Comments on: Living with the Mek: Beliefs

By: Garth Louk

Garth Louk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:28:56 +0000

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By: Don W

Don W — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:36:49 +0000

Ollie, I loved the show and hope something can be done to preserve their culture in today’s world. Through you, I’ve come to love these people very much and hope they are doing well.
There was one point at the beginning where they were questioning why you guys would come out into the jungle without women to satify your ‘needs’, and they were worried that you would have “relations” with their women, The chief was also worried that because you guys didn’t bring women, that you two might have homosexual relations, and warned that he would “shove hot peppers up your butts” if you did. So it is clear that homosexuality in the Macheganga culture is strictly taboo.
I found it very interesting that a culture that has never had any outside influences, such as Christianity, would find homosexuality taboo.
Did the chief ever explain why they hold disdain for homosexuality?
I’m a heterosexual male Christian, finding myself on the defensive on why I don’t think homosexuals, who are generally atheists, should be allowed to be married.

By: Kerri Smith

Kerri Smith — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:00:42 +0000

I just started watching your program on the Travel channel and I was hooked. I am so intrigued by what you have chosen to do with your life. I loved the Machegenga? sp.) tribe, they were amazing people. I look forward to living vicariously through your next adventure.
( as a God lover myself) I guess I can only be ” categorized” as that It breaks my heart to read about how western thoughts on religion was introduced to them. I have the unique, I guess you could call it that amongst other things, history in my family. I am the the great- granddaughter of just those very people. My great grandfather, was a missionary in Borneo in the 30s and 40s. He was one of the founders of Mission Aviation Fellowship. I have seen pictures and books with my grandmother being held by a person native to a tribe in Borneo. Its amazing. My grand parents and parents were also missionaries. What’s not so amazing is that they were convinced that they needed to modernize these people. In stead of introducing them to love and kindness, human love and kindness as the Christian belief is and should always be, they tried to change them by forcing a ideological boxed up God on them. I don’t know what it did. I wasn’t there. I don’t think I would have been part of it. The only ” mission” worked I have carried on, is to go to the impoverished and build houses, repair hospitals, make it possible for them to have clean water, hold babies, feed orphans and leave with a broken heart because I want to bring them all home. This is how I show them God, I’m his hands in an unforgiving world. I don’t go to change them, I am always changed by them.
I just wanted you to know that not all people who do missionary work are not out to change people. Unfortunately it’s not true for all, but I believe that just serving and giving my time and energy makes a greater impact. I have a few to many branches of evangelical missionaries in my family tree, I hope I can be the one that makes mission work serve as a mission to help others. . I once asked my grand mother, after a long story about MAF, what if they ( people from cultures unlike ours) came here and tried to tell you everything you know is wrong? She became angry, evaded the question and I ended up raking the yard that day. I have always hung on to that thought. After watching how you intimately become part of those peoples lives, I know my question was legitimate.
I see what you are saying by the stripping away of their identifiable culture. I hold on to my Irish roots dearly, I know that my children are one generation away from not having anything to identify with and I believe that is important. I also hope that my children can Identify themselves with a family that want to serve and not dominate and displace. ( I am the first one to not commit to ” being a missionary” on my father’s side of the family. I’m the rebel. Thank goodness for the Irish family.: )
You experienced something amazing when you went with the man to his holiest place. That is truly an honor.
I look forward to watching you travel and meet new amazing people.
P.S. not that it matters, but the missionaries were originally from Germany, and the Irish side, my mom’s, well, owned pubs in good ole’ Kerry. IRE
Kerri Smith,
USA

By: admin

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:58:37 +0000

Thank you for all your lovely support with my mixed, mashed up writing…one day hopefully, it’ll all come together in a book…

Ana Maria: journals: Thank you for your kind words. It’s a bit of hit and miss with the writing – but I reckon about 75% is just a brain dump on paper and the rest is edited, although I’m not a very patient editor or writer sadly. There’s always something else to do…good luck with your journalism.

Tan: the Mek Cave: There was incredible peace to be found there and to be found in the company of Eonos and the Mek. I think it was Emerson who wrote: “you can go into the world in search of the beautiful, but you wont find it unless you carry it with you”. Guess that might be enlightenment if you can nail that! But I think there’s something in it, for sure.

Monica: Your line: “The more things change, the more they stay the same” – your absolutely right. I remember my history teacher at school saying something similar, saying this is the most important thing I will ever teach you: ““everything must change so that everything can stay the same” – from a film called the Leopard about the Italian Risorgimento. Few times have such words of wisdom been spoken.

McKaya: Mek: I’m not sure exactly who else they’ve met. It’s a good point and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t find out.

By: Carmen

Carmen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:37:18 +0000

Oops… As you can see by my weird little note at the bottom of my previous post, I had meant to ask you if the Machigenga believed in reincarnation referencing the fact that after his new son was born, Jose had said that his son had come back to him. (Sorry about that!)

Carmen

By: Carmen

Carmen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:32:27 +0000

Thank you so much, Olly, for posting your journals. I have read and reread them several times, always wanting more. One of my first thoughts upon reading them, like so many of the others, was that you need to find a way to publish them. If not in a book, then at least in some sort of a companion book or booklet with the series DVDs. (Although, it could truly be so much more than that.) And unlike some of the others, I do not think it’s too long at all, on the contrary, I could have kept reading more.

