TRADITIONAL LORE AND PNG WISDOM (2): GEMS FROM THE MELPA MAN

I TOLD the cabbie to wait for me. I would spend about 15 minutes with my cousin and then he would drive me back to my workplace.

After 20 minutes, when I came out of the place where my cousin was, the cabbie was sitting beside his vehicle.

As we were walking towards it, the cabbie started talking.

For the next 15 minutes to my workplace, he was the one talking and did not give me any chance to talk.

It was clear. He was moved by the topic.

He told me that his father (who has since passed on) had said many things like that to him.

Here are a few lines that his father said to him:

NEVER GO AROUND WITH PEOPLE WHO STEAL … If you do, you would become a thief.

NEVER GO AROUND WITH PEOPLE WHO ABUSE THEIR WIVES … If you do, you will also turn out to be an abuser of your spouse.

NEVER GO AROUND WITH PEOPLE WHO GO TO COURT FOR EVERY LITTLE THING … If you do, you will also run to court for every little thing.

FORGIVE OTHERS OF THEIR WRONGS … If you do, you will live longer. (This is the second time in 10 years that I have heard this line.)

THE CUSCUS STORY

Here is something else the cabbie said (the last one before he left me):

“You know how many men and women ruin their homes because they bring rubbish into it – all the rubbish that the world has and offers?

“You know the cuscus that cracks the karuka nut? It is so clever. It does its eating far from where it lives. It does not bring the nuts or other rubbish to its abode. In doing so, its abode is free from rubbish and people who hunt it will never know where its abode is.

“They will see the rubbish of the nuts far from its hideout and do their hunting there thinking that the cuscus is somewhere close by.

“The cuscus does that for its survival – it does not bring rubbish into its abode.”

MY LESSON: “People too must be careful when they are meddling in the world and must ensure that the rubbish of the world must not get into their abode. Bad practices are the rubbish we see in the world and we must ensure that such practices do not get into our homes where cleanliness and hygiene in every sense must prevail.”

TRADITIONAL LORE AND PNG WISDOM (1)

ARE you aware that our PNG local ancestors had some of the wisest characters – and some of the wisest sayings?

If you have spent some time living in the village, you would be privileged to have heard a traditional lore or one-liner.

(For those who are writers/or aspiring writers, it is a good thing to explore such themes. Write down traditional lore, anecdotes and proverbs as part of documenting our heritage. You will be enriched by doing that. In my next post, I will post a few.)

I have heard a number and they have shaped the way some of us think too – those of us who were privileged to be there in the 1970s and 1980s.

THE TALK WITH THE CABBIE

I was ferried by a cabbie yesterday evening to visit a cousin before she left the city to return home.

In the process, we (the cabbie and I) got into a conversation, as is the usual practice for me when I am in the mood.

I spoke about the need for common sense and how our ancestors celebrated important occasions in their lives without consuming alcohol.

I told him of my stance as regards alcohol – “there is nothing good in it”. It is a foreign concept that has ruined the nation – our nation.

I spoke of how today young people take alcohol and speak disrespectfully of others without restraint.

“This never happened in the old days,” I said. “The whole village will stop you and tell you immediately to make plans for restitution and make apologies. One of your own relatives may even handle you physically to put some sense into you.”

The cabbie told me that that was “real men talk” – something most people he travelled with never do.

I asked him if he was a Kange – a real Melpa man.

He said he was.

And I told him, I have been with some young Kanges in the past and they have said the same thing when such comments are made. (I told him that I grew up in Melpa country too – before and after Independence.)

Some of these Melpa men I know remember how their fathers or grandfathers taught them – the need to live with a head on and be at peace with their neighbours and relatives, something that is not usually seen today in many homes and families.

The abuse of alcohol has further pulled down the barriers that have protected our people for the ages.

Today when someone is under the influence of alcohol and do something bad, people would say: “Oh, sorry, he was drunk when he did it.”

When that is said, it is as if the culprit should be excused.

You try that in court and the magistrate would hurry you up to the National Court section to be trialled for assault or harassment – or whatever illegal thing you did.

Being drunk gives you no excuse of harassing or abusing somebody.

Next post: Some pieces from Melpa country

  

A MOVIE ...

A MOVIE ....

A SONG

A SONG ...

THE RAIN (PRAYER ANSWERED) AND MY LIST OF THINGS …

WHAT a way to start 2016 - a prayer was answered!

(I prayed the day before that rain would fall and it did.)

Yes, the rain did pour on New Year ’s Day – not in the early hours, as I wished, but an hour or so before dawn.

But it fell at the right time just when a small group were trying to be a bit too noisy (the party had already died but they were still trying to push it), the heaven’s opened and that maimed their plan – and the rain continued on sporadically throughout the day.

It poured again this morning (Dec 2), at sunrise – giving a cool morning for those who wanted to grab a few more hours of rest before heading out to the shops or elsewhere.

Thank you for the rains, O Lord.

THE LIST

Yes, I almost did everything I wrote on Dec 31.

I DID:

1. Strike the keys on the keyboard and pluck the guitar strings.

2. Drink Pepsi.

3. Eat a good meal.

4. Do some sit-ups and stretches.

5. Listen to BBC radio.

6. Watch a movie.

7. Review the stock of Learn Spanish videos I have at hand.

(I went over the Bahasa Indonesia and Spanish videos that I have.)

I DID NOT DO

1. Say hellow to a penpal over the net.

2. Review a word list in another language.

3. Pen a few lines on another project/or pen my to-do list for 2016.

WATCH THE NEXT TWO POSTS – ONE ON A SONG AND ONE ON A MOVIE!

THINGS TO DO ON NEW YEAR'S DAY

HAPPY New Year everybody!

I apologize that I have not been posting as often as I would like too.

I will try to do that a bit more regularly this year.

Anyway, here is a list of things I said I would do on New Year's day - and passed onto to my friends on a social network.

1. Strike the keys on the keyboard or pluck the guitar strings.

2. Drink Pepsi.

3. Eat a good meal.

4. Do some sit-ups and stretches.

5. Say hellow to a penpal over the net.

6. Listen to BBC radio.

7. Watch a movie.

8. Pen a few lines on another project/or pen my to-do list for 2016.

9. Review the stock of Learn Spanish videos I have at hand.

10. Review a word list in another language.

11. … Still thinking.

(If I was with the squad on the other side of the city, the mother and sister will be baking cupcakes to have with tea or coffee, as they have been doing for ages. No alcohol is allowed in that premises so it is always peaceful and warm.)

Anyway, cheers to you all! Enjoy your celebration in a civilized manner!

More interesting things are coming up in 2016. Be ready!

A SHORT SHORT STORY … THE JUNIOR SALESMAN

ON Friday, Nov 4, at 2pm, I went down the overhead bridge at 4-Mile, having alighted from the PMV bus I had travelled there from Hohola.

Just as I walked past the Ori Lavi building complex, I saw a group of boys, street vendors, showing off their phones, belts and other stuff, to passersby.

As I was about to head into the building to get to the other side and walk down to the bank, I noticed this small kid on my left, standing near the vehicles parked there.

He had a box full of blue Kilometrico biros, some stood on the edges of the box to make them more eye-catching, I guess.

He was busy looking at his box and did not see me.

It was then I realized that I needed biros. The last one in my bag could run out if I were to sign on the bank’s documents.

“How much are those?” I asked in Tok Pisin, the creole used here in PNG.

“Fifty toea for one,” he said.

As I was digging into the trouser pocket on my right where I keep my coins, he said: “Fifty toea for one, one kina for two, please.”

The word “please” used indicated that he was in a way begging me to buy his pen.

He was trying his salesman skills on me.

Well, for this barefoot, 10-year-old, who was dressed in a short and yellow, dirty T-shirt, I knew I had to reward him for being a smart, industrious citizen of this country, even though he might be breaking labour laws selling stuff when he should be in school.

I switched my hand to the back pocket and checked for a K2 (two kina) note.

“Do you have a K1 there?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, and started digging into his trouser pocket.

“I will have two, please,” I said and handed him the K2 note.

He gave me two biros and then held up his right hand with some coins in it and started counting loudly: “20t, 40t, 60t …”

“Wait,” I said. “I will take 50t only.”

And I picked up two 20t coins and a 10t coin.

He looked at what I was doing and looked puzzled.

I think he was a bit late in working out what I was doing.

“You keep the 50t,” I said, as I turned away.

He still looked puzzled.                

“Thank you for the biros,” I said and walked away.

“Oh, thank you!” he said, more like a sharp call than a statement.

I think he worked out then that I was not shortchanging him by picking up 50t from him and not K1.

As I was thinking about the incident throughout the weekend, I was asking myself if that boy ever went to school.

If he did not, then he must have picked up his counting skills on the streets, selling stuff like the biros.

Well, I will have to ask him next time I see him.   

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