We have TV in our village!

One of the recent changes to our village was the arrival of a satellite dish. It was put up next to a very basic bush material house.

There’s also a TV that connects to the satellite dish and I enjoyed watching one of the ‘Millionaire’ spin-off game shows and ACA one night, but I haven’t really looked at the TV very often.

NRL games are what really draw the crowds. In the next few photos, the people are watching an NRL game:

People were allowed to come and watch the regular NRL games for free, but when the State of Origin came around, the men built a fenced in area and charged for admission to watch the game.

Part of the fence:

This is the fenced in area. After I took this photo, they put curtains up at the front, to completely block the view and prevent anyone from trying to watch it for free.

The satellite dish receives PNG’s free-to-air TV channel, EmTV, which has a partnership with Channel 9, so it airs some Channel 9 programs including the NRL games. NRL is really popular in PNG, but I’m not interested in it. I wish that AFL was popular and that I could see some AFL games in the village. We don’t even get the Grand Final on EmTV!

Football matters

Melbourne Storm is Melbourne’s claim to fame in PNG. Whenever I tell someone I’m from Melbourne, they say, “Oh, Melbourne Storm”.

NRL is really popular with Papua New Guineans and since I’m from Australia they want to know who I support in both the normal games and the State of Origin. Being a Victorian I’m more into Aussie Rules Football and I don’t really care much about the NRL. However, I tell them I support Melbourne Storm.

The State of Origin is of even less interest to me because Victoria doesn’t compete in it. But people ask and I tell them I like Queensland. I’ve chosen them because I lived in Queensland for two years, so I have more of a connection with Queensland than NSW.

When we were on the survey trip at Buka, in one village some children sitting behind me quietly asked me whether I support NSW or Qld and when I replied they laughed and chattered among themselves. It seemed like they had been discussing amongst themselves and guessing which side I support.

The NRL is shown on the free-to-air TV here, so for people from NSW and Qld who live here and enjoy the NRL, they have it good. I wish that the AFL had taken off rather than the rugby, so then I could see the football that I like (if I had a TV that is). The AFL games are shown on a couple of the satellite TV channels and on the rare occasion I’ve been staying somewhere that has satellite TV and I’ve been able to watch some of my footy live, rather than several weeks later when I receive a DVD of the game.