Winter weather?

Technically it's almost winter here right now, and we're at about 5200 feet elevation, but being so close to the equator means that we still had a beautiful day today. Sunshine, and temperatures in the mid-high 70s... just like it is almost every single day, all year long.

I spent most of the day in the finance office working on posting some cash out transactions (they have a little bank here), but I had time to walk around the compound on two separate occasions. I think I have a lot better idea of how to get around here now. The first time out, I took a road that definitely didn't end up going the direction I thought it was going to go, so I got to explore some new ground. The second time I took some new roads as well, but had a much better idea where they were going to end up.

My checked bag arrived today, and while it was missing the nice little name/address tag I had on the outside, everything appeared to be exactly as I had packed it. I got a laugh out of the ID label someone along the way had stuck to it, which read: "do not refrigerate." I also got my computer back from the computer center this morning, so I should be able to update a lot more regularly now.

So how can I put the last few days' experiences into a few short paragraphs... I'll go light on the details of the trip itself, since that's less exciting. Suffice to say it went well (now that I have all my luggage), but I was quite ready to be done sitting in planes by the time it was all over. The flight to Ukarumpa was the highlight of the trip, because I got to fly in a little KingAir plane and see a lot of the country. (by the way, the picture at the top of this page is the airstrip near Ukarumpa where we landed, and the plane there is not too much unlike the KingAir. The picture below is an aerial view of Ukarumpa, with the runway in the background.) When I got to Ukarumpa, I was greeted by the Baumans and then I had lunch/visited with them for a while. Coincidentally, I arrived on the same day as the team that's auditing SIL over the next few weeks, so I spent part of the afternoon with them going through some basic orientation.


That night I spent the evening at the Baumans' house, and they helped me get adjusted to the time zone by keeping me awake until about 10. (once I went to bed though, I didn't move until my alarm went off at 6:45 AM) We talked a lot about what it's like here, and some of the things we might do while I'm here. I'll write about those later if they take place.

Tuesday, I spent most of the day in the finance office, getting oriented and doing some odd jobs here and there. I spent the evening with the Bandys (the family I'm staying with for now), and went to bed a little early since I'm still not quite over the jet lag.

You already know what I did today so far... so I'll finish with a few descriptions of random aspects of PNG and the culture here. I've already described the landscape a little bit, since that was the first thing I was able to experience. You'll see enough pictures to know that it's quite a nice place. The people here are friendly, and it's impossible to walk around without having almost everyone smile (and sometimes wave) and greet you. Most of the nationals don't speak English fluently, if at all, but they all know Tok Pisin, the trade language, so I hear that a lot. I've picked up a few things here and there, since it uses a lot of English words or close transliterations of English words. (example, "road" is "rot" - pronounced like the English "rote", and "please" is "plis", pronounced the same way) Other words aren't so easy to figure out, but I'm hoping to learn a lot more before I leave here. There are only 3000 words in the language, and there aren't any verb tenses, so that should help.

Each afternoon I've been here, I've seen a group of kids playing rugby in an open area not far from where I'm staying. That's definitely popular here, as there was also a professional game going on at a stadium not far from my hotel in Port Moresby. I could hear the crowd cheering and chanting frequently.

The SIL compound offers many jobs to the nationals living nearby, and this morning when I was walking around, I saw many of them coming in for the days' work. A lot of them work as gardeners, so a few of the men were carrying large bush knives (rather more like small swords by their size). I was glad they were smiling as I passed. The market in Ukarumpa was open this morning too, and it seems to be quite the place to be. I'll have to stop in sometime to check it out.

I haven't gotten to experience the cultural cuisine yet, so I don't really know how it's different from what I'm used to. I can say, however, that Mrs. Bauman and Mrs. Bandy are good at cooking Western foods. Gardening is a big thing around here, as you can apparently put something into the ground, and without much care at all, it will flourish. I mentioned that it's almost winter, but since it's so nice year-round, the growing season never ends. I saw full-grown corn today, not far from a place where some others were tilling the soil around their little cornstalks that were only a foot high. Banana trees are ubiquitous around here, but there aren't too many that have fruits on them right now. The nationals even garden on the steepest hillsides, like this one outside of the compound.