« Welcome to Port Moresby! | Main | Banana Goodness! »

The Land of the Unexpected

2:44 PM, Sunday, 16 April, 2006

What a whirlwind week. We (eight other volunteers and I) arrived in Port Moresby at about 2pm on Sunday, after much drama just in Australia – gin & tonic at 7.30am on the Melbourne-Brisbane flight, one person (almost) being refused a boarding pass, three almost missing the plane!

Since then our new PNG mum, Maggie, has been looking after us around Port Moresby. We had an incredible and indescribable first night where a music group from Bougainville played in a ‘bamboo band’. This involved giant bamboo pipes meters long all being tied together into panpipe-type structures, with the holes where you’d normally blow through being whacked with thongs (yes, flip-flops!) to make the most amazing percussive, melodic music. These pan-pipes are stacked on top of each other to make 12-note scales with bass, alto and soprano versions. Add grass skirts and lots of singing, and we danced the night away.

As well as the bamboo band there was a ‘mu-mu’, which was a feast of traditional food all cooked by Maggie’s family. Highlights included copious amounts of sweet potato, taro and cassava, as well as a crazy new vegetable called ‘pit-pit’ which seriously tastes like chicken! SP, the local beer, was also enjoyed.

We have had several other adventures involving food, shopping, bureaucracy, snorkelling and language lessons. One of the most notable ones involves me, who has never driven before in my LIFE and another girl on her Australian learner’s license paying a ‘fee’ in order to acquire a probationary PNG license. In six months we go to the road traffic authority to have this transferred into a full PNG license. For those now having minor conniptions, I will NOT be using this to drive, but as a form of ID. I promise!

Internet access is extremely limited here (the whole developing country thing) so blog entries are going to be infrequent until I settle into work, over the next couple of weeks. At that time I’ll put up photos and more detailed adventures. Until then, lukim yu behin!

Filed under EEEEeeekk!!!

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.pinkukulele.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/15

Comments

It sounds fabulous! I seriously thought when you started talking about a "mu-mu", that you were going to say that you had to wear one. hehe.

Posted by: Katia | April 17, 2006 7:25 PM

Wow cant wait to see photo's! Missing youo here already keep the info coming it is great to hear about your adventures and I can really visualise you doing all the things you describe.

Posted by: Deb | April 18, 2006 9:41 AM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you will need to be approved by the pink ukulele playing faeries before your comment will appear. So until then, it won't appear on the entry. Eat a cookie or two while you're waiting.)

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

 

All content on this website is copyrighted to Carolyn. Steal stuff, and the wrath of the pink ukulele playing faeries will rain down upon you. You have been warned.
Wanna be Carolyn's friend? Email her: carolyn AT yayinet DOT net

Designed by Katia and powered by Movable Type 3.34