The Game

This entry is fairly short notice since my last post, but I feel I am fully settled now so this is an update about my day to day life. As with most pieces I write, first drafts consist of huge amounts of brackets as relevant things pop into my head, but it works for this kind of thing, so I am sticking with it. On a normal day in Goroka (See Guinness book of records under Worlds Best Climate) I get up around 7.30, take my chair outside and have my breakfast (usually bread, butter, jam or peanut butter) on the veranda. This is when I say ‘monin’ to everyone at the NSI where I live as they walk past me (I cant get up when they do yet as the altitude and walking around in the heat really tire me out). The clouds begin to clear off the surrounding mountains at around 9, when I leave to do this vague thing called ‘fieldwork’.

See picture of NSI

If it is a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, I then work out what I will do in the morning and afternoon, which is usually going to town (East Goroka, I live in West Goroka) on the PMV (a private bus service, in 15 seater battered old Toyotas, very frequent and a site of many interesting ‘monin, nem blo mi Anthony, mi skul mangi blo university lo Scotland, mi stap lo Goroka lo wan yia na sikis mun lo lukim olgeta samtin lo gambling’ conversations). An aside: Almost every private car here is a Toyota 4x4, as the terrain is so tough this is where they test them, and even in town the pot holes are a never-ending series of ponds. In the last few weeks I either go to a ‘Pokie ples’ (fruit machine hall), of which there are 6 in town, and map them, talk to the people who work there, and set up or conduct an interview with someone who works there, or the Horse Racing place. By the way, almost all conversations end with an invitation to go to somebody’s village, which is one way of cornering me (‘whiteman’) into releasing my unlimited money. This sounds harsh on people but it is part of how it works here, and all conversations have something behind them, I am forever giving cigarettes to friends (acknowledged as part of my relative wealth) and have lent the 3 people closest to me K10 on at least 1 occasion, which is usually paid back, sometimes with interest or ‘antap’ (this marks interdependence and is encouraging). Other days I just buy shopping, have an ice-cream, and try to speak to the person I need to at the Eastern Highlands Provincial Administration to officially start my research. Other days, if I am feeling unflappable I go to Kakaruk Market, the centre of gambling for drunkards, settlement dwellers venturing into town, and the habitual gamblers. This is quite a dangerous place to be late on in the day, at least at the moment for me, my face is not familiar enough yet, as many of the prizes involve SP beer (4.5%) or Live Lave (up to 75%), and when people drink, especially the disaffected, they get ‘spak’, which is a kind of out of ones head unpredictable and potentially argumentative or violent state (the drinking culture is very different here for some, but I don’t know enough about it to say anymore than this). I therefore have not been there alone yet, and try to go in the morning, as drinking starts early here. Alternatively I am just starting to go to the District Court, where gambling related cases are heard, and I have a couple of interviews there this week with a magistrate and a clerk. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 I have training for my team, the Rapatonas, So it is only the morning and early afternoon I am really free. On Fridays I try to be out early and back early, as this is payday, and a spak-fest (I realise I need to get out there sooner or later as this is also a gambling-fest, but it is too dangerous at the moment. In any case I am back before dark every day, as it is not safe for me yet. On Mondays my friend Michael from security at the NSI is free so we go to Mambu maket, where people play ‘kas’ (cards), ‘snooker’ (pool) and bingo, or to his place in a settlement next to town called Kanchukem, where people play kas outside his house. I really enjoy this, it is only just coming together but it is one of the better settlements and I know a few people there so I suspect this will be my second real field location, the first I will come to in the latter section of this post.

When I can I grab some lunch either at a ‘haus kaikai’ in town or back at NSI. Saturday I do very little, clean my clothes etc, this I think is becoming my day off. I was doing a survey of all the different denominations of church on Sundays, but I have decided that it is more important now to become known to people from the settlements and town, and so I am concentrating on football, many of the players in Rapatonas, and in the teams they play against, are from the rougher parts of town (settlements), so seeing me mucking in and being friendly, and here to stay, is a good signal to give out, not to mention that they are really good blokes who have taken me into the team as one of the boys. So we play on the NSI fields on Saturdays or Sundays, and I am going to churches when they don’t clash. It is also a real change from Scotland to be in a team which wins! I have played 2 games so far, in central defence, and we won 2-0 and last week 9-0! I am very proud of the clean sheets which Trevor, Mark, Jack and I have kept.

