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!
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