The Nature of PNG

It is starting to get hot here, but the sun and heat came on a perfect day: our first swimming day! On our first day of classes, we learned about all the dangerous wildlife in PNG, from land animals to sea creatures. What a great way to get excited about our first swim in the ocean…haha. We now know what to do if someone is bitten by a snake or spider, or is stung by a jellyfish, sting ray, octopus, stone fish, etc. Luckily, the first instinct of all of the indigenous poisonous species here is to flee rather than pursue us (and our instructor goes down to the water before us to clear out sea urchins and other potentially hazardous sea life).

We have had a few encounters with unique creatures so far, though luckily no dangerous ones yet! One morning as we worked to light the fire for the showers, I noticed a huge cockroach crawling on the door (about 5 inches long and almost as wide). We kept the flashlight trained on it while we worked on the fire, and eventually it fell to the ground and Eric chopped it with his hatchet. The bathroom is always filled with bugs of all sorts, though more so in the evening (when the moths don’t mind landing on you!). Normally I just try not to look at the things sharing the stall with me. However, one evening I went into the bathroom and saw a foot-long lizard skittering behind one of the toilets. I used a different stall that night. One day we came into our room and noticed a pungent smell, which we thought was just from being in a small, humid space. Later we discovered some sort of dead creature lodged halfway under our wall…it turned out to be a crab! We are not sure how that one got there.

To get to the beach, we all climbed into an open-back truck fitted with benches along the sides. The bumping and bouncing down the mountain dirt road is much more interesting without a seatbelt and while sitting on a bench crowded with people! The phrase “keep your arms inside the vehicle at all times” takes on new meaning when you are plowing by branches reaching out to strike anyone with their arms hanging out the sides of the truck! As with our first drive through the area, there were groups of people outside their homes or along the road as we passed, and they all smiled and waved excitedly.

At the beach, there were several Papua New Guineans already playing in the water. Not much play for our group as we were supposed to swim laps along a 100 meter-long rope. Many communities in PNG are only accessible by boat, so the swimming regimen is to prepare us for the possibility of a capsized boat. We did have some time for fun, though, and several members of our group tried jumping out of a tree that grew out over the water. The locals really enjoyed watching us do that, and they cheered for each person! The beach here is in a coral environment, so the sand was littered with broken pieces of coral in every shape and size. Small colored fish swam around with us, too, although we didn’t see any other sea life.

The beautiful weather turned quickly to a short, heavy rain shower shortly after we returned. More rain (and lightning and thunder) came in the evening, which persisted through the night. As we lay in bed listening to the thunder, I was reminded of these lines from “How Great Thou Art”: “I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder; Thy power throughout the universe displayed.” If you have never been in a tropical storm, you might not fully grasp what “rolling thunder” is. The first peal we heard was so loud it shook the dorm building…and then it continued to rumble (literally sounding like thunder rolling through the sky) for at least ten seconds. Eventually the storm passed over our area, but we still heard the thunder rolling in the distance for quite some time. What a display of power!

A New Normal

Within minutes of arriving at POC on the mountaintop, I noticed my legs itching from bug bites. Bug spray does help, but ironically, the time we get the most relief is at night—we sleep under a mosquito net! I wish we could just wrap ourselves in a net all day, because it really does a great job of keeping the bugs away. It takes some getting used to, though, to not be able to just sit down on the bed any time I want. It is a bit of a process to get into bed: lift the mosquito net, crawl under it, and replace the net from the inside, making sure not to leave any open areas! Our windows also have screens on them to keep bugs out, but there are no panes in order to allow the breeze to come through—our version of air conditioning! Thankfully it hasn’t been too hot so far; in fact, I have been wearing a sweater every morning and evening. We’ve been told not to get used to the milder temperatures.

During our tour of the POC facility after we arrived, we discovered that we are on duty to heat the water for showers the first week. That requires building a fire at 6 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. that heats the water container. There is a stockpile of wood behind the bath houses from which we have to find small pieces, or use a hatchet to break bigger pieces apart. After placing some wood inside the “heater,” we sprinkled it with kerosene and lit it. Sounds easy enough, but we couldn’t get the matches to light! Finally, Eric used our lighter to light a match, and then lit the firewood. The trick was getting the wood to catch and stay burning, but also not building the fire too big—apparently too much heat turns the water black!

