People dress in rags unless attending Sunday's service for which they have one set of tidy cloths. People have little money. Every family possesses a bush-knife, an axe, a hammer, one or two flashlights, some basic kitchen utensils and some have a radio. Their diet consists of sago jelly eaten with few vegetables and only sometimes supplemented with fish, shrimps or pork. Children are often hungry which makes them apathetic and liable to malaria, colds and other illnesses.
Many children die at an early age.
Generally lait is ventilated as the cause. Often long-lasting accusations of lait following the death of a child suggests that in Tehit fortune's wheel is spun by supernatural ordination. Different people bring different concerns to occasions and activities and interpret events and options in terms of their concerns. Interaction with each other leads to juxtaposition of interpretations of events made by people from their diverse vantage points by which they variously construct their worlds. These processes take place in a world of considerable disorder and within a broad field of variation between people and groups where knowledge and particular concerns are different.