beetle nut

Chewing beetle nut is a habit that gives many of the Mibu people's teeth their characteristic red hue.  So, of course, why wouldn't we want to try it? 

Actually, this is something a few of us had decided weeks before we wanted to try, mainly just to have one more thing in common with the people of Mibu, to attempt to establish another commonality.  Plus, I was curious...why did they chew it?

We tried it after our mid-day meal.  The basic technique is to find a beetle nut, use your teeth to open it up and get the nut out of it.  There is not really a direct comparison I could find, but the beetle nut resembles a big almond, and it is protected by a softish material, soft enough to rip off with your mouth, but not juicy at all.  I guess kind of like if you had an immature small peach and were trying to get to the pit, but the pit was chewy and easily changed to a pulp. 

Confusing, I know.  Anyway, once you get the beetle nut out, you put it between your front and side teeth and chew it into a pulp.  This part instantly dried my entire mouth out; it felt like I had put an entire ziploc of chalk dust in my mouth.  You have to hold that part in your mouth without swallowing.  Then you roll a leaf up (as far as I know, any leaf will do), wet the end of the leaf with your tongue, and then dip it into the container of lime dust that is just about ubiquitous in Mibu and other places in PNG.  I am not completely clear as to what exactly the lime dust is, but we were instructed repeatedly not to let it touch the skin inside our mouths, as it would burn.  Once you get the powder on the leaf, you put it with the pulp in your mouth, and keep dipping the damp leaf into the powder until you use up the entire leaf and then you chew that as well.  By now some sort of chemical reaction has occurred and the formerly white mash in your mouth has turned orange/red.  Once you feel the need, you spit this red saliva out, making sure that you do not spit or swallow the mash. 

This is supposed to result in a some sort of positive result in your body...enjoyment or energy or something. I am still not completely clear as to what is supposed to happen. It made me dizzy and light headed, and eventually I felt the need to sit down. At one point, Lori felt like she was going to throw up. Kevin said he felt something, but I don't think he had any negative responses like we did. Based on our reactions, Dennis opted out of this cultural experience.

Clearly, the three of us expected that our teeth would have turned bright red from the experience, since we were smiling so big in these pics.  Unfortunately (at least for the pictures), it was hard to tell. 

hike to Mibu

church service

lunch in Mibu

I had been looking forward to this time, since the particular family we were eating with was the family my family had been praying for for nearly a decade. (Almost ten years ago, those at our church who wanted to took a picture with names on it in order to pray for the new believers at Mibu). And the picture my family had was that of this man and his family. So, even though we had never met before, I was deeply connected. We had prayed for this man through the illness and death of his wife, his marriage to his current wife, and through other life happenings. Joey is very close to him, so it was an intimate sort of time with just this family, Joey and me over for a meal. I shared some things I have been learning recently, and how that is connected to other parts of my life. It seemed to resonate with some things they are also learning. Other shared about their lives. We shooed a dog away periodically; I munched raw sugar cane, and the juices ran down my arm; we laughed together; I dreamed about the time we would all be together and understand each other perfectly. Afterwards, I took pictures of the family, other families who requested it, and friends of Joey's who wanted pictures taken with him. 

Our Sunday in Mibu

Sunday was our last full day in Mibu, and was packed with adventure and happenings.  I'll summarize the main events here, and then post pictures and more details in the subsequent posts.

After the usual preliminaries, we hiked down to Mibu for church.  I think it takes a Mibu person under 20 minutes to tackle it, but Shannon allows closer to 40 for people unfamiliar and her kids.  We had also been told by many that those hiking the trail for the first time experience a fall or two (or three, or four...).  My goal for hiking the trail was this: not to fall.  As the hike progressed, this (rather prideful) goal became less and less important as we enjoyed companionship on the way down and looked forward to church together.

We had the worship service in the church building there.  As is the custom, the men sat on one side, and the women on the other.  Different Mibu leaders stood up and took turns teaching during the service.  Of course, we had no idea what was being said, but it was still moving. 

After the service, just about everyone hung out and talked with each other.  It reminded me of my church growing up, where we continued just to talk and be together afterwards, and often had potlucks.  The plan was for our group to split and go to two different homes for lunch.  Meals are social, and we also planned to share life stories and how being connected with Jesus had changed us.  Most of the team ended up with Geoff at one house, and Joey and I were at another house.  As is the case in other situations, I can't really do a good job describing what happened at the other house, but if someone else on the team wants to, that would be great. 

