Bits and Bites...

Birthday parties are cultural experiences. Invitations here are sent the day of the party. All guests arrive and sit down. The birthday girl sits in a central location and someone (in this case, her mother) will be the "master of ceremonies" (for lack of a better word). She will go around the room and ask everyone to say his/her name. Then she may quiz one or two of the children to check if he/she remembers the names. They will. Then a few songs will be sung with the last one being happy birthday. Then a knife will be brought out and one piece of cake will be cut by the birthday girl together with her mother. She will usually give a bite to her mother. Then her mother will ask if there is anyone else she wants to give a bite to. She chooses her best friend. Then her sister will pray to close the "ceremony" portion of the party and ask for a blessing on the food. Then we all proceed to the "buffet" table and get some food -rice, fish, curry chicken, cucumber/carrot salad, bean soup, and fried noodles and of course, a cup of water. Like bottled water, only in a cup. Tastes like plastic... You eat and then go home.

*There's a salt shortage here. Don't know why, but I'm starting to run low and beginning to feel the beginnings of panic... What would I do if I couldn't get any salt??? I NEED salt. Can't bake bread without salt!!

*The situation with the man that had a relationship with the married woman who said I's name was "resolved" the other day. "I" went over there and the man looked at her and said,"I have no idea who this woman is." Whew, "I" was off the hook... Then all the people present discussed with the man what had happened and he admitted to taking the woman somewhere for a week. He gave her a Blackberry phone because he had no money to give her. The people gathered there decided that he would have to pay the woman's family 40 million rupiah for his actions. That's $4,000. Lots of money!

*Our guard went up to Wamena with his brother-in-law. We had been helping him save up for a motorbike that he could use to get to school when he starts again in August. Well, he came to Hugo and said he needed all of his savings so he could go to Wamena. He didn't say why. Yesterday his brother told me that it was to resolve a problem with a man who had bothered Y's wife (well, former wife actually) and had not yet paid the fine he was supposed to pay. The guy lives in Jayapura but his family is in Wamena. Y also had to pay for his brother-in-laws ticket-apparently he has some other ceremony or something to attend to and as he doesn't have a job but Y does, so guess who has to pay for his ticket??? There's no getting ahead here...

*Apparently there is also a shortage of finger-print ink around here so the police can't issue any driver's licenses right now...