Bits and Bites....

* I asked Ice how the payment went on Saturday. She said that her tribe had amassed 25 pigs, a large envelope of money and many nokens (hand-weaved bag carried at the back with the strap over the forehead). Nokens are the traditional item to give in times of marriage or payment for a wrong especially against an young unmarried girl etc... The pigs were apparently all large and worth 10 million each which means that the pigs alone were more than enough to cover the agreed amount. However, the family of the girl who had died were not happy with just the pigs. They began to raise their voices. So Ice's dad, who was brokering this peace agreement, made the decision to just give everything to them so as to achieve peace. But he then asked if they could have 2 pigs in return to have a pig feast with all the people who had come from far to help pay the fine. This was granted. Following the payment Ice's dad spoke to the tribe of the girl who died and thanked them and so one. All very cultural. However, the immediate family members of Hrlina could not look Ice's dad in the eye while he spoke his humble words. This is because just days earlier, a witness had come forward and told who had committed the murder and it was not a member of Ice's tribe. But Ice's dad felt they should just pay the fine and then try to deal with those responsible. I think he probably made the right decision because otherwise the family of the girl would most likey still be complaining about things. Now they have nothing to say.
However, the peace that previously reigned in the area has been broken. There are about 5 different tribes represented. On Monday the tribe of the girl who died also had a pig feast and forbade Ice's tribe from participating.
In the old days each tribe had their territory and you could stay away from other tribes quite easily. Now they are mixed together in "subdivisions" and that creates a new can of worms to deal with.
* There's been another plane crash here. Like the last one, it happened near Wamena. In fact it is the same airline as the last one and it was also a cargo plane. Occasionally they do carry a few passengers and were scheduled to carry at least one passenger. However, this fellow ended up taking a more direct flight with one of our mission aviation groups here. A good choice. The plane had three people on board and it looks like they hit the side of a mountain. There are so many mountain passes here it is easy to go into the wrong one and get lost and if there are clouds....
* Hugo is looking into the possibility of going interior this fall with a Dutch friend and do some courses on basic radio maintenance. HF radios are the lifeline of the interior and each time something goes wrong they have to send it to us to get fixed. Having grown up in a non-electronic environment, many of the folks interior have no clue of how to properly maintain their radios.
* I've planted a small corn garden just for fun. I brought the seeds along from Canada and they are sprouting and growing quite quickly. We are very optimistic right now that we will be eating sweet Canadian corn on the cob in a couple months....
* On Canada Day we had a barbeque with the other Canucks living here in Sentani. There are five Canadian families living here although one was unable to attend our gathering. One of the families is new and they just unpacked their crates and they had shipped a rather lovely gas barbeque. Man, those were tasty burgers! Although they're not as juicy as a true Canadian burger cause the meat here has no fat in it at all....