Meeting old friends

 

 

July 12, 2014  -   Afternoon

 

As we were not going to push on over the mountains that afternoon,  there was time to bring out the photo albums.  People gathered around and Father Nicholas helped me explain the purpose of our trip  -   to give the pictures to the people in the clans who lived across the mountains where I had lived so long ago.

 

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Then more people began arriving.

 

Men I had known as boys, fifty years earlier,  were appearing at the school house door. What a joy! 

 

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First was Aikapo!  As a twelve year old, he had bucked the disapproval of his parents and moved from their home village to the village where Professor Vayda and his wife had established their field work site. 

 

Aikapo had been curious about the way of life of us "white skins," but he was too young to sign up to join the recruits for work on coastal plantations.  He became an attentive helper around the field work site -  which had grown by one more household when my husband and I arrived four months after the Vaydas. 

 

Aikapo had helped the three young men who had come from the Anglican outpost in Gai to work as translators and "work boys."  Aside from translating from Maring to Tok Pisin, they also had kept the growing establishment supplied with water and firewood.  We supplied the food for everyone from the sacks of rice and tins of fish that we had had carried in from the Simbai airstrip upon our arrival.

 

It took me a moment to recognize him.

 

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Aikapo on the right    VJ DSCF0745

 

Aikapo recognized the world that had been documented by our photographs.   He explained to the younger people and to the people in Dega who did not know the people or stories visible in the photos.

Riffling through the album, I found the photo of the time when he had joined us while we were eating lunch with Annie Rappaport. He had stood at the entrance to our study/dining room/bedroom playing a little bamboo flute. 

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Aikapo recounted the story to Francis, who promptly mimicked the flute-playing.

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Aikapo on the right    VJ DSCF0745

 

Aikapo recognized the world that had been documented by our photographs.   He explained to the younger people and to the people in Dega who did not know the people or stories visible in the photos.

Then Mapi appeared.

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They began catching me up on the news. 

 

 

 

 

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