The women on the hill, the shadows in the darkness and sticky fingers...

I am sitting on the couch in my kitchen area Skyping with my family and I hear voices just outside my window. I look out and there on the top of staircase just outside Hannah's window sits a Papuan woman with a little baby. There are also two Papuan women on the steep hillside above her with their nokens on their heads (bags that carry personal belongings) cutting down banana leaves with a machete. The woman further up on the hill cuts them down and the woman below shucks off the bad leaves and bundles them together. Excitedly I grab my laptop and position it so my family can see them on Skype. My hope was so they can have a better understanding of what goes on here. Sadly I don't think they got to see them well. My sister asked "can they do that? Just walk around with machetes?". I just responded that "it's their land" in some regard. I am not really sure what the rules are here.
Our condo seems to be a popular area for the Papuans to walk through. Not like in town but there have been two occasions where Mike has left around 4:30 in the morning for work, opened the door and a figure goes running past my window creating a shadow on my curtains in the morning darkness and fog. That freaks me out! Stories that Hannah never hears or all sleep will be lost for weeks!!!
Living in this multi-cultural, melting pot of a town comes with it's pros and cons. It's all apart of the deal. It just bothers me when sticky little fingers steal personal belongings. Ones personal belongings should never be left outside or you will see them on someone walking in town days later.
I hope to get a new camera soon so I can really start documenting this dynamic place with better visual representation. Until then and as always, to be continued....