Moving dirt...

The old fashioned way...

This photos seems like such a simple photo, but there's a lot going on
here. For one, take a look at the muscles on this guy... Most of the
guys in the Penale are cut like him. I would be too if I worked as hard
as the people do here to survive everyday. Cutting firewood, getting
food, traveling over rough terrain... It's no picnic.

Next, notice the small bilum bag hanging around his neck and slung onto
his back. Even though Kaiam is a "safe" community, no one ever puts
their possessions down. Bui, tobacco, matches or a butane lighter, and
a flashlight are very commonly found in these little bilums.

The traditional clothing for the Penale people usually consists of the
leaves that you see here, some sort of vine to go around the waist, and
a small piece of fabric called a lap-lap (no idea on the spelling, but
that's how it sounds) in front. More often though it seems like you see
the multiple windings of some sort of twine or wire and western style
shorts, but the leaves are still present. Also, you can tell that this
guy doesn't live directly in the Kaiam area because of the type of twine
around his waist. If I was more familiar with the people groups I could
tell you exactly where he comes from. Some other differences are
braided rope worn around the forehead, different styles of lap-laps, arm
bands, and many more that I can't think of right now. Pretty unique no
matter who you look at, but they all tend to be similar if they're from
the same people group.

The other thing to not overlook is the bright green colors and the side
lighting in this photo. It could have been a little better if you could
see a little more of his face, but the main reason I point out the
actual photo is just that I really tried to make sure the greens came
out the way they should on this photo... Hopefully now that I figured
out the process the other hundred photos in this same folder/location
will be edited much more quickly and you'll see more photos of Kaiam in
the near future... Or we can all hope so...