PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Disease, Malnutrition, and Young Death Tolls Live within a Spiritual Confine Within the country of Papua New Guinea people are dying from dysentery, malnutrition, and disease. In the lowlands of the Sepik Region, the indigenous people are suffering. A local doctor who studied two years of medicine, explained that the majority of the population in the region have malaria and have lost at least one child to disease or dysentery. Those who do come to the clinic for medical treatment often times do not return for a follow-up visit or take their medicine as prescribed. He reminds his patients and tours local villages to tell people to boil the water they retrieve from the Sepik River, which sits within a beautiful untouched forest, but is highly contaminated. Despite these harsh realities, they share their way of life with visitors. Toni, who lost his one and a half-year-old child, just a week prior to dysentery, invites me into his home where his extended family visits each night for two to three weeks. They wear mud on their bodies, sit in a circle and mourn. Since the survival rate is very low, there are many children running around the villages. Some go to school but only if their families can afford it.

The tribes differ in customs, cultural practice, and language within these regions. What they share is that their lives are centered on traditions past down from generation to generation. Bride prices are still paid with pigs and Kina (currency), and men can have as many wives as they can afford. Spiritual dances, costumes, and wigs have an important place in their lives.

It is not an easy way of life, but in many ways they are satisfied with their situation, says Mary Anne, lodge manager at Karawari Lodge. They live a simple life in a complicated time. They know no other way.