Shopping in Ukarumpa

Well, there's not a whole lot of choice in terms of shops in Ukarumpa. If you want computer related items, you go to the computer department, for fresh fruit and vegies, you go to the market (3 times a week and early in the morning) and for about everything else, you go to "The Store". The Store sells food as well as a variety of other things such as plates, wool, bath mats, stationery, cleaning products and toiletries.

A lot of products are brought in from Australia and the USA, but there are also locally produced PNG products and some cheap Indonesian and Malaysian products. There are even apples in The Store occasionally which are imported from Australia. They cost about 60c each.

Of course sometimes they are out of stock, like recently when there was no onions in the store for a few weeks, and the past couple times I’ve been there, there’s not been any eggs.

One day I went to The Store and wanted to buy macaroni and some other type of pasta, and I walked down the aisle that has the pasta and all I saw was Black and Gold pasta spirals. I thought, "Is that all they've got? Just spirals? I guess I'll have to wait and get macaroni another time." Then it dawned on me that I had just completely overlooked a whole section of pasta that was an American brand. There was all sorts of different types of pasta in the American brand, so I was able to get macaroni (elbows). It is funny how I am so used to familiar brands that I just did not see what was right there in front of me in a different brand!

Julie’s current house (post by Bill & Liz)

This is Julie’s current house, she lives in the left hand side of this two-unit building.

This is an early morning view from Julie’s house.

Here’s Liz admiring a big flower at Ukarumpa.

Haus meri (post by Bill & Liz)

Julie has a haus meri who comes to the house once a week to do some cleaning. Most missionaries in Ukarumpa have a haus meri because it gives some employment to the local people who have little cash.

Julie’s haus meri is called Nekina and she is a very nice lady. She made a bilum for Liz and is now working on one for Julie. She tried to show Liz how to make a bilum, but Liz thought it looked hard.

Here are all of us with Nekina:

Ukarumpa market (post by Bill & Liz)

Three days a week, local villagers come in to Ukarumpa to sell their home grown produce at the market. It starts at 6am and finishes at 8am, so you have to be up early!

All sorts of things are sold there, such as the familiar bananas, spring onions, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, strawberries and more. Plus there are some more unusual items like: strange green leafy things, which can be used like spinach, various types of kaukau (sweet potato), sugarfruit, black raspberries, 'pitpit' and some other unknown things.

Here's Liz and Julie checking out the strawberries:

Several ladies with their produce for sale:

Finally arrived! (post by Bill & Liz)

On Tuesday, we got up at 4am departed Melbourne on the 7am flight to a very wet Brisbane. After a slightly delayed flight from Brisbane, we arrived in a hot and humid Port Moresby. As we travelled from the airport to the guest house, we saw many people sitting by the side of the road selling betelnut and lots of people milling around doing nothing.

The next day we flew to Ukarumpa. Liz was a bit apprehensive in the small plane, but thought it was good after we were safe on the ground! The picture below shows a view of the mountains from the plane.

Here we are finally at Ukarumpa, which is much cooler than Port Moresby:

Meal lists

One of the nice things about Ukarumpa is that when you've been away for a while, they put up a meal list for you at the Post Office. What I mean by that is, there is a pinboard at the Post Office, where they put up a piece of paper with your name on it and the dates of the first three days that you'll be in Ukarumpa. Next to each date there are two columns, one for lunch and one for dinner, and people can write their name in a slot and sign up to have you over for lunch or dinner.

It is nice when you arrive in Ukarumpa not to have to worry about cooking meals straight away, especially when you're a new arrival like I was in December 2008 when I arrived from Madang to Ukarumpa.

I had a meal list when I returned from Alotau last week, and people had signed up for all three evening meals (didn't get any offers for lunches though!). I enjoy having meal lists as it is an opportunity to get to know people a bit better. Quite often I will sign up to have somebody over for a meal too.

Not doing it too tough!

Last night I was out at a friend's birthday party. I got nicely dressed up for it as you will see in the photo below.

We were blessed with so much yummy food there, sweet and savoury. We certainly can eat just as well as we do at home! Being a missionary doesn't mean that you miss out on good food too, especially when you are in a big expat community. Look at these yummy foods in the picture below.

Decorating for Christmas

A few weeks ago, I went to a friend's house with a few other people and helped her decorate her Christmas tree. It is a different Christmas tree – it is made up of bamboo!! Here's a photo of the tree after we decorated it.

I have very minimal Christmas decorations at my house because I don't want to acquire too much "stuff", so I cut up some of last year's Christmas cards and blu-tacked them on the walls in nice arrangements. It is very basic, but at least it gives the house some Christmas atmosphere. Here are some photos.

