Friday 18th
November 2016
It’s hard to believe but…back in Tasmania I hardly
have a spare minute. My blog is sadly neglected and I still have lots of photos
and lots of tales to tell.
Here in Hobart it is just beautiful (of course…) We have had all sorts of weather – cold,
sleety, windy, sunny and, yesterday – over 30 degrees!
I am reeling from USA – Donald Trump the new president,
as predicted by the writers of the Simpsons sixteen years ago. And the death of Leonard Cohen. I don’t think these events are related but
they both make my heart ache…
The perils of
betel nut
So far I haven’t been able to find out what is good
about chewing betel nut. Nobody has been
able to explain whether it makes the chewers exhilarated, relaxed, happy,
manic. I rather think it is a chill-out
drug, but who knows?
What I do know is that it is very disfiguring. Red gums blackening around the edges, decayed
teeth rotting to the roots. Painful and
horrid! And all that horrid scarlet spit
all over the ground.
 |
| Rosina and family |
People in PNG seemed to us to be very nice parents –
relaxed, calm, gentle. But…we saw quite a
lot of very small children with rotting teeth and blackened gums, from betel nut.
Rosina, who was a very smart young woman, in the Ninigo Islands, was very
defensive when we expressed shock at her dear little three year old daughter
chewing and spitting away. “My husband
gives it to her. I can’t stop him! She cries, and won’t sleep unless she has
some!”
 |
| Rosina, sans betel nut |
Rosina herself has lovely white teeth, untainted by
this disfiguring drug…
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