“Balus i pulap tru!” I remarked (‘The plane is really full!’) - and the nine ladies on board laughed. They were joining hundreds of other women from Baptist churches throughout the Min area for their annual ladies’ conference at Tabubil.
Telefomin, Eliptamin, Oksapmin, Wobagen, Ok Isai - the response was the same when I got out of the plane and people saw that a lady pilot had come to take the ladies from their village to Tabubil. “Ooweee! Meri pailot! Meri balus! Ooweee!”
Since these were special charter flights, the women weren’t limited to the usual 16 kg assigned to seat fare passengers. The weight limit was a combined one for the whole plane, so they brought bags of vegetables to share at the conference - sweet potato, taro, kumu (leafy greens), spring onions, bananas. Most of the time there was too much to fit in the cargo pods, so I ended up strapping a lot of it down in the cabin. Balus i pulap tru!
The conference, the mountains of vegetables I flew, and the reception and gifts I was given at the different airstrips (including a bird-of-paradise headdress by the ladies at Wobagen), were a celebration of life. This is one of the foundations of Papua New Guinean culture. If we’re going to have a party, let’s make it a big one! The ladies’ enthusiasm was contagious and I truly enjoyed flying them to Tabubil.
Wobagen ladies with vegetables they were taking to share at the conference Oksapmin ladies in the plane Another group of Wobagen ladies after landing at Tabubil
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