Grace Chew’s Blog

16/3/2009: Day 33, Kikori Hospital

I did my 2nd delivery today – a multipara whose
baby came slipping out in its sac and we ruptured
it just in time. That express delivery caused her
a tear though, so I got the chance to do some
suturing. Ruth got her primiparous delivery also,
after seeing her first in the day and waiting
till the night for her to deliver. Besides that,
the timetable has been relaxed enough for us to
feed ourselves well (the gas stove and the
well-stocked stores help!) and progress in leaps
and bounds in our bilum-making. The bilum is a
bag that they sew, using either wool
double-twined for strength, or any other rope.
The stitch used is common to the whole of PNG,
and is one of the very few things that is shared
among the PNG people. Even the bilum patterns are
different among the tribes, and years ago you
could have told people apart by the patterns on
their bilums. Besides bags, they stitch fishing
nets, baby carriers, and really anything that
will hold something. The patterns are very
eye-catching, especially in the bright colours they use.

Ruth and I started learning the art in Kapuna
during our 3rd week there, and regretted that we
didn’t start sooner! There’s a lot of work put
into one bilum – the rolling of the wool
together, stitching the mouth then the body then
the handle, learning the different stitches, and
that’s not including learning how to do the
different patterns! Yet with our good and patient
teachers under the old dorm at Kapuna, and here
in Kikori, we’ve progressed (the extra time on
our hands helps a lot!). I’ll be carrying my
bilum around from time to time, and I’m very
willing to pass the knowledge along!