String

The main items Kovol people always buy when they are in town and take back with them are batteries, newspaper (not for reading, but to roll their cigarettes in), salt and lighters. Other things people sometimes get depending on how much money they have and what they have need of, I guess, are clothes, biscuits, rice and string. I could write interesting stories about all these items, but this blog is about string.
The word has been adopted into the Kovol language and it means ‘string trap’.
Nowadays people use only the plastic string you can buy in town for this type of trap. Hence the name.
The string is mainly used for knotting the bags so typical for PNG: bilums. Especially in the Madang area, this kind of string is used to make the bags. In the highlands people usually use yarn.

In my recent language and culture studies I have been learning about making both bilums and string traps 🙂 This morning I went on a little adventure I want to share with you, although the most exciting part had nothing to do with a string actually!

On Friday, my ‘workday’, I was hanging out in the village, learning language. I had brought my bilum with me and I ended up getting some recordings about the process of making it and the names of different parts. I have also been working on using negations in my speech. I was trying to say: ‘I am able to make the main part of the bag, but I am not able to tie the bottom together.’ I know how to say ‘I don’t…’ but I need to practise how to say ‘I am not able to…’ a bit more.

After a while Alice and Millie, who had come with me, had enough of it and wanted to get home. I said to the people I would come back in the afternoon to continue working on my bilum. Ulomo mentioned he was going to go check his string traps, but he would be back again later. I got excited and said, ‘I want to come with you!’
In a couple of sessions now, I have talked about string traps, learned how they are set, who sets them, etc. But I hadn’t seen a ‘real’ one yet.

Instead of that afternoon, we scheduled for yesterday morning to go check his ‘string’. We ended up going with his wife Nangalam and daughter Zina and some other kids tagged along as well. Good thing, because the ‘roads’ in the jungle are something else and I needed a hand more than once! Nangalam kept saying I am used to cement roads and the bush is so different.

After following a little ridge, we got to the area where Ulomo had put his string, He showed that we would go down, round and then come back up to the ridge again. So into the thick jungle we went. There was the trap. Excitedly I took a picture of it and felt all sorry because it seemed untouched by any animal. Then on we walked and Ulumo pointed out another trap, and then another and another… Lesson #1: ‘checking string’, doesn’t mean one trap, it means an area with dozens!

They try to catch bandicoot with these traps, by the way. What they do is they find the path these small marsupials walk along and they place the trap across it, putting sticks either side to block the road, so the bandicoot is forced to walk into the trap.

Along the way Zina spotted a rat hole, so Nangalam dug it up, but unfortunately, the home was empty. Then I spotted a hole too and said, ‘is that also a rat hole?’ They laughed, ‘No that’s a spider hole!’. It was about 5cm in diameter! I got a bit nervous already. If the hole was that big, the spider must be at least that size too! Appearently, it is normal to try catch those too. So there Nangalam went again, digging away and in not too long out came the tarantula! (not sure if it was a tarantula, but it definitely looked like one!) I got the biggest scare, I screamed and tried to get away, but thick jungle prevented me. Fortunately Nangalam grabbed the spider and soon she had killed it. One of the the kids put it in his bag to cook on the fire later for a snack.

I think this was the highlight of that trip for everyone, not because they caught a spider but because of my reaction to it! To them it’s just so normal.

On we went checking the traps. We came to a stream and a stoney area and we followed the stream all the way back up to the ridge. I almost felt like a real mountain climber, having to check with every step which tree I can hold on to with my hands. (I kept being told, ‘No not that one, that has thorns!’) On the way up, we spotted a bird’s nest with an egg in it. Ulumo decided he was going to come back later when it was dark to sit and wait for the bird and shoot it with his bow and arrow.

All traps checked, no bandicoots caught, but with a good story to tell, we arrived back at the village. I asked the family whether I could sit with them for a bit to get some recordings and ask some questions. Ulumo was worried, he thought it was better I went to see Steve first and also he wondered whether I wanted to go drink some coffee. Well, I guess he knows us quite well now. I think Steve was happy I came home again to take over with the kids and I did enjoy a coffee too 🙂

This afternoon I went back and got my recordings from Ulumo and practised telling the story of what we had done that morning.

Ubasi, the lady who has been helping me with making my bilum was there too and she showed me how to tie the bottom if it together. Now I can say that ‘I am able’ to do that part too!