Trip to Tari

Tari is a small district head quarter’s town in the Southern highlands of Papua New Guinea at a height of 1790 mts. The province of Southern highlands is now divided and Tari falls into the new Hela province. They have discovered Gas and soon it will be a very rich area.
The people here belong to a clan called Huli tribe. These tribes are called Wantok.

They speak the same language within the tribe that is in general known as Tok Plas. The men are short with thick long faces: not like the aboriginals, nor like the African but more or less like those we see in the evolution of Man pictures between metal age and that of few thousand years ago. Like that.

Soft spoken and gentle but their actions are violent and aggressive. Honoured to be warriors and hunters. Even today use bows and arrows and bush knifes to fight. They fight at the drop of a hat more often with a many beers within and land up in the hospital with an arrow sticking in their sides. They settle their disputes in a panchayat and celebrate the peace treaty by slaughtering pigs and exchanging them. Very tough guys. Last night a guy walked 5-6 kms alone after one half of his face was slashed away with a bush knife. Now what do you say? A woman went to the market place searching for blood donors after an ectopic pregnancy when she was told that she needs an operation and blood transfusion. Women are taller than men generally.
They use rocks and grass to clean their bottom after defecation. No water.
They celebrate events with a sing-sing and a mumu (mumu is killing a pig and having a feast)
Women have no place in their society except to procreate, satiate and look after kids and home.
A man has a status in his community if he has five wives and ten children, then he is considered an important man.
The landownership system is crazy. Anyone who has planted a tree has ownership of the land around it for generations. Even if they have sold the land for money, generations after they can come and claim it. No documents or papers only word of mouth.

The house where I stayed is a prefabricated bungalow with modern amenities but no hot water. With temp between 18°C by day and 12°C by night the water is cold. No electricity–only generator that is used to light up in the evenings till 10Pm. After that total darkness, one is left with the option of counting sheep thereafter, listening to the night sounds. There was this CEO of the hospital, our neighbor practicing with his band the same tune for three nights, which drove us mad.
Hot water once a week for a shower. Rest of the days either cold water for bath or none.
The guards build a fire in their hut and bake sweet potatoes to eat all night as dinner. They gave me one -very tasty.
Air Niugini operates thrice a week to this place a propeller plane that can take about 30 passengers. It seems they even carry a dead cow in the plane. My friend had that for company in the seat in front of hers. The land is lush with dense trees and mountains all over. Unspoilt landscape.