Teptep 2

Down Into the village with my guide (and bodyguard?) Titu, who is looking after the guesthouse and me as its sole occupant while the owner is away in Madang. Titu is 30 years old unmarried but has a girlfriend and like most of the population never made it to secondary school though he speaks four languages well and a couple of others not so well. The local language in the village is spoken in only four villages. The village “singsing” event that we heard yesterday afternoon and through the night is still in progress on the primary school field – red painted bodies, grass skirts and elaborate headdresses. I take photos, am introduced to the Lutheran Pastor and to the village clinic boss. The local government office is closed “they are down on the coast at Saidor or in Madang”. At the airport I put my name down for next week’s flight – no ticket, no receipt “I’ll inform Madang office on the radio telephone” Titu had offered to accompany me on foot for the two day walk down to Saidor where one can catch a boat with an outboard motor for the 4 hour trip to Madang but walking about these hills I’m already feeling weak and old – (trust it’s just being 2000 metres up that my body is not used to). One of the two village stores is closed, the other opens on request to display empty shelves apart from a bag of rice and some dry biscuits which we buy. Around the village pathside traders provide copious amounts of carrots, cauliflowers, other greens and fruits like oranges and avocadoes. The walk back to the guesthouse is tiring though I have a couple of ten minute rests – a heart attack up here would do nobody any good ! In the afternoon I go for a sleep, after being warned not to answer the door to anyone. Neither of my mobile phones is working, nor my internet dongle and with no electricity would not have lasted long anyway but could have saved on carrying so much weight. I introduce Titu to chess which seems productive, he is interested and quick to learn. He threatens to climb over the mountain ridge to another village tomorrow in search of sugar together with coffee or tea which ‘waitman’ must be needing though I say not to bother given all tye fruits that we’ve got. It seems too that the proper jungle is 3 or 4 miles away and whilst younger, fitter visitors have been I’m clearly not going to make such a precipitous excursion so no tree kangaroos snakes or cassowaries for me this time. Our neighbour has a single cassowary being fattened up for some feast but that’s it

The Airport

Sing Sing

Airfield again