Mer stated:

"Men like 'Rich' are a dying breed. Men who are soft-hearted, yet better not cross them, you'd be in trouble. I know, if anything happen to us, if we did not have any money, we'd be ok, cause he would go out to the bush and fend for his family."

The truth in her comment about these dwindling breed of people and their rare skills struck me in a sad way.

During my brief time living with the Tu Hoe, I have come to admire the self sufficiency and resourcefulness of people brought up in isolated surroundings. There are still those living amongst the Tu Hoewho can spend weeks on end carrying on in the bush without rations, navigate their way without fancy compasses and maps, use horse hair to sow up wounds inflicted upon their hunting dogs by wild boars, distinguish types of native wood by how it burns, know the best type of fire to construct for different purposes, i.e. cooking boar meat, smoking fish, radiating light, or heating,- but they are few.