Following our visit to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Marilina Larcinese employed her amazing e-media talent to produce a fascinating 15 min video of the highlights of the visit and an update on each of the cookhouse communities. Hear and see their joy! You may view it at https://institute.mercy.org.au/news-centre/videos/ and scroll through the video list to Cookhouse PNG Visit 2019.
The video was shown at the October 24th presentation at Mercy Hub, Nicholson St to an enthusiastic gathering. So for those of our readers who were unable to be at the presentation, here is a way for you to share that experience over a coffee in the comfort of your own lounge.
Christmas Blessings and Happy New Year!
We all may look back on this year with happy hearts for the deep joy our gifts have given the rural families of Papua New Guinea. They are a people who have so little, yet are rich in their belongingness , welcome and abiding gratitude. May you all have a beautiful Christmas also rich in those gifts, thank you one and all and welcome back in 2020
Meeting to Elect Oamug Women’s Leaders Group Planning for Cookhouse Use
Above is the picture of the women gathered to talk about what they wanted to do in their haus kuk. Here is the brief report of the meeting from Sr Theresia, in response to our request for help going forward…
All the women gathered together and I asked them how they wanted to discuss ways of using the house. They wanted to use their old groupings to talk first. So they went off for 30 minutes.. When they came back, they were asked to report back to the group. They said the following: There were four groups:- Three groups want to learn to cooking different things. They want to learn to sew. They need manual sewing machines because there is no power. The catechist told them to use the church generator. Some argued that that will require petrol and that won’t easy to buy. One group wanted to say that some women went to a course and
learnt about making soap, cooking oil, pig stock etc with resources they have such as kaukau, potatoes and other veggies. They have done anything because they didn’t have the machine to do it so they could try that. They have to get a special machine.
The fourth group was made up of the oldies. They are the backbone of the church at Oamug. They were the ones who started the work first. Now they said they can’t do any of the above activities but they wanted to look after the haus kuk. Help the groups if they need help. Pray for the groups that great things will come out of the building.
So the three groups appointed their leaders as pictured below. Martha will act as the coordinator of the three groups. After the big meeting, I met with the leaders briefly. They wanted to start with sewing first while waiting for stove haus. We planned to have a meeting on the 23 of November to discuss more. This was a very lively meeting. Some men came along and thanked the women and asked lots of interesting questions. After the meeting some women went to the junction to collect the supply [for the stove haus] that was dropped there because the road to Oamug is bad, couldn’t drive. (The women carried bags of cement and roof sheeting for a half-hour walk along a rough rocky track!!!!).
Ed Note: We will forward any Manual Sewing Machine donations in 2020.
“MAKING I T HAPPEN THEMSELVES” GOGLME , SIMBU PROVINCE UPDATE
On our September visit to Goglme, we listened as the women discussed the cookhouse use at a meeting chaired by Roslyn Tony, High School Head teacher. Here is an update on the Goglme Cookhouse from Sr Maryanne Kolkia.
I would like to begin with " Congratulations" It was indeed a great success. Thanks for all that you have been, done and gone through to make the plan of cook house become a reality at Goglme. I just returned from home this weekend. You could see how appreciative the people were/are. I know certain that cook house will be well looked after, used and served its intended purpose." Well done and “tenkyu". Having the cookhouse made the youths to start building Parish Youth Friendly Centre. It is well under construction. When the parents see that each family agreed to contribute roofing iron as the cost of K60.00. It is really encouraging to see people start taking initiative, making it happen themselves. Thanks for the being the inspiration. Thank God for leading you through this unique journey... (Editor note: K60 is AUD 26)