PMVs (post by Bill & Liz)

Public Motor Vehicles known as PMVs are the most common way of getting around in PNG. We used PMV’s to travel to and from the village and also when we went into Madang. The man driving the PMV is universally known as ‘Driva’ (driver). In the picture below, the man just inside the door with the red shirt collects the fares and encourages passengers to use this PMV to go to their destinations.


Just like all public transportation systems, there are specified routes and each PMV has the route number displayed on the front of the vehicle. Nearly every PMV has accident damage, but while we were there we never saw an accident even with road rules that seemed very flexible. PMVs have passenger load limits, but this also seemed to be very flexible.

Inside a PMV:

Madang town (post by Bill & Liz)

Madang is a large town on the north coast of PNG that in some articles is described as the prettiest town in the South Pacific. Well, the location is certainly picturesque enough but the urban area is not really pretty.

There are quality schools.


There are many small stores that sell small amounts of all sorts of goods.


There are larger shops as well, the pink coloured building was the Papindo store which had a supermarket on the ground floor with a clothing and general merchandise area on the first floor. This store is air-conditioned. The closer building, ‘Beckslea Plaza’, had a chemist and several shops that sold clothing, sporting gear, CD’s and electric goods. A large proportion of local people use the second hand stores to purchase clothing.


This is the street where most of the banks were located; the security guards prevent people loitering in front of the banks.


And the Post Office was just around the corner.


This is the view from one of the restaurants that overlooks the main shipping channel into Madang harbour – large ships and local water PMV’s (water taxis) could be seen while eating your meal.


There is a Coastwatchers memorial overlooking the sea in Madang. This memorial honours the men and women who observed Japanese military movements from behind enemy lines during WWII and reported this intelligence to the Allied forces.

SIL Centre (post by Bill & Liz)

After our stay in the village we returned to Madang and stayed at the SIL centre. This was a relaxing time we shared with Julie. The SIL centre is located opposite the sea about 10 minutes PMV drive from Madang town centre.

SIL Centre unit.


View looking directly out from the balcony.


Here we are relaxing (posing?) on the balcony.


The sea was directly in front of the unit, and although there is no beach, the sea is easily accessible, and was lovely to swim and snorkel in. The coral may not be the most colourful, but still looks impressive. There are many fish to observe, from little blue or orange fish that dart in and out of the coral, to larger schools of fish that swim by.

Looking along the coast in front of the SIL centre.


The Madang Lodge restaurant was a 10 minute walk away and had a lovely setting.

Madang market (post by Bill & Liz)

Madang has a market that operates every day except Sunday. It is quite big and sells fruit, vegetables, many varieties of potatoes, peanuts, bilums, meri blouses and craft items.

Some of the sellers are undercover and have tables, while others have to sit outside on the rocky ground which can turn muddy after rain.

We were a regular visitor to the market and mainly bought fruit and vegies there.

Here’s Liz and Julie looking at craft items.

Julie buying peanuts.

Part of the open air section of the market.

Canoe trip to tropical island (post by Bill & Liz)

While we were staying at Jais Aben, we hired a canoe for half a day and we went paddling in the tropical waters around the resort. Liz sat like a queen in the middle, while Bill and Julie paddled the canoe. We canoed to a deserted tropical island and sat on the beach and swam in the warm water.

Here are photos of Bill and Julie paddling.

Here’s the view from the island with our canoe.

Here we are all sitting on the canoe.

And finally, the little island that we went to.

Jais Aben luxuries (post by Bill & Liz)

Before we went to the village, we had a bit of luxury at Jais Aben Resort, near Madang. Jais Aben is set in 9 acres of a former coconut plantation. It is about 19 kilometres from Madang town. We stayed in a small cabin overlooking the sea.

We enjoyed eating in the resort restaurant, which is more expensive than eating in Madang town itself, but you don’t have a lot of choice unless you have your own transport.

The resort also has a swimming pool next to the main building, but you can also swim in the sea.

Flight to Madang (post by Bill & Liz)

We flew to Madang from Ukarumpa. It’s only a half hour flight, down from the mountains to the coast.

Here is the small plane we flew in.

A view of the mountains and clouds along the way.

PNG is not all mountains and bush, here are some cultivated fields on the plains before the coast.

It’s a tight fit into the plane!

What's been happening? (Post by Bill & Liz)

Since we last spoke, we have spent 3 nights at Jais Aben in Madang - a little bit of luxury before the village! We spent 5 nights in the village which we enjoyed although challenging at times. The sea was warm and unbelievably the river was even warmer! We got used to Julie being called by her village name - Mogom. We are now back at Madang, staying at the SIL Centre. We are just spending a relaxing time with Julie. We will write more blog posts next week when we have a better internet connection.

Dinner on the beach

Well, although some people went back to the main island to get some food and pots, etc, our plates came from the bush!

Here are some pictures of our evening picnic on the island we visited for the day:

Easter holiday

How does a holiday on a tropical island where you don't have to cook or wash dishes sound? Sounds great, but expensive! Well, that is what I just had, for a grand total of $45! And $32 of that was my transport there and back!

A group of 11 of us from Ukarumpa went down to Madang for the weekend then onto a motor dinghy which took us to an island, Riwo Island. One of our PNG friends has relatives in the village there, so that helped. We stayed in a Western style house and the people cooked for us. I shared a double mattress and single mosquito net with another girl.

We had a self-flushing toilet! It was a little hut built over the sea, so the sea washed everything away. The hole was HUGE though! If I slipped I could have fit down and landed on the rocks below, it was rather scary!

Yesterday we visited another island for the day and ate our dinner there. It was after dark when we decided to leave. We headed off on two canoes, about 8 or 9 people on each canoe. The canoe I was on didn't steady after everyone got on and it rocked from side to side taking on water each time until we capsized and ended up in the water! We weren't very far from the shore as we had only just left, so we swam back to shore. The canoes were overloaded and that's why we capsized and the other one nearly did - they saw us and then jumped out of their canoe before it completely went over.

My camera was okay because I had it in an airtight bag thankfully. At about the time we capsized, the motor dingy came along, so we spread out among the three boats to go back. We lost a pot, two knives and a serving spoon to the water, but this morning some people went out there and they recovered the pot, spoon and one knife, so that was good.

Here are some pictures of my weekend. I might add more later when I get some photos off my friends' cameras.

My bed with canopy:

The house we stayed in:

Our dinner:

Tropical island paradise:

Self-portrait:

This is the canoe that we overloaded with about 8 people and capsized:

Foster families/Selling at the market

Over the past few weeks we have been spending time with foster families. These are local families who have volunteered to be foster families for the students at POC. In Tok Pisin we call them our ‘wasfamili’.

We have visited them in their village and had dinner with them there and last week we stayed overnight too. I started to learn how to make a ‘bilum’ (a string bag) on that visit. Going to the toilet is an event because the toilet is a little house by itself with a hole in the ground.

On Saturday I went to the town market with my foster mother to sell sweet bananas. We set up in an undercover area where we had a table and a seat. Thankfully we weren’t outside in the sun and sitting on the ground, so we were quite comfortable.

I had a great time at the market. I enjoyed sitting there watching everyone pass by and just observing everything. I was also a bit of a novelty – everyone thought it was amusing to see a white person selling food at the market, but they were happy about it too. I think it was also a selling point!

I was out all day and using Tok Pisin in all my interactions. I didn’t find the day stressful at all. I actually felt happy and at peace afterwards because I hadn’t had any time pressures on me. I don’t like rushing around to fit into a time schedule, I like taking my time, so I think I’m going to appreciate the slow pace of PNG life.

Pacific Orientation Course begins!

I am settling into things at the Pacific Orientation Course (POC). We have classes on the weekdays and are learning Tok Pisin, anthropology, medical things and practical skills. Once a week we go on a hike, which will progressively get more difficult each week, but we get to see some nice views.

We are also going swimming once a week. Many people have heard that we are required to swim one mile to pass the course, but it is not a requirement, we are just encouraged to swim as much as we are able and set our own goals.

The POC buildings are up a mountain near Madang, so we have beautiful views of the sea all around us. Here is one of the views we have: