Playing with knives

When we were in our village living at Madang, I didn't have a pocket knife, which I have discovered was probably a good thing since I had one on this village trip and I managed to cut myself with it twice! The first time, I was putting the knife back into its slot and the ants (at our very first house) were biting my ankles, so I was jumping around and that's my excuse for my finger getting in the way of the knife as it went in. It was quite a deep cut with blood flowing steadily.

The second time I cut a finger on the pocket knife, I was cleaning the blade, rubbing it with my fingers and a bit of cloth (my skirt), and in the process my finger pressed against the blade a bit too hard and the inevitable happened! Once you get a cut in the village, you have to be so careful to keep it clean so that it doesn't get infected. Sometimes I had bandaids on some pathetic scratches on my feet just to keep it healthy. Fortunately none of us got any infected sores, so that was good.

The Sos Kundi people learn to use knives at a young age. Here's Raylene (the two and a half year old that we shared a house with for two weeks) getting some experience with a knife.

I think it must be somewhat dull if she is able to carry the knife like this: