Karawari: Genesis of Avatar? 29 June

Rachel points out, in a continuation of her ongoing obsession with James Cameron, that JC must have visited the Karawari, and it must have been an inspiration for his blockbuster film, Avatar.   I can't say that I disagree.   There are just too many similarities.   The painted faces of the villagers, especially the women and girls at Konmei village.   The giant fluffy white seed pods that are like almost exactly like the glowing seed pods from the giant tree in Avatar.  Even the fluorescent fungi, which we actually do get to see, late one night, in the pitch dark forest (impossible to photograph, of course, because it was too faint to be caught on film.)   But take my word for it, it was cool.  The thick, primeval forest.   No flying dragons, of course, but easy to imagine them here, and of course, they almost certainly existed here, millenia ago.   And of course, the foreign nationals just waiting to plunder all the wealth of ore underneath all of that gorgeous forest.

James Cameron's female warrior character in Avatar, Neytiri

Young girl along the Karawari
River, Sepik Region, PNG

So today we head up and down the Karawari, and to some of its tributaries, and we go to a number of villages.   We really like our guide, Chris, although he is on the quieter side.   He's a pleasant enough fellow, as is the boat driver (who actually hardly says a word.)

This particular day falls into the special category of Days I Shall Never Forget.   Probably in the Top Ten of most amazing days of my life.  We have so many brilliant memories of this particular day.   Truly, I will never forget it.   Perfect lighting, cameras and lenses fully operational.  We went to so many villages, so saw many astonishing people.

Highlights:   visiting ___________ village, where a woman was cooking sago palm.

We start off by visiting ___________ village.  Here we are given a demo of how to make flour from the sago palm.  Basically, in addition to a small crop of sweet potatoes, the main starch here is a flour derived from cutting down a 20-year old sago palm, gutting it, removing the pulp, mashing and sluicing the pulp into a soup, then deriving a flour-like substance from the soup.   This flour is then used in three basic ways:  (1) when fresh, the flour is formed into tortilla-like cakes, fried over an open fire (2) when fresh the flour is also cooked into a glutinous glop (which turns a sort of caramel-color and becomes the consistency of very thick honey), which is then formed into croissant-shaped globs, eaten cold, and (3) stored in the empty chambers of large pieces of bamboo logs, which eventually ferments a bit.  (Later, when we visit Lumi, Jim Thomas describes the resultant product as resembling dog poop.)

So we are instructed in how to make (1) and (2) and offered tastes of the "tortilla/pancakes".  We happily consume these (they are actually quite good, considering they contain virtually no fat, salt or seasoning of any sort), and our guide, Chris, seems thoroughly mystified as to how on earth we might actually think these pancakes were good.  Rachel and I, both seasoned travelers, try to turn a blind eye to the naked children standing near the cooking demo with rivulets of mucus running out of their noses, and who-knows-what kind of hygiene involved here.   But hey, the stuff is cooked over a hot fire, so it must be fine, right?  We are given a demo of how to make the glutinous globs of sago (which Jim in Lumi later refers to as "breast implants"), but to our dismay, we are offered no tastes of these.

We see the entire process of the sago-making procedure, from the gutting of the palm, to the sluicing to the cooking.

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Next we are treated to a visual feast along the river, with women and children who have been dressed up for the purpose of providing photo-ops for us.   They are all fishing, cooking fish, catching fish in baskets.  It's all a bit too contrived for our tastes (the hot-pink commercially dyed chicken feathers in the women's hair is a dead giveaway ) but we get some lovely photos of it all the same.

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We cruise down the river to yet another village _________________ where a glorious and dramatic sing-sing has been arranged for us.  Rachel and I are blown away that all this is done for just us two measly tourists.   The costumes, the people, the dance are stunning.

{include video of people dancing}

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