Going to the Show (August 14th)

Sing Sing groups crowding the field for the show

We did make it. The efforts of the men on the ship were positively herculean and we made it to the airstrip only a few minutes after the plane did. After another beautiful flight, we arrived in Mt. Hagen.

Chaos. Utter chaos ensued from every angle and there is no question that that is the word of the day. When we arrived at the airport, you could tell that we had reentered civilization. Digicel signs were everywhere – one even advertised a blackberry (though neither Jen nor I could get data on any of three devices).

We headed off to the show amidst throngs of people. Thousands coming from every which way and direction were descending upon the Kagamuga showgrounds. 70 sing-sing groups showed up this year from across the country, though most were from the Highlands provinces. It was a great turnout. As they paraded in, all singing and dancing, every group was beaming with joy. It is a great honor for them to get to come, and they enjoy putting on their best finery to do their traditional dances. It is their shining moment to show off their cultural heritage to the most people possible.

Shopping at the show

Mt. Hagen is an extremely dangerous city due to both raskols (essentially unemployed vigilante youth) and tribal/ clan fighting. As a result, the area where the foreigners go is locked down like a fort (or at least they say it is). It all seems a bit overblown since everybody seems so friendly, but you really never know in a city like this. There are about 300-400 foreigners at the show  and to be honest, even that small a number (compare to carnival or something), was quite jarring to Jen and I. We had been in the absolute middle of nowhere for 2 weeks. We hadn’t seen another tourist pretty much at all and then all of a sudden there were “all” these people. Nonetheless, amidst the throngs of tribal men and women (probably about 10,000-15,000 at least) we were a drop in the bucket.

The politicians.

After the initial entrance and some boring Tok Pisin (the local Pidgin language) speeches from politicians, they opened up the grounds and we could all enter to dance and take pictures with the sing-sing groups. It was indescribable. The joy and passion of the people performing their dances, the sweat and odor permeating the field grounds in the hot sun, it was an experience that pictures and even video camera could not capture.

There were groups from the base of Mt. Wilhelm in the Highlands where men are all very short (though, to be honest, not that much shorter than me) and of course the famous Mud Men from Asaro in the Eastern Highlands showed up. Others from Enga province in the highlands had men wearing 21 woven skirts that swayed with the rhythms of their drums as they bobbed back and forth chanting.

The famous Asaro mudmen

One of the most exciting parts was that everyone was singing and dancing and marching and moving about in the field at exactly the same time. As I was taking pictures, I almost got run over several times by marauding sing-sing groups. I almost got poked in the eye from one of the arrows of the Mud men, etc. etc. It was total and utter chaos. It was awesome. 

After a few hours at the show, we headed up to our hotel – The Highlander Hotel. It is Mt. Hagen’s best and that is not saying much. They gave us a massive suite, but it was last renovated I think in the early 80’s and it showed. All of that, though, is fine. It is the security that is striking. The Hotel has thick walls around it topped with barbed wire and then still an electric fence. Once we got inside, we saw that there were also teams of guards. If I hadn’t thought that Mt. Hagen was that bad of a place, I sure did now.

The hotel, as a result of this, certainly isn’t used to this many guests. Dinner was almost as chaotic as the show. They ran out of everything – food, plates, utensils – and as they refilled things, something else would run out. If you could take a step back from your hunger, it was all actually rather amusing.

I love chaos in PNG.