The bamboo siding was finished on our house Tuesday of this week and so Friday was marked for our big house opening party. The Pal people’s custom is to have a house opening party for every new house before the owner of the house sleeps in his house or cooks in his house. We’ve been living in our house for over a month but, for us, this party was not really about following the peoples’ customs but about ‘amamasim’ the Pal community. To ‘amamas’ someone is to make them happy and after the hundreds of hours the Pal people have spent clearing the ground, cutting posts, gathering beams and rafters, weaving the bamboo, and building our house we wanted to give back to them.
Yesterday, Friday, many people gathered from the nearby villages and we had our house opening. First, I bought six pigs from the people. The pigs were shortly thereafter shot and killed. Next, the community leaders divided up the pig meat (along with some yams, crackers, and noodles) and made about 15 different piles that went to the different families and clans that had helped us on our house. Everyone clapped and cheered as names were called and people came and were handed a pile of food. The party ‘ended’ with the big man giving a blessing over our house. With the blessing complete many people took their piles of food and headed for home as darkness was quickly descending upon us. Quite a few people stayed for the night gathered around fires, storying and talking and enjoying their pig meat. A tarp tent housed three families for the night right next to our house and a ‘sibal’ housed another three. A ‘sibal’ is a lean-to or teepee style house made out of sticks and banana leaves. When I fell asleep last night I could still hear people chatting in the night and when I awoke up this morning they were being quite a bit louder. Although, I do remember one time waking up in the night and all was quiet.
So, eating pig is a big treat for the Pal people. They all raise pigs but there’s not enough to be killing them and eating them often. And, when your normal protein intake consists of smoked rat and frog, pork tastes that much sweeter. Anyways, our house is complete, the community is ‘amamased’, and the work in Pal goes on.
*To kill the pigs, the men tied up the pigs and then stood and shot them point blank with their bow and arrows. Our boys thought it exciting but the pigs’ squeals were pretty traumatizing for Maisie. It was an educational opportunity for our three year old daughter as a little while after she saw two of the pigs killed they were laid side by side across some bamboo poles and she said, “look dad, the pigs are sleeping on the bamboo.”