Craft fair

Today the annual craft fair was on at Ukarumpa. Think of the local craft markets in Australia - it was a bit like them, with craft items and people selling food. It was all indoors in a building called the Teen Centre, which has two storeys.

Upstairs there was all the food stalls. People were selling Korean noodles, steak sandwiches, pretzels, sausages and cheesecakes. I spent about 2 hours at the craft fair, near the beginning I had a plate of Korean noodles, which were very nice, and not long before I left, I had a slice of an amazing chocolate caramel cheesecake. It was so yummy!!

Downstairs there was lots of stall with people selling their craft items. Both expats and Papua New Guineans were selling things. Some of the things for sale were: bilums (string bags), jewellery, coloured candles, hand carved wooden items, cards, fudge and pottery. I wandered around all the stalls about 10 times!! I bought some jewellery, cards and a bamboo flute.

Here are some pictures...

The bamboo flute, which is my new toy, I am having lots of fun playing with it. Yes, I can get it to make a noise!

A necklace with pointy shells. I really love this!



Some PNG style Christmas pictures...

The three wise men on their way to see Jesus:



The angels announcing Jesus' birth to the shepherds:



The three wise men and their dog on their way to see Jesus. I thought it was really funny that they put a dog in there!

Continuing the nomadic lifestyle

I have moved house again. I like the new house, I have a big bedroom and my own office area, plus there is a microwave, which I had in the last house too, but it is always a bonus to have a microwave.

Here's a photo of the house. It is actually attached to another house, so I guess it is really a unit.

The house is located at an outer part of the Centre, but it is not too isolated. There are lots of houses behind mine, but not many in front, so I have a great view of the hills as you can see in this photo below.

I never really felt interested in ministering to nomadic peoples, the lifestyle didn't really appeal to me, but it's funny how although I'm not going to be working with nomads, I have been living a very nomadic lifestyle this year. I was in three houses in Ukarumpa from January to May, and then in May and June I stayed in three houses in the Sepik. Back to Ukarumpa for a month after that and then the following locations: Goroka, Kokopo, Buka, Port Moresby, Melbourne, Kyneton, Melbourne, Brisbane, Port Moresby, Alotau and then back to Ukarumpa. I went back to the house I have been in since February, but then moved out this weekend to the new house.

Overall, the number of times I have moved from one place to another this year is: 38!! That includes every move, including overnight stopovers. I have gone to sleep in 25 different beds this year. I'm glad that I can sleep okay in beds that I am not used to!

I don’t think that even traditional nomads move 38 times in a year.

Moved house

I have moved house again. I am sharing with a single woman from Argentina. This is the fourth house I have lived in at Ukarumpa already! I will be able to stay in this house until some time in June. There is a microwave and an electric kettle at this house! The house I was just in didn't have either, so I'm happy to have them again as I like using them a lot.

Here’s a picture of the house:

And this is the view from one of our windows:

Markets

There is a market at Ukarumpa three days a week selling fresh fruit and vegies. I usually go just once a week and buy enough to last the week. Compared to Australia, the price of fresh food is really cheap. I bought all the food in the picture below for about AUD$5.

During village living, there was a market just outside our village twice a week. I went to it on both days, mainly just for socialising and observing, but I usaully also bought a few things, like cherry tomatoes, spring onions or green beans, and maybe some cooked food to eat as a second breakfast.

Here are some market scenes from village living:

I am a nomad

I have moved house already at Ukarumpa! That is the 5th time I have moved in 5 months! I think that makes me a nomad!

On Friday I moved to the managers’ flat at the Guest House. The Guest House is closed for a month, so there are no guests, and there is also no manager here either. I am just living here to make the place look occupied and thus prevent break-ins.

I am in the Guest House by myself until the 19th of January, when I will move out. I hope to be able to share with someone to keep my expenses down.

The best thing about being in the managers’ flat at the Guest House is having a microwave! I didn’t have a microwave in the previous place and I like to cook a lot of meals at once and then reheat them over the next few days so that I don’t have to cook. Before I had to heat them in the oven, but now that I have a microwave, it is much better!

Ukarumpa life

I have been at Ukarumpa for a week and a half now. There’s not a lot of exciting news to report from here at the moment, so I will be continuing to share about my time in the village in future posts.

We have had a few days of orientation and I have had several meals at other people’s houses. There is not a lot of work that I can do yet as I am waiting to have a meeting with a supervisor, and also because of the time of year - my department closes from 24 Dec to 2 Jan.

I am staying in a 3 bedroom unit, sharing with another single, but she will be moving out on 30th December. I would like to keep sharing with another person, either in this unit or another one, so that I can keep expenses down. I need to find someone else to share with myself.

Here is the unit I am staying in – my bedroom window is the small one on the left.