About mid-afternoon, we wrapped up the meals, and then were just hanging out when we were given the opportunity to try beetle nut (buai).  Some of us did.

Afterwards, Joey suggested a trek down to Beng, another village closeby.  As we understood it, this walk would not take much longer than just returning to Tibu, where Geoff and Shannon lived.  So, our happy little team agreed to travel with Joey while Geoff and Shannon returned to their house with their kids and Shiloh to continue preparing for the conference trip.  A word to the wise: you might want to ask some clarifying questions when Joey describes anything. 

Once we returned safely to Geoff and Shannon's house, we were ready for some down time.  We all showered, had a delicious meal, and mentally prepared to leave Mibu tomorrow for Madang and the regional conference (part two of our trip). 

first Mibu meal

On Saturday, Dennis, Lori and I also experienced our first Mibu meal.  Kevin had already had his first the day previous.  We all went to the same house for dinner, which was quite good.  With a few changes here and there, the Mibu diet is essentially the same for each meal: taro, sweet potato, and greens.  The additions, depending on availability, may include corn and meat.  They are all placed in a bowl with liquid, so it is almost a soup. 

Regardless of the actual food, I love the process of the Mibu meal.  Everyone sits on the floor, around the fire pit, which is in the middle of the house.  On both occasions I went to a meal, the fire was not active, so it was a pleasant temp instead of hot.  It's a social time.  But here is my favorite part: if you are finished eating, but you have leftover food OR if there is something in your bowl that you don't happen to like, you don't grin and bear it politely, trying to stuff it down and you don't try to rearrange it in your bowl so that no one realizes what you have and have not eaten.  Instead, you simply GIVE it to someone else.  That's right...just take what you don't want and place it in someone else's bowl.  The meat was not my favorite, so I just pierced it with my fork, and plopped it in the bowl of the person next to me.  And, while I thought the food was good, I wasn't able to finish it, so I just passed it down.  Awesome. 

Saturday recap

As we've already mentioned numerous times, Dennis was not able to make it in with us on Friday, but he did make it in on Saturday.  Thank you so much to those of you who prayed; the original assessment when he missed the flight from Pt. Moresby was that he would not be able to make it into Mibu at all.

Reasons (I think I am recalling these accurately...if not, please team, correct me): We were sharing SIL helicopters during the week since pilots are not exactly plentiful right now.  The one New Tribes heli pilot had been on an extended trip to the islands, and he was scheduled to return later in the day on Friday.  Helicopter trips are not typically scheduled for Saturday.  No one would have faulted Ray, the NT pilot, if he had refused to take the trip on Saturday...he had been gone from his family for a week (at least), he had returned from a demanding trip, and it was not a typical day to fly.  However, Ray made the decision to try it.  Once we got Ray's agreement, the weather also had to cooperate.  The flight is made from Goroka (the town where Dennis was) into Mibu.  Goroka is often fogged in during the early morning, and Mibu is often fogged in during mid-morning through the afternoon.  So, pilots need to be ready when the fog lessens in Goroka so they can leave and make it into Mibu before the fog settles in.  It needs to be perfect, and we had experienced that the day before.  Dennis and Ray had to wait for an hour or so in Goroka, and then they were able to take off and subsequently arrive in Mibu. 

They made it in, and we were thankful to have all who were hoping to come to Mibu all together safely.  The remainder of the day was spent getting acquainted with the area, and interacting with the Mibu people.  Geoff had arranged for all of us to have some training in a typical Mibu activity and then while we were doing that, to have a chance to work on the language a little bit.  The point was to develop some connections, and to experience a bit of what the families had when they first moved into the area.  I still cannot imagine the effort that must have gone into learning the language and developing the friendships they now have. 

I am still not sure what the others ended up doing as their training (it was a busy few days), but Lori and I were taught how to weave a bilum, which is the bag they use to carry most things.  Often the bilum's handle is placed on a woman's head, and the bilum hangs down her back.  Men and women alike use bilums to carry whatever they need to: food, animals, plants, deliveries from house to house, even babies.

Lori and I had a fun time with our band of three women who diligently attempted to teach us this skill.  By the end of the time, we had experienced limited success with the bilums, but a great deal of success with the women.