'She who must be obeyed' (from hereon called 'SWMBO') is a MK (Missionary Kid) - that means she was brought up on a Mission Station - usually in a country other than their own and typically a third world country. Her parents went to the Eastern Highland of Papua New Guinea in 1953, into uncontrolled territory, and set up a Christian Mission Station, which they called Faith Mission (FM), to bring the Good News (Christian Gospel) to the native people of the Gimi Tribe near a village called Gono. This Mission is still an active Christian Ministry with two American (husband & wife) missionaries overseeing the work but is now mostly run by the Gimi Christians, who have developed and spread the work to other areas of PNG under the name of Faith Fellowship Church (FMC).
The Gono Mission has an Aid Post - which is actually a small hospital with several beds and an outpatient ward. It also runs a Primary/High School for the village children. Both of these are overseen by an extremely dedicated missionary whom we shall call Sister B - she is a qualified Nurse and Teacher.
Many things are done twice in PNG. This is because they want to enter the civilized (Western) way of of doing things but still wish to hold onto their traditional ways.
So here we have a High School graduation in Traditional Dress -
And then again in the so-called civilized style. Sister B is shown in this photo with the five Graduates.
Don't you love their shoes !!!
2 comments:
so the shoes are cross-cultural, worn with both traditional and western clothing?
The Townsville Bulletin last month published a picture of one of our 2008 James Cook University medical graduates with shorts and thongs under his grad robes. The Governor General was handing out the prizes, one of which he was a recipient. Whose culture is influencing whom here?
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