in just 3 days ...

Remember I was saying how so much stuff is happening all the time, how busy things are in sleepy POMville ... started me thinking how people can cope with going to work when there is so much LIFE just basically happening.

Well since Friday in the life of ricebag

• my cousin, Der, the first-born son of my Godfather Puff, basically lost it and took an axe to the car and house of Puff's brother, OurHero up in waybag Wabag, Enga Province. Approx K30 000 worth of damage. We've pretty much gone into mini-shock as a family. Der went crazy and China who house-sits for Our-Hero said Der basically went ballistic. And we do not know why. He left a note saying "I am a Man. I make my own decisions" - absolutely crazy. And whats totally scary is that I know Der ... and I do not recognise the manianc who has done this.
• my wantok, Unlce Leo, was axed across his forehead - all for defending his 13yr old daughter from a brutish pmv bus-driver who basically said he wanted to F-her. He beat that man. That man's men then axed Leo who has since had 17 stitches and was refused admission to the hospital for lack of beds. He is now recovering at home. This could have escalated into all-out war between Engans (my side) and the ones from Mt Hagen (their side) over in the Morata settlement ... but (for once) the intervention of the police eased the tension.
• what happened to Leo is directly related to an awful incident 4 years ago. A young Engan girl (Leo's niece) was coming home from uni on the 'last bus' (ie 5.30pm) and the bus boys gang-raped her and slit her throat. She crawled from the bus and died in the ditch. UNCONFIRMED REPORTS have it that Leo was behind the retirbution which saw the rapists (from Mt Hagen) murdered in their sleep.

and amongst other things, my beautiful nephew Dhink is sick : ricebag has reignited that lovely flaming pain in her lower lumbar spinal column : ricebags mum and ricebag had a fight on the phone (NEVER a good move) : ricebag had masses of homework to do but due to familial mayhem she couldn't be arsed

ricebag did however manage to do her laundry : she did bleach and wash her white white whites : she played with her namesake and other little-people under the age of 10 for a very long time : rise early before dawn to water the garden and eat mangoes dropping of the tree as the sun rose over the bay : make massive curry for 14 people last night : talk and talk and talk and listen and half-listen for hours and hours