Semester End Activities

Here at the Divine Word University the last weeks of the Semester have started. This means Graduation exam stress for the students on the one hand but also time for gatherings and celebrations. To comply with the custom of gatherings I invited ‘my class’ for an evening to our place. As the girls need to be back at the dormitory at 10pm we had scheduled the pary to start at 5pm already. With the usual delay of about 45-60mins the students arrived, at first a bit hesitant but then with obvious fun. Some of them had prepared a giant pot of cooking bananas and some fish with garden veggies. The whole pot must have weighted about 10Kilos.

I had prepared apple cake and Pasta. The apple cake was gone in about 10minutes and the iced coffee was also consumed after a hesitant trial period. But the Pasta Bolognaise was something some ate for first time in their life. No wonder. The university mess supplies rice and cabbage everyday for lunch and dinner, and the traditional food in the villages normally contains sweet potato or sago as carbohydrate source. Minced meat is also more than rarely on the menu… But everything was eaten and we had a great time. Fabienne and myself had put together some European music we both listen to and put up some pictures of family, friends, parties and normal life from home. Especially the fotos from the big family meeting, me in the snow and Borkum were getting great attention. When I explained that one part of my family is coming from an island where the people still talk their local language (‘tok ples’) and that when I am there I never really know who might know me or be related to me all of them were nodding in full understanding. As the situation is quite similar in PNG.

So we spent the evening talking about cultures, the worlds in between and what is awaiting the students after graduation in a couple of weeks. A quite big number of the students will be returning to the villages were they came from – and I have no idea how they can possibly cope with going back to the traditional life. They have been living the last four years now at this university, studying western based subjects and spending their time in facebook&co. But back in the villages they will most probably be marrying quite soon and not necessarily a partner of their, but family’s choice. And elementary topics will be bride price payments etc. They say that village community pressure makes that change back towards their traditional culture the only way to choose. Tough stuff…

As I was being asked how Papua-New Guineans look like I have posted a couple of pictures from the party. They all look Melanesian, but they vary a lot depending from the areas they are from.

When I saw the presentations of their research topics in the big auditorium two evenings later it was even harder for me to imagine the change they will have to go through again.

At the students party it was also decided that I the girls will take me out for an evening to the only dancing club in Madang, the “Pils’ Rapa”. So on Friday we went out after a little bit of warm-up at our place. The club owns a mini-bus which is picking up the guests and will drive them back home in the early morning. Obviously, it’s primarily the female guests to which this service is aimed at.

I was surprised; the location is a real club, charging 20 Kina entry fee, with a decent sound system and a little stage for live bands. The girls had purposely chosen this evening, as it was not a fortnight evening. All workers here get their money every two weeks in cash on a Friday – which usually means that from noon onwards public places are a no-go area. But on this evening it was really quiet in the club, not packed with people and certainly not so many drunk creatures.

Prudence had extra arranged for her boyfriend to be with us. A huge boy like a cupboard.

But also all the other girls were watching out for me every minute of the evening. The atmosphere was quite relaxed, but still, as the only whiteskin in the entire club there’s an inevitable attention and potential for trouble. So whoever male creature got closer than a metre to me, was chased away. Later at night some male DWU students joined our group, who were then ‘allowed’ to talk to me. But still I was asked every 20 seconds by one of the girls either directly or with gestures, if I was okay or if they would have to intervene.

The music is typical PNG songs, reggae-style, and easy melody songs in Pidgin or the region’s local language. Some Latin Raggaeton pieces got mixed into it as well as some strange 80’s songs in the later hours of the night. And as you might suspect: these folks can dance!!! Especially with a bit of alcohol the dancing style was impressive with subtle hips movement. We were having great fun, when I tried to copy that style and must have looked really awkward.

At 5AM we entered the Mini-Bus again and were driven back to campus. It was a terrific night, and I have had an amazing time. However, I think I will not come out for such an evening again. It was too obvious, that everybody was highly concerned about me getting back home safely and without any issues. Due to the great organization and safety actions I think it was really neither critical nor dangerous at any point of the night. But if the others want to enjoy their time out, they could do this better without me. Still I appreciate their actions a lot!