Off With Their Heads!

It was a beautiful day here in Papua New Guinea, and my morning started with my beloved cup of coffee and fresh pineapple..two of my favorite things! I spent the first few hours of my day doing paperwork for Bill in his office, it was rather lonely not having Ruthie around again today and I'm looking forward to her return. At lunchtime I tried a tree tomato, a surprisingly yummy fruit that resembles a kiwi when cut open.

3 p.m rolls around and I decide to go to the house cry with Lori. I'm a little nervous to go because i'm anticipating it to be extrememly uncomfortable, but I want to see Ruthie and give her my condolences. I also want to experience everything about their culture that I can because this is a one in a life time opportunity and I'm trying to soak it all in. Bill comes with us so I have someone to walk back when I'm ready to leave since Lori is planning to stay for quite some time. We also take baby Gracie and Isaac(Ruthie's family will soon gain custodity of him). When we cross through the fence seperating the campus from the village, I notice a completely different atmosphere than there had been a few short days earlier. What was usually bustling with activity was now completely depleted of all signs of life. All that could be heard was the muted sound of wails from a short distance away. The sound amplifies, as does my anxiousness. When we come into view I see a large blue top in the midst of the houses(visualize small huts becuase that's more of what they are) with a large group of people underneath and surrounding it. I go to greet the women and they all come to hug me as I approach the crowd. Everyone has mud covering their faces, hair, and clothes and I soon spot Ruthie who is making her way over to me. She looks tired and sad but happy to see me and I am equally as happy. We go sit down and more and more people keep coming to shake my hand or hug me and I'm not exactly sure what I'm expected to be saying to everyone. We chose to come early while most people were taking time to go into town for food or supplies so I wouldn't have to be around as much of the mourning. Now and again there are new people entering the village who are crying and then everyone joins in with them but it is not nearly as bad as it had been the day before, and will be again tomorrow when they bring his body back to the village. Ruthie has almost completely lost her voice from all the crying and wailing she has been doing, and all of the other women that talk to me are the same way. After staying with Ruthie for a little, Bill and I head back to the house and get the boys ready for chapel.

The service is very short today because most people are at the house cry. I am surprised at how quickly I'm beginning to pick up on the language. I remember a few of the songs we sing tonight that we had sung at church sunday morning. I also am learning what certain phrases mean but it is not as easy for me to speak. After dinner I was so excited to see that Survivor was on the one and only television station they have here. Luckily it was the episode from last week which I hadn't seen yet..watching with Bill is not the same as watching with my dad. He lacks the competetive nature we Frys have.

Random fun facts of the day. This area of the world is a very satanic place and people practice witchcraft religiously. This death has been viewed by many non believers as an act of witchcraft since the young man went from perfectly healthy to dead only 12 hours later. The second church we visited on Sunday, at the top of the mountain, has 4-5 deaths a month because of accused witches. If someone accuses a woman of witchcraft she is cut up into hundreds of pieces starting with her fingers and toes, and will die from blood loss. No one accuses men of this unless they have some hard evidence because the man is the warrior of the village and his life is worth more than a womans. The children at the top of the mountain also wear garlic around their necks to protect them from the evils of witchcraft.

Lori was telling me how women here who are treated badly by their husbands will cut off one of their own fingers to punish their husbands..that has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard, they should learn to cut off their husbands finger if they want to see any remorse from them. Most men here have multiple wives and a womans life is basically meaningless. A short time ago a young girl drown in the river and her father tried to kill the mother of this child, Bill had to physically restrain him to stop the man from doing so. People here view women as child bearers and nothing more. Rape is also a common thing and women just accept it as a normal thing of being a female, authorities don't care if men do this and no one views it as morally wrong in any way.