See picture of the Rapatonas

During these times, the main part of the day, the sun is out, with a little cloud for the occasional break from its skin cooking intensity. Roughly around 5 the clouds roll in and it rains for an hour or so, sometimes like a rainy day in Scotland without the wind, sometimes like it only can in a tropical country, with thunder crashing against the mountains and echoing back to like a terrible encore. In the evening I write up my notes for the day on the computer, which run to about a thousand words a day. I then take my pot down to the kitchen and make dinner, which is usually rice or instant noodles, with either eggs or a can of tuna. If I have been to the main market or to Lopi market I have kaukau (sweet potato) and grins (any gind of boiled vegetables, there are many varieties of spinach-like things here) By the way if anyone is planning to take a trip to Eastern Highlands Province, PNG, I recommend you starve yourself of all starch for at least 3 months prior to arrival. On lucky days, I get caught up in some activity like a goodbye speech, which invariably involves a feast, and the meat I desperately crave (I miss bacon rolls especially). It makes me laugh how high the people here pile their plates, I am not joking it gets up to about 15cm, not even you Matthew (my brother) could compete with these guys, and then discreetly pour what they cant eat into a plastic bag and take it home. After dinner I read my book (Bertrand Russell’s ‘History of Western Philosophy’, I recommend it to all fieldworkers, very interesting, readable, will definitely need reading more than once, and will be useful to know I am sure), and am asleep at around 10.30. Another side note, people are very friendly here in the vast majority, warm, and interested in what you are doing, as well as incredibly forward thinking and self-reflexive about PNG and its future.

One day though, to materialise the suggestion I made earlier, I realised just how prescient my topic is here, if I didn’t know already by all the gambling places they have in this small town of 30,000 people. At a certain workplace not mentioned above, which I cant reveal as it puts peoples jobs in danger, I was asked to come along to a gambling session on Thursday, private payweek (people are paid fortnightly here, private workers one weekend, public sector the next). It started at 12 midday, playing Queen (a complex strategical game where 5 players attempt to rid themselves of their 7 cards via certain combinations) with K2 central bets each and matching side bets. However, the game lasted until 6.30 am the next day! I have to say I didn’t stay for all of it, it gets very repetitive, I got very hungry and tired, and as it was a secret game, there was little to no talking, but I was writing up my notes until 4 that morning, and they ran to three thousand words. What was really surprising is I knew these people, church goers, upstanding citizens one might call them, and some lost almost all their pay packets, while some won big. Not only this, but because of the businesslike nature of play, the fact they had just been paid, and their concentration, all other transactions came to the fore, I saw payments for money borrowed for death ceremonies, loans in the making, and seniors (not an easy thing to discern in town) ordering juniors to buy them ‘buai’ (betelnut, a mild stimulant that is chewed) and ‘simuk’ (cigarettes). It was hard work keeping up, but there is no doubt if I can make the right friends, and make myself safe, I can collect some very interesting data with this topic. So that is why this post is called ‘The Game’, but the intellectually sensitive, the anthropologists, or those who know how my language and humour work, will realise that the first part of this post is also ‘The Game’.

Until next time,

Anthony.

Some P.S.’s:

South African John, and Duncan, I heard Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth blasting out of a Supermarket and thought of you. In fact I often think of the three of us, South Africa, Japan and Papua New Guinea, I do hope we get a chance for the three of us to meet up sometime.

Deans Court People: It must be light until really late there now, wish I could have seen it, and yes I do miss the food, even Deans Court has more variety than my diet here. But I don’t miss The Rule. Can someone email me when the DC hoodie is ready to send. Bronnie, eat a bacon roll from Cherries for me, and go to Oxford. Cheer up Gretel, it’s only 1 year of hard work, and it is almost done (if you work with others, you get more done if you talk less!). Only messing with you petal, you know I love your monkey face. Mark, wish you were here, no one knows the importance of the blues, Bob Dylan, The Ramones or Radiohead here, not even Buckley! AmeriKen, nice one mate, cheers for the email, much obliged. To AmeriKen and the PhD’s, I will see you in a bit.