Look How Far I've Come

With our new recently-purchased scanner, Peter has been able to go through our old slides and negatives and transfer them into digital format - a great little activity for those long China evenings when there is nothing but Chinese movies on the TV, and the DVD player has quit working ...

So here's a little gem from 1971 when I spent some time in Papua New Guinea (that's just north of Australia) trying to discover whether I was suited to cross-cultural living ...

I remember this day. I was proudly wearing my new "scrubbed denim" jeans (which had a lovely soft-feeling surface), despite being told that such style of dress was unacceptable in this culture. When this picture was taken, I felt like I was the only one who was properly dressed. But when I stood up again after the picture, some of the older men kept coming up and rubbing their hands up and down on my thighs. I felt pretty uneasy about this, but presumed that (like me) they appreciated the texture of the material. It was a little later that I understood that showing the shape of my thighs (even inside jeans) was as good as being undressed, and this was why the old guys had become so excitable ...

And its interesting to compare it with this recent photo taken with the local (Chinese) women. I am older and wiser now, maybe... !