After starting the fire, we headed to our respective bath houses to shower. As with heating the water, using it to bathe is a process, too! First we fill a plastic bucket with water from the warm water spicket. Then we take the bucket into the shower stall and lower another bucket, which is suspended from the ceiling. Empty the first bucket into the second (checking to make sure the “shower head” is closed first!), and finally raise the bucket shower so you can stand under it. All that is left is to open the shower head and take your shower! I shared my stall the first day with three dead moths and one live one.

As I was brushing my teeth the first night, I heard an unusual sound above me. Looking up, I saw a lizard on the ceiling emitting some sort of call from his (or her?) throat. It was kind of fun getting ready for bed surrounded by the sounds of wildlife, but I was glad to not see any in our room. We did go to sleep with the sounds of the rainforest around us, and woke up to the sound of roosters crowing quite a long while before the sun came up. It is a little different than going to sleep with the sound of the city around you, and a street light shining in the window!

To PNG

Sunday morning dawned with the closest thing to a sunrise I had seen the whole time we were in Australia (being so close to the equator, sunrise and sunset is abrupt). We packed ourselves and our baggage into a taxi around 9 and headed off to the airport. The first part of our trip from Cairns to Port Moresby was very normal according to western standards, although I was surprised and excited to discover that we were served lunch on our hour and a half Air Niugini flight. On our six hour flight from Toronto to LA, all we had was the opportunity to buy food. We even got dessert—a delicious raspberry and cream ice cream bar!

For most of the flight, we were over the Pacific Ocean, so all that was visible was blue water in every direction. Once we got within sight of PNG, though, the scenery was astounding. Hills jut up in every direction as the water meets the land. Upon our arrival at the airport, we zipped through immigration and customs (ours was apparently the only international flight arriving at the time) and were met by some SIL workers in the entryway. (SIL is the branch we are under in PNG.) They took us around to re-check our baggage, buy a phone that will work in-country, and guide us to the domestic terminal. The international terminal was very modern, complete with a wall-sized TV broadcasting a rugby game. What a surprise we were in for once we got to the domestic terminal!

Instead of having individual gates within the terminal, the waiting area in the domestic terminal is simply one big room with four doors at the end. You have to listen carefully to the announcements to hear which flight is boarding, and through which door (A-D). Luckily Eric was able to distinguish when our flight was called, because I couldn’t understand much of anything through the noise of the room and the poor quality of the intercom! After we lined up and went through the door, we were given a “gate number.” What that meant was, walk through the fenced-in walkway on the tarmac until you see your number posted, and go through that opening to your plane.

The flight from Port Moresby to Madang, our final destination, went straight across the country from south to north. When we were able to see scenery through the clouds, it was beautiful! Sometimes green mountains rolled in every direction; sometimes a windy river cut through the landscape. After just one hour, we arrived in Madang and stepped off the plane onto the single runway. Baggage claim was a wooden shelf that they piled our luggage onto as they retrieved it from the plane! We collected our bags with no problem, enormously grateful to have encountered no problems with luggage at any point in our trip, and followed the POC (Pacific Orientation Course) director to the truck. One other couple had arrived before us, so we rode with them about 20 minutes to the POC location.

As we exited the airport and turned onto the paved road taking us north, we maneuvered around a fairly large pothole in the road. We soon discovered that was nothing compared to the dirt roads that lay ahead! We turned off the paved road to head up the mountainside that is now our home for a few months. Even going slowly and working to avoid potholes, we still jounced around quite a lot and had to be careful of banging our heads on the windows. We passed several areas with small markets or living communities on our way to the top. Most people waved as we passed. One young girl excitedly shouted, “SIL!” when she saw the truck.

As we drove further up the mountain, the views of the ocean in the distance were stunning. When we finally reached our destination, we were thrilled to see that we have a spectacular view from the top of the surrounding land. Pictures hardly due justice to the absolute beauty we see every time we walk from our room to the dining hall. We are surrounded on all sides by picturesque rainforest (which yields some unique sounds at night while we sleep), and in the distance lies the Pacific Ocean.

Life here is so different than what we are used to that I will have to write a separate post just to tell you about sleeping! We are using these first few days to get adjusted before starting classes to acclimate us to culture, climate, language, and other necessities. I will share these new experiences with you as I have time to write about them!

