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Show NEWS OF OUR w? MENwWCMEN ff.fN UNIFORM Letter Box . . New, Guinea, Apr. 12, 1944. Dearest Sister Maxine; I guess you will be quite surprised sur-prised to hear from me. I meant to write you for some time, but just didn't get around to it. I received re-ceived your last letter the day we sailed and was very glad to get it. LU1 try to drop you a line more often oft-en hereafter. Ther's not much I can write a-bout a-bout but I'll try to tell you a little about the natives and the island. We are somewhere in New Guinea it is not such a bad place. It is second to the largest island in the world. There is still fighting going on here but we will soon have the Japs kicked out "we hope." Almost every native village is a small independent group. Within the space of a few miles there may be a great difference in custom and language. In the old days neighbors fought and feuded. In modern days, barriers between groups have been broken, yet the natives don't like to leave their own localities except under the protection of whites. The Bible has been translated into a number of their languages and they say you'll hear natives frequently humming or singing hymn tunes. You'll find that even the Christian natives still hold on to some of the old religious belief. The islanders are very much concerned con-cerned with spirits, good and bad, including those of their ancestors. They also practice magic and sorcery. sor-cery. After all, life is pretty precarious pre-carious around these parts and they take no chances with things supernatural. Around the areas of white settlement, settle-ment, Calico waistcloths are the usual garments for natives though short pants are coming in to favor with the men. Women may or may not have top covering. For reasons rea-sons of health the governments have discouraged the wearing of a lot of clothes especially on the upper up-per part of the body. The islanders are always ready for a celebration. Their life is spiced with all kinds of ceremonies at birth, marriage, sickness and death when luck is good or bad and before during and after house building. At these times the natives na-tives really goes to town with feasting, singing and dancing. You may think that the men don't have very much respect for their women. It is true that women are shut out from some of the important im-portant religious and other affairs of the community and they have to do a lot of the hard work. More than we do the islanders make a clear distinction between men's and women's activities and in their own field, women have plenty of opportunities for self expression. There are some tropical fruits and vegetables on the island such as coconuts, sweet potatoes, bananas bana-nas and pineapple. It is nearly the close of another day and it is getting quite dark . . |
