The plans that dont always work out!

So The idea was to study, a day to knock over my second paper which is due at the end of the week, that was the idea.....

Ideas and plans in this country of the unexpected can change very quickly.

The idea I thought was a good one, but at a community meeting on Tuesday, the idea for Wednesday changed – well the morning plans did anyway. Francis, a chief from the neighbouring village wanted someone to come and take some photos of the canoes they are making for the canoe festival in December. That was OK, I was happy enough to take a walk to the next village to take some photos (although I do study best in the morning, but that’s OK), and I really like Francis – so anything I can do to help out. So after I did my clothes washing, and ate brekkie, Sister Gorehty and I took a walk to Romsua to find Francis who would be waiting for us to take us firstly to see James’s butterfly farm, and then onto the canoes.

Well as we came to the small path that leads us through the mangroves to the next village, Francis appears with his Sister (the two family chiefs) and a string of about 8 young men, all wheeling bush knives, and other weapons of some sort (no guns or firearms). I said good morning to Francis, who then asked us to wait, they were going off to fight a land dispute with another of our community villages. They were certainly pumped up (but not in a vicious way, in the sort of goofy excited way my brothers used to get when they talked about the fights they were in, which they never won, because they don’t fight!) and they boys were full of energy. Off they went, quickly. Sr and I stopped, watched, I looked at Sr Gorehty with raised eyebrows and a smile (because villages don’t fight here like they do in the highlands – well not in Northern Bougainville, so this was unusual). She smiled and suggested we go and wait in Romsua – probably a bit safer. It wasn’t long before Francis and his army appeared – it seems their opposition had gone. So Francis took us off to firstly the butterfly farm and then onto the canoes. Walking through the rainforest I asked him what on earth was going on. In 9 months I had never seen any form of fighting, or heard about it from my community. There has been an ongoing land dispute with another of the neighbouring villages for many years. They have planted Cocoa trees on the Romsua land, and after many requests to talk about it, the Romsua crew got sick of it and went and cut the trees down last Monday morning. As Francis said, they were waiting for the confrontation – they had disturbed the hornets’ nest and now they were waiting for the payback...! They had that morning pounced on one of the other chiefs of Romsua on his way into town, and beat him up quite badly – so the dispute was on.....

This is the same community that the sisters are having problems with in their gardens, the community keeps coming and planting in the Sisters garden, and no amount of negotiation will stop it. The real problem is an explosion of population. Tangeri and Tabuit have an enormous problem with family planning and gardens to feed all of their people. Now I know this all needs to be sorted out, everyone needs to be fed, and they need market gardens to be able to earn an income, but simply crossing garden boundaries and planting on someone else’s land is not the solution!

Anyway, we saw the butterfly garden, and the boys all took us up to the canoes to have a look and take some photos. It was a great morning, I got some ripper shots, and these canoes are very impressive. They were so proud, so having their photo taken was a real treat – and of course they were still pumped from the mornings activities (it was all of 830am). They were all still carrying their knives – but this is what they do here anyway and just incase the Tabuit mob returned – which they did. After we looked at the canoes and were heading back, a young girl ran up to the group to inform them that they were back..... Well the boys got very excited and started to run past us, in a manner that I can only describe as a Tarzan running through the jungle type manner, yelling “Fight fight, we’re going to fight” it was very very amusing. For a moment I thought maybe Sr and I should head off in an alternative direction because did we really want to be caught up in the middle of a land dispute fight, was this all that wise??? Well Francis was still calm and with us, and Sister didn’t seem too concerned, so we headed back with Francis and the head canoe maker – Sr was following me on the path, as we can hear the boys off in the distance pounding their chests (well that’s what it sounded like) hollering through the bush, all I heard Sr say behind me was ‘What the heck”?

As we came into Romsua, Francis took his seat in the Haus Wind, which is a small open class room or meeting room in the centre of the village. He sat calmly listening to an older short woman from Tabuit who was verbally laying into him in Pidgin and local language. Francis I should also mention is a trained peace negotiator. It was amazing. He had a hand full of people sitting in the haus wind with him, there was the chief woman from the clan that had had their trees cut, she was standing up and really giving it to him, in-between them was a man leaning against a tree – I suspect there just in case anything got hairy, and she also had another female sitting behind her, giving support – and then their group of boys were standing back. There was a big circle surrounding the commotion of those of us watching – we were with a young woman and her baby, she was explaining to us what was going on, and what was being said. At one point, I got so interested in the theatrics of it (it really was quite a show ) I wanted to take a photo – but I didn’t want to cause any further commotion. So I asked, and all around us said “Yes yes, don’t worry, of course” so out came the camera, and I took a handful of photos – and quickly put the camera away.

Well after about 15 minutes Sr suggested we move on, it seemed that the exciting part was over and it was up to them to negotiate a way out of their situation, and we moved on.

As we came back out to our beach, Sister Lorraine was there with a group of people heading into town to pick up Rebecca from AusAid for a night with us. She had seen the excitement, and told a few of our boys and another Sister to come and make sure I was OK – no good I got caught in the middle of fighting, so when I came to report we all had a bit of a laugh and that was that.

Well yesterday, when Sr Lorraine took Rebecca to see the butterfly farm, cause I had been talking all about the excitement, they returned to Romsua. They took hours to come back (good opportunity to finish my paper), as they returned Rebecca smiled and said “You know they are all talking and having a laugh in the village about what happened yesterday with the fight. They are also calling you the peace fairy – they claim that without you there their might have been bloodshed, but because you were there – taking photos – it really calmed them all down”. I smiled and thought to myself – well – the work of a volunteer is very strange sometimes.

Now, for those of you reading this wondering what the heck! And why am I being so flippant about potentially being in the middle of a land dispute – even if there had been blood, I would have been very safe. The community and the Sisters are very protective, if there had been any hint of danger we would have been taken out of there quickly. No one was drunk, everyone was familiar, it was a clear dispute, not a random act of violence!

So this, the land of the unexpected, certainly lends itself to something new on a daily basis..... Even after 9 months!