Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Week Beginning 12.10.09
Mike still needs you to send an email, as all addresses were lost.
Bride price:
We told you about attending a 'bride price' mumu back in April. Last weekend we attended the follow up to this. The first was for the groom's family to host a mumu for the bride's family (which took all the food away with them) and this one for the bride's family to host a mumu for the groom's family (which took all the food away with them) and to negotiate a price for their daughter/sister.
We were due to leave in the morning but eventually set off with Maria and Stanley and others at about 3.00 p.m. We travelled a distance in an open-back truck, but then we all had to walk for 45 mins to get to the village.
On arrival at the village (which was very attractively kept) we were all told to wait until we received a signal from the bride's family to say that it was OK to walk to the family's home.
Once the signal was given, all the men started chanting - a call to the family that we were on our way. This was kept up all the way with a large procession of people following behind. Arriving at the plot, some of the women broke away from the procession and danced around a large pile of food, screaming wolf-like but with a bit of vibrato! This shows appreciation and approval for the
food presented.
After walking around the food and nodding approval and after all the handshaking and hugging, the two family's separated to opposite sides of the food 'tent'. Now the negotiations started, setting the scene by reminding the groom's family that the bride was an educated girl who brought in an income to the family home.
It was mainly the men who spoke and they had an unusual delivery style - consisting of walking about 8 metres one way, stopping, saying few words, then marching 8 meters the other way in silence, saying a bit more, then continuing to march back and forth, only speaking when stopping. We suppose its one of those 'men' things - i.e. they can only do one thing at a time. Talking and walking is just too difficult.
Most of it was in tok pisin - some of which we understood and some in tok ples on which we were clueless, but eventually we got to the nitty gritty. The groom's family would have to fork out 20,000 kina (a lot) plus 10 live pigs and 5 live goats. They would need to do this by June next year - but June 2030 would do!). Also they said that the bride should be moved out of her village by Christmas.
The talking over, now began the dividing up of food into 5 portions, for there were five areas represented by groom family members. By now it was getting dark and difficult to see and splitting up the food took aeons. Eventually it was time to leave and so began our slow descent from the village down to the main highway. However, it was thought best to take a short cut. Short cuts here are a bit like ideas of time - little concept of either distance.
The route was very steep and very muddy. Because of the distribution of food, everyone was loaded. Mike carried a whole cut of bananas (about 50 bananas attached) and a large chicken with vegetables. The going got more and more difficult, bearing in mind there was no light to guide us. It wasn't just dark- it was pitch black. Even the locals slid and slipped and dropped things. It was an exhausting and extremely difficult climb down - a real struggle.
While shopping in the store Alison turned into the aisle and a family were there. The little girl looked up and stared but then when Mike came round the corner her bottom lip quivered and she ran to Mum crying. Her Dad explained that she had never seen white people before!
We had our Saturday Club girls round for a party as three of them have finished their grade 10 exams. We baked pizza and cakes and then played pass-the-parcel and the throw-a-six games. They screamed with delight every time the music stopped and clapped when someone took a layer off. It was lovely to see and though Alison only put little things in like stickers or a London postcard, they were over the moon. It was a pleasure being with the. They automatically clear up and put everything away. There were 9 of them, aged between 10 and 17.
The other excitement was the cat had kittens yesterday. Last time she had kittens she just left them and they died and the rats ate them! This time, when we realised she was pregnant, we got a box ready and fed her tuna (there is no cat food here) and on Saturday we realised she'd had the kittens but we couldn't find them anywhere. We searched and searched. The cat was with us and didn't seem to be bothered and just slept on the veranda. The landlady came home and she searched and eventually found the three abandoned kittens in her suitcase. She put them in the prepared box and put the cat in and eventually the mother cat took to looking after them. Mike has to get up early each morning to go out later to check on them!
Anyway, love to all
Alison & Mike
- comments