighty Sepik – you could barely see the other side – it was HUGE!

 Arrived at the Haus Pater (the priest’s place) (ie Lawrence’s pad) where we’d be staying, and was pleasantly surprised to find a shower, an inside toilet, bed, linen and - wow - my own room. After all J’s talk this seemed like luxury – even if electricity was only a generator at night, til 9.30pm. But far better than any of the above was the sheer indulgence of having 2 Indians who love to cook (Fr L and Sr J) - those 2 spent hours in the kitchen and even if I didn’t sample all of their cooking (they always had a hot and a not-hot dish prepared) what I ate was enough to make me realise that rather than losing weight this holiday I’d be gaining it – during this bit of the trip anyway!

 Saturday morning we ventured down to the local market – the first on-foot touring and a taste of the staring that would be coming my way all the 10 days. They’re just not used to white people coming I guess, and when they do come it’s either as nuns/priests or as a group of older/wealthy tourists on the Melanesia Discoverer – certainly not young women on their own with the locals. Everywhere I went the mothers were whispering ‘lukim misus’ (look at Mrs) (the alternative to ‘white meri’) to their children, and pointing at me – which I returned with smiles and waves and ‘morning’s that were mirrored back at me. I stocked up (predictably) on kulau (drinking coconut), and both Josepha and I bought big white and green woven cane baskets, which I don’t think were usually sold – I think they’re really just what people carry their produce in and no one buys them because they make their own – they were a bit confused when I asked how much they were but more than happy to part with one for the princely sum of K3.

 After another delicious and huge lunch we made our way down to the docks, where Lawrence had organized a banana boat (a dingy with an outboard motor) to take us up the river. As we walked along the logs over the mud (it was low tide) we passed a man carrying a pukpuk – crocodile – in his hands. It was just a baby, with its mouth tied with string, and we stopped him and asked to have a look. My first pukpuk!!! He asked if I wanted to hold it, and much to the other’s surprise I leapt at the chance.

 Boat ride on the Sepik for about 30 minutes. It was fantastic. The river is enormous, and so fast – apparently it flows at about 10km/hr. According to Lawrence, if you wanted to go to Madang all you’d have to do is float and in 6 hours you’d be there – provided the puk puks didn’t get to you first!

 Stopped at Kambramba, the first main village up from Angoram, and wandered through the village for about an hour. When we first got out we had a few curious stares, and within a few metres we’d managed to collect a small gathering of followers. By the time we reached the haus lotu (church) it was quite a crowd, and we met who I presume was the village leader and shook hands and had a tok tok. Lawrence was well known to them of course, and they had a chat and then we were accompanied by basically the whole village on a grand tour to its end and back – a real snowball effect as we made our way through. I took some photos and had crowds gather round to view the pictures on the tiny screen of the digital, and when one was too dark the father decided to rearrange people into a better position for me to get a better one in the sun. Lots of children everywhere in varying degrees of rags/second hand clothes, and a man with a net over his face because his child had recently died – a local mourning custom.

 Stopped under the haus lotu for more talking, and they brought their kundu/garamut maker (drum maker) to come and play for us while they chanted. They sang a few songs, and Josepha surreptitiously made enquiries about how much the drums could be bought for, so I later walked away with a new crocodile skin kundu drum, as well as a storyboard that the maker brought out and presented me with as a gift.

 Sunday morning mass with Lawrence conducting the whole affair in pidgin – I gave up trying to translate the Bible readings, but was happy that I managed to get the basics of his homily which was about the parable of the seed sowing – the gist being that God is happy when we are good. Some amazing murals on the walls – I wish the light was better so the photos would work better.

 Got all bilased up in Lawrence’s Sepik gear – he took us to his smaller residence to see his collection of artefacts and it basically turning into dress-ups for the rest of the afternoon. Pretty funny, but he was incredibly generous in handing items over to me to take with me, so I am now the proud owner of a huge kina shell necklace (traditionally used in bride price ceremonies) as well as an elaborate shell belt and headdress, and a beautiful finely knit string bilum.

 Monday we piled back into the ute to visit one of L’s out-stations – one of his many smaller parishes. He said that this particular outstation has about 1200 people in it, as opposed to the 800 or so in Angoram (although it seemed smaller coz it was in the bush and the village hamlets were hidden). This place was his paradise – he has a little house in a clearing after a shortish bush walk that while basic had the most amazing reading room I’ve seen in ages. I could see why he loves it.

 Got all dressed up again in his most spectacular set of traditional gear - the stuff he wears when he says mass here, although how he manages to keep his head up while wearing that headdress I don’t know. It was so heavy – and way too tight for me. When I first put it on, the people didn’t think it looked right so one of them came to push it lower down on my forehead. OW!!!!! I could barely keep my eyes open it hurt so much, and I had 2 little bruises on my forehead from where it dug in for the rest of the week!

 Rode home in the front of the ute as by now I was feeling pretty crook – carsick as well as an infection that started on Day 1 and went on to bother me for the entire holiday – yuk and a constant pain that really put a bit of a dampener on the whole trip – especially the traveling bits – but at least sitting in the cab was an easier ride as the roads were incredible. Bumpy doesn’t come close to describing it. Pot holes like gorges and mud so thick it flew everywhere on the way up – close to being bogged several times – but we made it.

 Watched Bride and Prejudice and then Indian VCDs on his laptop via generator in the evenings after the nightly ritual of downloading and viewing both our digital photos. Neither of us could get a good shot of Joespha, and there was constant laughter about the spak meri (drunk woman) who appeared in so many snaps (despite the fact she barely touched the altar wine she opted for instead of our SP!)

 Tuesday morning, a sad goodbye as we packed up, ready to go back to Wewak and start Part II of the Sepik adventure. Almost came to blows as there was a tussle for the front seat between myself and Sr J (I thought my reasoning of infection, carsickness and sunburn with my white skin far outweighed the objections to the wind blowing her veil) resulting in me and Josepha being seated in chairs in the back of the ute and the complete embarrassment of looking like the Queen of Sheba until Father L made a less subtle suggestion at our first quick stop. The ensuing swap-over helped me last the 3-hour trip without too much misery – but I was glad to see the back of that ute!

 Once at Wewak we had lunch at Sr Jacquline’s house, and then said our goodbyes to her and we went on to the market, the supermarket and then to Wom Beach, where I gave in to temptation, got changed in the car and jumped in the water. I thought I’d be swimming alone as none of the others had their swimmers, but Lawrence decided to brave using a wrapped-around towel and joined me in a swim. We tried to pull Josepha in too but she slyly managed to have one or the other of our cameras in her hand the whole time and used up both our batteries taking endless photos of our dark heads floating in the sunlit sea. A great end to our time with Lawrence (who I had by now taken to calling Coackroach instead of Father – his own fault for admitting to Neil’s pronunciation of his last name), who really was the most welcoming and relaxed priest I’ve ever met (in my vast experience of priests!) and basically a whole lot of fun to have as our holiday host. It was sad to see him pull away as he left us at the Rosary Novitiate (hidden at the back of the Catholic Church’s vast complex of about 16 different Orders’ houses in Wewak town), ready for a night’s rest with the nuns before the next installment of the great Sepik tour…