"I'm not in Kansas anymore!"

This is one of my closest friends, let's call her Nena. She comes and works in the garden on Monday's and used to watch the girls on Thursday when I worked at the hospital. This picture was taken on a long walk when Livy decided to use Nena's puffy hair for a pillow.

She lives in a village not too far from the hospital, and has given part of their land for a church. So the church is very close to their house.

2 weeks ago, a "life band" (spoken very quickly and needs repeated several times to understand and she could have been meaning live band, but that is not what she said moved into the market, right across from Nana's land and the church. This "life band" built a fence and set up a dance floor. Villagers were encouraged to try out the band instruments and singing, I guess PNG's equivalent of karaoke. Initially, there was a 50 kina per head entrance fee, but it quickly went to 1 kina (33 cents) to get people to come. The "life band" played from dusk to dawn every night. Very loud, bad music with bad speakers drifted through all of the bamboo walls and grass roofs of the nationals homes for miles.

This was a big disturbance for every one, but Nana didn't complain. Their church services and prayer meetings were disturbed, but no one confronted the "life band" people.

It was in the first week that there was an equipment failure. The life band folks immediately blamed those pesky Nazarene's for praying and causing their stuff to break down. They were demanding that Nana, and her church friends, pray that the music would start again or they would be taken to court (this in itself is amazing that the non Christians would believe so strongly in prayer).

When Nana shared this with me I laughed. Quickly I stopped as I saw she was really worried that she would be blamed and have to buy new equipment for the guys if it wasn't fixed. At the same time, she was happy that her nights were not disturbed. Nana and her friends spent a night praying for the situation to be resolved and that no one would be harmed.

After a tense night, the life band folks did not blame the Christians the next day and they were able to fix their stuff. They stayed for another week and have just now moved on.

Here in PNG, things are pretty black and white. If it is not uplifting to God, it is of the devil. Hence life band=devil worship. I come from a land of grayness. Actually maybe not the states should be called a rainbow, because if it makes you happy, then it is good. Anyway, just a daily situation that makes me realize "I'm not in Kansas anymore."