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.

Crocodile (post by Bill & Liz)

Crocodile is not something we eat a lot of in Australia, but here in PNG, it is cheaper than chicken and it available pre-packaged at the Ukarumpa store. It looks a bit like chicken, but has more of a taste and texture like pork.

Here is a packet of crocodile meat. I don’t know if you can see the picture clearly, but the crocodile looks quite happy to be somebody else’s food.

Bill and Julie look pretty happy cooking the crocodile as well!

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:

Kainantu Cultural Centre (post by Bill & Liz)

Kainantu has a cultural centre that displays some local handiworks, such as weaving rugs. Pottery is also made on site, although pottery is not a traditional craft, it is a skill that the local people have taken up to create income. The pottery available to buy includes teapots, mugs, vases and other pottery type items. We bought a teapot, mug and a vase.

Here are some photos of the cultural centre which show traditional artwork on the doors and carving on a pole.

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.

Gold 'n' Coffins (post by Bill & Liz)

Signs like this are not common in Australia!

You can walk in and choose your own coffin with a viewing window!

Before you move into your coffin, you can deal with the roadside gold merchant. This man will buy your gold for cash and when he has collected enough gold, he will sell it to a bigger dealer.

Local takeaway (post by Bill & Liz)

The local takeaway shops are called 'Kai bars'. We tried some rice balls and fried, battered kaukau (sweet potato). The batter tastes a bit like donuts. Here are the rice balls and kaukau we bought, there was too much to eat at once, so this is our second helping of it. You can see the size compared to Liz's hand in the photo.

Inside the rice ball there is rice, chopped sausages and various unknown vegetables and dear knows what else.