Kuranda: Village in the Rainforest

Australia is a country that has always fascinated me, particularly since watching the Sydney Olympics as a child. I don’t know if I ever imagined I would have the opportunity to go there, although visiting Australia and New Zealand is something I have dreamed of on a few occasions. When Eric and I were accepted as missionary teachers to Papua New Guinea, we immediately knew we wanted to make a stop in Australia on the way since we would be passing through anyway.

There are only three cities in Australia from which Air Niugini (our airline to PNG) flies: Sydney, Brisbane, and Cairns. The latter is located in northeastern Australia, jutting up toward the island of New Guinea. The plane ride from Cairns to the capital of PNG (Port Moresby, on the southern coast) is under two hours, making it a convenient choice. Cairns is an incredibly diverse area with everything from beaches (Great Barrier Reef area!) to rainforest. As I explored things to do, I discovered a wildlife park where visitors can HOLD a koala! That became the one thing I had to do while in Australia.

The koala garden is located in a rainforest village called Kuranda, north of the city of Cairns. To get there, we took a ride on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, which was a two-hour train journey from Cairns through the mountainous rainforest. At some points, we passed waterfalls or had glimpses of the Barron Gorge far below us. At other times, we were simply surrounded by rainforest on either side. Sometimes the rainforest looked no different from a forest in the US. It was absolutely amazing, though, to peer down to the rainforest floor and see how high the trees stretched, or to hear the intense chatter of bugs that sounded similar to a summer day in NY, but also very much like a thriving rainforest.

When we reached Kuranda, we immediately went to the koala garden to visit before the crowds got too big. We passed a pond of crocodiles on the way there, and as I paused to take some pictures, a big tour group got ahead of us and into the koala picture line. I didn’t mind waiting for 20 pictures to be taken before I got my turn, though, because it prolonged the experience of being up close with my second favorite animal (someday maybe I will get to cuddle with a panda!). Eventually it was my turn, and as the handler placed the koala into my arms, I could feel the warmth of its small body huddling against my own. I had to stand still because to the koala, I was its tree. A koala’s ribs are fragile, so I couldn’t squeeze too tightly, but the sweet koala just rested peacefully in my arms as its picture was taken. When my turn was over and the handler pulled the koala back into his arms, the koala’s claws stuck on my shirt a little bit. I like to think he didn’t want to leave my embrace just yet.

After holding the koala, we moved on to the wallaby enclosure. “Enclosure” is a generous word; there was a gate, but the wallabies were free to roam about a large area, and we were free to roam about with them. We grabbed a handful of food and were left to our own devices to get the wallabies to eat from our hands. People around us didn’t seem to be having much luck wooing the wallabies, but we chose an area and went to work. Having no luck with our first attempt, we wandered over to an area where some people had successfully gotten a wallaby to eat from their hands. When they finished, we stepped in to offer our food, but the wallaby hopped back under the bridge with two other friends. Patiently waiting with our hands outstretched, the wallaby eventually came back and ate from Eric’s hand. I took a few pictures and then handed the camera off to Eric so I could have my turn. Apparently the wallaby was full by this point, though, and he hopped back under the bridge again. No worries, though, as I scattered some food and left my hand outstretched, waiting with the remaining supply. And waited. And waited. Eventually a different wallaby hopped a little closer and ate a piece I had tossed under the bridge. Then a little closer and another piece. I could hardly breathe with the anticipation of whether he would eventually come eat from my hand or hop away as soon as he got close. I was so excited when he eventually hopped up right in front of me and bent his head to my hand! He ate most of the food and then hopped away again to hide from the other food-bearing visitors.

Our tour of animals ended with a visit to the reptile house where we didn’t see any reptiles, but we did see a large spider taking up residence. A walk through the souvenir market led us to a small café where we had the creamiest smoothie we’ve ever had, made with fresh mangoes. Lunch came next, consisting of an Aussie burger and an outback pie. We quickly walked to the river next to catch a riverboat cruise through the rainforest. At one point, we stopped to feed the fish. All of them—big and small—came right up to the surface to grab the bread pieces as soon as we threw them. No crocodile sightings as the river was muddy due to recent rain, but we were assured they were there. A quick walk through the rainforest followed, and we eventually made it back to the train station for our return journey to Cairns. Having taken all of our pictures on the way up, we just sat back and enjoyed the scenery (and looked at the pictures we had taken throughout the day!).