What do Papua New Guinea people do when they celebrate a birthday? A mumu of course. First I have to tell you something about birthdays in PNG. Birthdays are rare. Almost nobody knows his or her age, so celebrating your birthday could potentially become a guess.
Now Deborah who is the adopted child of one of my colleagues (Vivienne) and she apparently does know when her daughter was born. This is her being carried by a neighbouring girl and the father of Vivienne. My white appearance scared her…at least I hope it was my whiteness.

While the pigs were underground with some hot stones, we decided that we were going to cool off in the river nearby. I took three pictures of this Tuman River and made a panorama of it. It’s not of the best quality, but try it anyway. Click here. Lovely cool and fast flowing water.

Some couldn’t wait for the food to come and had some grilled pork as appetiser.

Joshua (one of the physio students who I introduced a time ago) thought it was a good idea to be in the picture when I was taking one of the local tobacco plants. These leaves are dried and afterwards rolled in a piece of newspaper. A rather strong smoke.

So then the pigs and the other food arrived and the eating started. In true PNG fashion there was a rush to the table. Well, let me correct that. After the bigmen, my other colleagues and I had our share; there was a general rush.

The weather gods suddenly decided to be very generous for the crops. But that didn’t stop people from eating.

Suddenly I had to come forward and the father of Vivienne gave me entire backbone of a pig. This is considered the best part of the pig.

All this food disappeared in the shortest of times. It worth mentioning here that PNG people can stuff away enormous amounts of food. Their plates are so full that I sometimes wonder how it all stays on the plate.
But there was still room for the birthday cake. And Joshua had the honours of cutting it.