It's all go!

On Sunday we went down to the beach and had a meal and swam in theclear, warm sea. The local, naked children were jumping off an overhanging tree into the sea. It was fun watching and tempting to join them.

On Monday we started our In Country Orientation (ICO) and after a 3 hour security briefing we went shopping in the market to get unknown food - pit pit and kau kau and then had an outdoor cooking lesson on how to prepare these and other foods. The supply of fruit and vegetables was plentiful. We then sat and ate and had a lovely afternoon.

Tuesday we started our language training. There are 816 languages in PNG with each tribe having its own local language so there has emerged a tok pisin which is a single communication language. It seems like a mixture of estuary English, 'allo 'allo,and cockney. Some examples to amuse you.

Bagarap - damaged, spoilt, broken

Nogat - no good

Mi no save ( like savvy) - I don't understand

No gat wok - idle

Bubu - Grandma

Morning tru - morning to you.

The waiters here at the lodge are trying to help us practice. We had five hours of language lessons but it will surprise no-one to know we are still not fluent!

Afterwards we went to meet the VSO doctor at the bar where he drank and smoked and told us all the dangers we could face- snakes, ulcers, malaria etc. He was a right character. VSO gave us a medical suitcase- see photo- with syringes, saline drips, stitches, antibiotics, splints and packets of three (well 12 actually) etc. It seemed to suffice for every possible eventuality.

This weekend we went to stay in a village with our language teacher. We went by boat from the VSO office and then the rain came sheeting down. The village had no electricity, water was drawn from the well and in the 'gardens' grew vegetables, coconuts and cocoa. Everyone was really welcoming with the children grabbing our hands and showing us round. We quickly realised that although we'd had a few hours language training we were still pretty hopeless. They put Mike and I and another couple, Ken and Una, in one room with a set of keys to throw in the middle.Two single guys were in another house. It was strange sharing a bedroom with another couple and we all got the giggles as we seemed to be in a really bizarre situation. The loo was a deep drop 100 metres away and Ken had to go 4 times during the night- he is 66!. During the night people kept coming into our room- sometimes to check on us, sometimes because they needed to pass through to go somewhere else in the house and sometimes just to stare at 4 sleeping white people. Mike said it should be called The White House! - more giggles.

Although they are surrounded by beautiful fruit and veg and the sea is full of fish their diet is not brilliant. They gave us corned beef for breakfast. When they catch a fish they take it to market to sell and use the money to but tinned tuna. They prefer it but I suppose without freezer and fridges tinned produce is easier. We swam off their idyllic beach and Mike snorkelled.

We do feel a bit guilty when everyone was telling us how brave we were before we came.

There was a bad bit when I went to the loo before bed and three cockroaches and a spider were sitting on the seat. I decided I didn't need to go. During the night a cockroach crawled across my face - my scream woke up the other three - and the whole village, but cockroach disappeared then reappeared crawling inside the mosquito net. I didn't sleep for next few hours but shone my torch round in panic until eventually tiredness overtook me.

We went to Church with the village people this morning and as we left the village, lots of people were all walking towards the Church. There were about 300 people. The service was in tok pisin. I did get what the story was (naturally having a theology degree) cos the priest kept saying 'bagerup' and 'Jesus bagerup'and 'lig bagerup'.

It was the story of the four friends taking their lame friend to be healed!

A celebration meal followed with the killing of a chicken with the children kicking it first and then being bashed on the head. They cut it up and boiled it and it was pretty tasteless surprisingly.

Living in the village was a fascinating insight into the culture but it was great to get back to an ensuite and air-con.

Great to read all the messages on the blog. It is strange but with e mail and blog everyone seems within easy contact.

Love Alison and Mike