I’ve never really understood evangelizing. The thought that there is one and only one way to believe and the need to have others believe as you say. It has always seemed to me that if missionaries go into an area and try to evangelize by means of bribes, threats (of an angry, vengeful God) and coercion that that would prove the weakness of their God, not the strength. If that God is all powerful, what does he have to fear? Certainly not us mere mortals.

Re: your piggy adventure… Too funny… You, your pig and the Sean Connery impression must have been a sight to behold! It sounds as though you and the piggy forged a zen like understanding of one another… lucky for the piggy. It was nice of you to carry the poor little guy across the river. And I did love seeing you (on the program) give the Busops the pig. How wonderful.

Re: Ferensina… If you and Mark ever do get to go back to Merengmen (which, I think I speak for most of us when I say that we would love to see that), it would be great to know how Ferensina is fairing. I think a lot of people have wondered about her.

Re: part 4 Isn’t it interesting that both the Mek’s and Machigenga’s spiritual lives involve a cave? And that a cave is where they both believe their spirits go to when they die? I hadn’t thought of that before, but it just struck me when reading. It would be interesting to check into the prevalence of caves in belief systems. I know I is a fairly common thread.
Regardless,in both cases, what a high honor that they chose to allow you to visit them.

If only there was a way to embrace change for the better, while still preserving our past history and culture. Every society struggles to find that balance. More often than not, we don’t find it at all, and we do end up losing so much of our traditions and culture. I love the saying, ‘Every time an old person dies, it’s like a library burning to the ground’. How true.

Carmen

machigenga/reincarnation/ jose’s new son/ son that drowned

By: McKaya

McKaya — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:04:07 +0000

Olly,

Thank you for sharing your journal entries. I’ve followed your adventures beginning with the Kombai and find them captivating. I have a few questions that I hope you will be able to answer. I am African American. My father is African and his tribe is located not far from Cameroon. We are a people rich in the knowledge of traditions and beliefs. My mother is American and I currently reside in the midwest. I shared such a strong identity with my African ancestry that I am absolutely fascinated by the lifestyles of indigenous tribes. Although I don’t subscribe to the Mek’s religious beliefs, I do in part understand it.

In your journal entry you wrote: “When you arrived your skin was white, now it is dark like ours”, he began. “You have been living with us, learning about our history and culture, we have become friends…..”

Now to my questions. I know that the Mek have met people with white skin but have the Mek people met anyone whose skin is dark like theirs
apart from their own circle of influence? Have they met people with dark skin from Europe or the United States or Africa or even South America?
Have they seen pictures of us in magazines or books? If so, do you know what their thoughts are towards people who look much like them as far as skin but are different in other ways? Do they know what it means to be “bi-racial”? Do they know about braiding or the platting of hair? If you can shed any light on these questions, I would be most appreciative. Thanks again Olly!

~ McKaya

P.S. I lived in England for three years. I had a home in the Lakenheath/Mildenhall area – not too far from Bury St. Edmonds – do you know the area? Love it! Hope to return to England again.

By: Lissa

Lissa — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:17:49 +0000

Hi Olly,
I enjoy watching the Machigenga, but the Meks are also my favorite-so far. I too can foresee a book in your future. Judging by my previous posts, one can conclude that I’m neither an editor nor a writer, but yes to being a writer wannabe! My opinion on the subject may not matter much, but please do me a favor and read on.

“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel-it is before all to make you see. That-and no more, and it is everything.” – Joseph Conrad, Prefaces

That to me summarizes your writing style. Vivid imagery, characterization, quotable quotes, best of all your humor are what hooked me to read your entries. Some of the lines that I like from the entry above are: “To travel into the unknown…one of the great privileges in life-senses sharpen…mind reinvigorates like a fresh beginning” and “The pig saw the bridge first…turned and lifted his head to me. Eye to eye we understood each other.”

Your entry is long, but I assume it is just the first draft. I think it’s best to keep writing until done, then edit after. I edit as I write, thus often prone to writer’s block. Do you keep an outline?

I believe your book is within your grasp…just waiting for you to make the move. Hope you’ll find the time and energy to make it happen.
Goodluck,
Lissa

By: K.E.M.

K.E.M. — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:13:50 +0000

The comments on contradicting beliefs, i.e., Christianity versus traditional, makes me think back to a conversation I had this summer with a Navajo American man. He told me many Native American Indians believe both Catholicism (brought of course by missionaries) as well as their traditional beliefs. Seeing the confusion in my face, he said, “Our hearts are open to both. It is all truth. Let us honor everything.” How truely insightful.
P.S. – “forcing me to jettison my cargo, and test one of the great mysteries of the world – whether pigs could fly” – made me laugh out loud as I read it at work. Well done.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:13:52 +0000

Hi Olly,

Thanks for posting this, I adored the Mek. Convince those bosses it is time to return to West Papua. I wonder if that bridge is still standing :o).

I agree with everyone who believes you should write a book. You have a strong voice and engaging narrative. I was wholly absorbed in The Great Pig Drive, light-hearted and humorous yet still filled with the beauty of words. “the very experience becomes the meaning, and the journey becomes the destination”- gorgeous and moving line, Olly. I know first hand the trial it can be at times to put pen to paper just be conscious of your pacing and remember the only bad page is a blank one.

I eagerly await the story of your adventures in the Gobi dessert. I am imagining a Clive Cussler novel gone horribly wrong :o)

Hope you are feeling better

Kat