(Sorry we have not posted anything in a long time but the internet has been dead for over a week.)
There are so many great things about living and working in Papua New Guinea with Papua New Guineans. There is also some stuff that is hard. But there is one thing that is unpleasant far above anything else.
Making coffins.
When someone dies on the mountain the family generally comes to us and asks us to build them a coffin. We try to keep some plywood in the workshop for just such occasions.
The mood in the workshop is generally upbeat, people joke around (Papua New Guineans love to laugh) and have a good time while they are working. But when they start a coffin the mood changes. It is a stark reminder of the world we live in and how harsh life can be in PNG.
The other day was an especially hard day. A newborn baby died. We were working on cabinets for the new kitchen when the order came in for a coffin. When people come to ask for a coffin they also bring measurements of the body. They were putting together the drawers for the cabinets and the little coffin was the same size as some of the drawers.
It was a tough thing to see this little symbol of death sitting in the middle of these things I had been so happy to see being constructed just hours before.
matt
1 comment:
Oh, Matt and I imagine that Gene helped with that as I know he was building cabinets. That must have been hard. This something I would have never thought about.
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