Today we celebrated our son's 6th birthday, PNG style.
We had about 10 kids (including our 2) over to celebrate. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and not too bid, 10 seemed to be a good number.
Decorations: I went to our store here to see what they had in the way of decorations. There were several rolls of crepe paper, all green, so I got too. He likes green, this is good. then I went to see if they had any balloons... they had 4. They were a dark silvery color and were printed with I love (insert a heart here) Papua New Guinea. Chad and I laughed a bit about these because usually you have "I love..." or "I (heart)..." We're not used to seeing, "I love (heart) ..." Just a funny translation thing. So that was pretty much the extent of the decorations, green streamers and 4 balloons. It worked, I spent less that 2 kina on it, that is equivalent to less than $1 in American money.
The Cake: I made a chocolate cake (from scratch) with chocolate frosting (also from scratch). Believe it or not we can get boxed cake mix here and sometimes frosting, but making it from scratch is cheaper and (I think) tastier. The question on my mind was how do I decorate this cake? Well, since we just got our cargo and now have a printer, I printed out on a piece of paper "Happy 6th Birthday" cut it out and set it on top of the cake. Then I found, at the store, some colored sprinkles and candles. There you go, simple, but colorful and fun. The kids loved it.
Goodie bags: It was very refreshing to see that the children at this party were perfectly happy with a ziplock bag (which I brought from the States) filled with 3 hershey kisses, 1 caramel candy, 1 lollipop, and one ballon rocket as their treat bag.
The Party agenda: As the guests arrived, we had some sidewalk chalk
(thanks Grandma) and toys out for them to play with. After about 1/2 an hour we began a treasure hunt around the yard. Ultimately the treasure hunt led them to find their goodie bags (hidden in the sandbox). This was great fun. I've never seen a group of kids so well behaved and cooperative as these. They worked together to find and read the clues, waited for one another before moving on the the next clue, etc. After the treasure hunt we served cake and then the kids played around the yard. Chad pulled out his banjo and they sang some songs, played freeze dance, and seemed to have a great time. Simple, yet fun.
The day ended with my son giving me a big thank you for a GREAT party.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Haus Meri
Yesterday was the first day that our haus meri came and worked for us. Here in PNG it is kind of expected the expatriates will a hire national woman as a haus meri (house help). I waited a while to hire one because I just didn't feel ready, but I finally decided it was time. Yesterday was her first day. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, but it's great to have the help around the house. The housework has always been my job and it feels strange having someone else do it for me, especially when I am home and when I consider the rate of pay that is expected for work such as this. Most American's would be appalled at how little these women are paid. My tendency is to want to pay her more, but I have to respect the economy here and paying her more would upset the balance. So, often we find other ways to supplement their income like throwing in a bag of rice with her pay.
The people of this country are rich by some standards. Most have land and gardens that produce enough to feed their family and sell some at market, but what they often don't have is much cash income. The biggest need for cash comes when their children enter school and school fees must be paid. Some of they ways that we are able to help them with this is by buying their goods at market and by hiring them as house and yard help.
One of the best things about having a haus meri (and yard meris) is that it gives me a relationship with a national. It gives me a window into the PNG culture and a chance to make a wontok (friend). My prayer is that through my relationships with our hired help, we can encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.
The people of this country are rich by some standards. Most have land and gardens that produce enough to feed their family and sell some at market, but what they often don't have is much cash income. The biggest need for cash comes when their children enter school and school fees must be paid. Some of they ways that we are able to help them with this is by buying their goods at market and by hiring them as house and yard help.
One of the best things about having a haus meri (and yard meris) is that it gives me a relationship with a national. It gives me a window into the PNG culture and a chance to make a wontok (friend). My prayer is that through my relationships with our hired help, we can encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.
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