Montag, 20. Dezember 2010

Christmas Party in Wamena!!!

We knew that celebrating Christmas in Wamena was going to be different from what we are used to. We were not prepared for what we experienced though!!! It was wonderful and we would have not wanted to miss it for anything....

It is a tradition that Helimission invites all the peolple who work with us to celebrate Christmas together. Everybody was there. All the foreigners, the local co-workers, the guards, the household helpers, and THEIR FAMILIES. We were over 120 people.

In Papua, when there is something big to celebrate, their meal is a BAKAR BATU.
Literally, it means "FUEL STONE". Below you can see what that is.

People started to come around 7.30 in the morning. The women began with cleaning and cutting up the mountains of vegetables, the men with making a big fire, choosing big stones and digging a round hole in the ground, about 2 m wide and 1 m deep. The many kids helped or played.

After the fire was burning well, they threw the many stones in the glow. Meanwhile the hole was ready and covered well with many banana leaves. After more than an hour the stones were ready to come in the hole. Some of them had exploded meanwhile (like bombs) and that took care of the fun part for the men. We had only one injured by flying stones. Nothing big though!!!

The men took the stones with these special sticks and put them in the hole all over the banana leaves…

 


Here come the vegetables…



First banana leaves, then greens and herbs, and then come the sweet potatoes...



While the lunch was being prepared, Günther Stöhr, one of the Helimission pilots, came back with the helicopter from a medevac…



More banana leaves, greens and herbs... Then come the vegetables... carrots, cabbage, zucchinis, pumpkins and so on…



Some more greens and herbs on top of the vegetables… and then comes the meat. 2 cut up pigs in the middle (they came from the bush) and around it, 30 chickens.



Some more hot stones on top of everything…



Banana leaves, grass and some more stones…
Then everything was well tied up and then it cooked for a couple hours.



The meat and vegetables were brought to the hangar. It took three trailers to bring everything to the tables…



What an abundance of food!!! Thank you LORD!!!


Brikena enjoying the food with everyone else...



What a group of people to celebrate the birthday of our LORD JESUS with!!!



Some of the local Helimission workers. We are going to miss them...






Keine Kommentare:

Kommentar veröffentlichen