Wasfamili

This past Thursday, we had the honor and pleasure to meet our wasfamili, or “watch family”, the family that watches over us. Each family here at POC is paired up with a wasfamili, and we will have several opportunities to visit and interact with them. This first meeting with the family was here at POC, and all the wasfamilis came here for supper. We all ate in one big room, on mats on the floor. We had a huge pot of rice, a delicious beef stew, and rolls. Sweet tea and banana bread were served as dessert. Sitting on the hard floor for a few hours was a challenge for us, but all the Papua New Guineans seemed very comfortable, as this is how they would do things at home.

Our waspapa Miani is a young man, with a wife Judy, and a young daughter, 1 yr old Magdalene, the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. They also brought along their 7 year old nephew Jeffrey. They were quiet and shy at the beginning, but warmed up more as the evening went on. There were silences at times, as Paul & I communicated with them only in Pidgin! But on the whole, we did pretty well, and were able to tell them a bit about our lives back in Canada, and about our families and friends. We showed them pictures from our wedding, pointing out family as we went along. We were also able to show them pictures of snow, which they had heard about but never seen, and were shocked at how much of it there was, on the ground, and covering the car in the picture! We will be going to their place for supper next, and we hope communication gets easier as our tok pisin improves.