Once Upon a time…. Storying in PNG

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     Ever since I was little I couldn't resist a good story. Well, apparently my new Papua New Guinean friends can't either. This week I got to go with a group on an overnight hike to a village about 3 hours' walk away. We came to the village in the afternoon and by early evening we had bathed in the river, set up our mosquito nets and bedding for the night, and met our host family for the evening. In most places in Papua New Guinea (PNG) people like to gather in the evening and "stori" which is just to chat together -- talk about your day, life, politics or tell actual stories. People will gather and chat and every once in a while you'll hear someone call out "nau yu stori" (now you talk) and someone will pick up a new thread of conversation.

      Our host family and village friends were no different. As soon as we emerged from the house to wait for dinner to finish cooking all the children of the village came out and clamored to talk to us and sit with us. First they told stories and chatted and asked us questions. We even heard a "tumbuna stori" which is a legend, fairy tale or sometimes tales of their ancestors. Soon they were all telling stories and asking us to tell stories. We heard fairy tales and stories of the exploits of the children in hunting down the different types of animals in PNG that are good for food (Kapul -- opossum,Bilak ​Bokis -- flying fox bat, Pik -- pig, Mumut -- bandicoot,Pisin -- bird, welpaul -- a megapode (type of bird)-- to name a few). These seemed to be some of their favorite stories. They told stories of wily bandicoots and tricky opossums.

      Suddenly I remembered a story I used to love when I was a child about a tricky opossum that knocked on the door of a house. The opossum kept knocking and inside a little girl kept trying to tell her family that an opossum was knocking on the door but no one believed her. Suddenly, everyone in the family heard the opossum knocking and went to go see who was knocking. But by the time they opened the door the sneaky opossum had run away and jumped up onto a tree to hide and the family went back to what they were doing. But the little girl knew better
​. ​She saw the Opossum in the tree and knew it had made a fool out of her. It was a cute story and I thought it just might do the trick for the story they were asking me for.

      So, after some quick thinking and a deep breath I jumped in headfirst, translating the story on the fly and tweaking a few details to fit PNG culture. They loved it! As I was going they kept helping me along, encouraging me, clarifying my Tok Pisin and urging me on in the story. I told how the Mama and Papa didn't believe the girl, the Grandparents didn't believe the girl, the brothers and sisters didn't believe the girl, and even the dog and cat didn't believe the girl. By the time I got to the grandparents the kids were drawn in completely and were so upset that the family didn't believe the little girl. When the family finally went to open the door all the kids sat with expectant faces, waiting for what would come next. When I told them that the sneaky opossum got away the kids all jumped in and shouted out how they thought the story should have ended instead. It was great fun! I learned so much Tok Pisin and we all enjoyed a good story. We continued well into the night and storied and storied about everything from children to politics, gardens to church and all went to bed happy with new stories to tell.

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