Wayne & Gail Chen Bringing the Gospel to the Biem people in Papua New Guinea In our language sessions, we are moving away from “material culture” (acquisition of nouns, names, places) into more customs and social structures. I get to spend all the mornings with different people up in the buai stand. Sometimes they invite me to go into their house and garden. Other times, we just sit there and “get wind” (translation: sitting around and just chat). Learning a new language may be difficult…but if you learn it through relationships with the people, it makes it that much more enjoyable.
Today, an unexpected guest showed up! The people were teaching me how to put a pig to sleep by scratching its ear. And it actually worked!!!
Many people have emailed about “buai” or beetle-nut. I’ll write more about buai and its cultural practices later. Right now, I would say 99% of the people I’ve met chew it regularly. How young do they start chewing? Well…I got a picture of this boy today…
Some neighborhood kids playing marble…
