I can tell you the Enga province is beautiful. Only one language in this province, which is a rarity in PNG as you might know. If a country has about 850 languages, then it’s pretty rare when one of the 19 provinces only has one language. On Friday we (Joanna, Amlyn, Dylan and I) went with a big truck (25-seater) to the Sak valley to visit the wantoks of a colleague of Dylan.
It’s hard to take pictures of the surrounding in PNG. When you forget your camera it does not help of course. I think I’m suffering of some form of dementia, which only affects young, incredibly handsome and intelligent men. But then again, every time we’re going on a road trip I’m in a hurry, because I have to run home from work. But I was talking about the surrounding. I’m never satisfied with pictures about the scenery. It always looks the same. Or maybe I’m just not good enough. So more practice is needed. But I keep forgetting the camera. I think this is what you would call a vicious circle.
Anyhow…it was Friday and Enga was screaming to be discovered. As I said before, a big truck was waiting for us to take us to all the way to this valley. While talking to the others and chewing beetlenut the scenery slowly changed. More smaller hills, more green, lovely gardens, lovely houses and very friendly people. The Enga situated west of the western highlands province. So first we took the highway to Wapenamanda and then straight into the bush.
It was dark when we reached the house of the father of the colleague of Dylan. We were hungry as well so we started cooking.
I can say it was very “gezellig”. I can’t find a proper translation of this word. All the translations just don’t cover the whole meaning of it. The dictionary says: “pleasant, comfortable, cosy, snug”, but I don’t agree.
The next morning we woke up after a comfortable sleep. Sleeping was nice, waking up on the other hand wasn’t that good. I soon found out that my mattress had some pets in it in the form of fleas. I’m still scratching…stupid buggers.
But I soon forgot my misery, because for breakfast we had pancakes. Everybody thought they were great. Although it has to be said that PNG people wouldn’t say when they don’t like it. But it looked like we made a good move. Because we could stay at this man’s house we decided help him a little with the thatching of the roof of his second house next door. In PNG a lot of houses are made out traditional materials. Tree branches are used for support, pitpit mats (pitpit looks the same as straw, but it is a little bigger and stronger) for the wall and floor and kunai grass for the roof. To get kunai grass we went to a large patch of it in the hills. You simply pull it out with your hands, but it’s strong and sharp. So you have to hold it good when pulling it out. It’s a gruelling labour and we didn’t last long. But while walking back we took several bushels back to the house. Back at the house we started throwing them on the roof where somebody just put them loosely on the roof.
Afterwards the smoke of the fires that are always burning in these houses makes the roof strong.
The second day we walked to another house to sleep together with that family. Next day we had a walk around the place. Again amazing scenery and nice stories about it. The walk done and we said our goodbyes and asked somebody to take us back. Dylan took a lot of pictures of the people and kids surrounding us when we were about to leave. Suddenly Amlyn saw a goat and he took a pose.
With that I say…Enga rules. Lukim.
Added pictures.
