Coming of Age

These girls have just come of age. They are no longer pikininis (children) but now Meris (women). The Benabena people held a special mumu for this ritual and invited all of us from Interface to come watch.
Just to give an idea of how different things are over here, each of these girls had a bride price put upon them. In other words, if a man wanted to marry one of them, he would have to pay the girls family a set price. The bride price for each of these girls was set at 3500 Kina (roughly $1200 U.S. dollars) which is the currency of Papua New Guinea. What you see here and have read is only a small part of what goes on. Some of it is a sad reminder that these people are still without Christ. There are missionaries that are working among this group and a small band of believers. Keep praying for them!