A village experience with the Van der Merwe family
Cobus & Tronel and their three children Isak, Jana and Karlien moved to Papua New Guinea in March 2024 to serve with MAF. When joining the MAF program in PNG, new staff and families take part in The Village Experience - spending a week living in a remote community. This helps them gain insight into the lives of the people they will be serving, build relationships, and learn the Papua New Guinean culture. For their Village Experience, the Van der Merwe’s spent a week perched high up in the mountains in Sangapi - a village only accesible by plane.
“When we touched down on the airstrip I was a quite taken aback to see a massive crowd of villagers all looking at us. Knowing that most of the villagers spoke only “Tok Place” and Tok Pisin, I was more than a little worried about how the week would progress, but I was surprised to find what an enjoyable experience our village orientation was. Early mornings I awoke to watch the sun rising over the picturesque hills dotted with smoking cook-houses. I loved hanging out with our local hosts in their cook-house, and trying Cassava bread for the first time. It was really interesting to see how the villagers lived and saddening to see the poverty surrounding us. Though I probably wouldn’t call it a holiday, it was an experience I’ll never forget.”
“I really enjoyed our time, especially the hunting and the challenging walks. The people were really friendly and seemed to take great joy in me wanting to go hunt and do target practice with them. When you are in a village like this you get to see how difficult life in the bush is. The way of life for the people up in the mountains seemed very hard to me. They walk down the mountain or to the closest river to get water every day and then carry it back home. Medical help is also a big issue, with some people having to walk for days through the jungle carrying their loved ones to reach the small clinic in the village, or the airfield to be medevac’d by MAF.”
“The beds were a little hard but the walk to the water tanks was very fun and dangerous.”
FIRST PHOTO / ANNELIE EDSMYR OTHER PHOTOS / VAN DER MERWE FAMILY
This story was originally published in "Flying for Life - Spring 2024". To view the full magazine, click here.