I Regret

I regret
Thinking marrying a good husband
Who would build me a good house
Who would go fishing
Who would chop firewood
Who would clear the garden
Who would cook dinner
Who would wash baby’s clothes
(Spitting on his face) CHA - PG  Good for nothing the kind of husband to marry?

But no!
Clear thinking my way to late came
I am stuck in this hamlet
I am stuck in this kitchen
I am stuck in this garden
I am stuck in this mess
I am stuck with this baby

Now I have to cope with him
For to leave him now is shameful
I will beat his baby all the time.

Female students who complete high schools often return to their villages to marry husbands who only completed grade six. These young women know the hardships often faced in the villages, and somewhat consider husbands who lived all their lives in the villages as a form of security for them.

She may meet him at village dances and then he may take her to his parents home. It is now a ‘practice’ on Buka that if a young woman is seen ‘secretly courting’  her ‘lover’, she can be taken (sometimes forcefully) by her relatives to the ‘lovers’ home, thus unceremoniously marrying her off.

Often marriage plans have not been worked out by all parties concerned. Practical and basic pre-requisites to a marital life are at times non-existent, like housing, economic livelihood, character of husband to-be and so on. Often the practice may become a recipe for disaster.