Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The House Cry

It was sad day in Goroka today. The young man who died last night was like a son to Bill and Lori and was Ruthies cousin and very close with everyone else in the village. We found out that he did not suffer from typhoid but had dengue fever which is a viral disease spread by mosquites. Only 12 hours transpired from the time he began showing symptoms to the time he died. Medicines won't do anything to help fight this disease so it is typically just fought off by the body but in rare cases it will be fatal. He basically bled out from the inside and his lungs filled up causing his death.

Death is mourned very differently here than in the states. The people rub mud all over their bodies and clothes and wail for days and days. The wailing lasted all night and all day today and could be heard from just outside our house.(The village is on the other end of campus only a few hundred yards from our house) Over 600 people came from neighboring villages and cities that knew him to join in the "house cry" as it is called. The dead are typically put into a large freezer at the hospital then taken to their village where they will stay for days until they are buried. Bill had gotten some extra money this month so he used it to put him into a funeral home which is very expensive here. Lori and Amo went to join in the house cry for a few hours while Bill got some things straightened out in his office while I watched the kids, Aaron, Isaac, and Gracie. I wanted to help in anyway that I could but I'm not a huge fan of kids so having a 3 year old, 13 month old, and 1 month old to take care of ALONE wasn't exactly what I had expected the day to entail. When Lori and Amo came home, Bill then went to the village to give the message for the people there. We had dinner and Lori washed up the boys while I did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. We're now watching despicable me for the second time today and getting ready to get to bed. Things won't be back to normal until next week so I'm not sure how the next few days are going to be.

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