Nature vs. Civilisation
Hello Readers,
It’s almost been a month – a month of living the life I love so much. I touched down at a certain airport on Monday and my dream was abruptly halted when I saw the first machine I had seen in a month, a car.
I can’t say it was unexpected. I’ve been over the same footpath more than a million times – it’s who I am. But none the less the shock back into another chosen reality even though familiar and inevitable – was simultaneously unwanted.
No cars. No television. No computer. No internet. No mobile phones. No mp3 players.
No electricity. No piped water. No toilet. No alcohol. What had I replaced these with?
Family. Wind. Rain. Fire. Sun. The ocean. The stars. The bush. The garden. Quiet.
An unlimited and never-ending supply of the best mangos, pawpaw, guavas, mandarines, sugarcane, bananas, water melon, jungle fruit, sawasop, aibika, pumpkin leaves, kaukau, taro, paragum, pow, ton, talis, galip, karikap, dumdum, aila…
And fish. Lots and lots and lots and lots of fish. Crabs, crayfish, fresh tuna, shrimp, turtle, shark, sting ray, and one salt water crocodile…
The endless days of spear fishing naked in crystal-clear 20ft deep ocean. The endless nights of fishing under the full moon and stars.
Afternoons of chasing chickens, riding water buffalos, climbing coconuts and buai.
Mornings of listening to nature waking you up. Evenings of seeing nature put on a show and then listening to nature sing you a lullaby…
And now I’m back. Back into “civilisation”.
And the first thing “civilisation” showed me was thick black smoke billowing out of buildings, a strong stench to my left, graffiti to my right, roadkill in front of me, greasy smells, a huge hole in the ground with rubbish, drunk people fighting in broad daylight, a car crash…
And I realised something: You need to get into a machine to feel the wind here.
Welcome back ma man!!
Your story reminded me about an aboriginal elder I befriended many years ago. We were driving this section of road in Sydney and in the distance was an oil refinery bellowing smoke and fumes – at the same time we passed a sewerage works and were overwhelmed by the stench!
The old man turned around to me and said: “Rob – see that smoke over there and smell that shit – that’s progress”.
Have always loved the wisdom of the older folks!
Looking forward to your posts again mate!!
Welcome back.
R
Thankyou Robert 🙂
I believe I’ve got a fair amount of reading to do in order to catch up on everybody’s posts!
Hope Christmas and New Years found you safe and happy!!
I’m looking forward to see what you and the rest of the PNG Blogger crew got up to.
Have to say though, this computer almost feels alien. Haha.
Tavurvur
Tavurvur, you seemed to have enjoyed your break away from town/city life. I hope it was not too hard returning.
Happy New Year! Dave