Buai (post by Bill & Liz)

Betelnut or Buai is something that many people in PNG are addicted to. The betelnut grows on a slender palm like tree on the coast, the bunches of nut are cut down when they are considered ripe and are then sold at markets or at roadside stalls, which are everywhere.

Paul climbing up buai palms.


Nan nambek selling buai at the local market. Most of the buai is on the branch next to her still.


The outer skin of the betelnut fruit is bitten off and the nut is chewed. Next a mustard stick is dipped into a powder made from ground coral shells, and this is also chewed and it gives them a ‘happy’ feeling, it is a mild drug. It is a bit disconcerting when your bus driver is chewing the buai.


The chewing of buai produces a red discoloration to the teeth and gums as you can see in the picture below.

Village – People (post by Bill & Liz)

We met lots of people and shook more hands than we’ve ever done below. Here are a couple of photos of us with some people we met in one village that we visited.

Bill with the men.


Liz and Julie with the women.

Village – Children (post by Bill & Liz)

There were always lots of children around in the village, some were really cute. Here are some photos of village children.











Looking cool:

Village – Family (post by Bill & Liz)

While we were in the village, we stayed with Julie’s wasfamili from her orientation course. Because Julie was their ‘adopted daughter’, we were considered to be part of their family as well, so in their eyes, the village children were our children and grandchildren too.

This is Julie’s wasmama and waspapa with us.

We also had close contact with the waspapa’s oldest brother and his wife, who took a lot of care of us as well. Here’s a photo of us with them.

Village – Newborn baby (post by Bill & Liz)

There is a medical centre right next to the village and one day a newborn baby was brought out to visit our village. He was only 5 days old, and his mother was on an IV drip due to birth complications. Liz enjoyed holding the baby and feeding him a special drink solution.

Village – Copra (post by Bill & Liz)

Copra is another cash crop in PNG, which comes from coconuts. Coconut trees are grown in coastal areas.

The mature coconuts are collected and then husked on a metal spike to remove the outer shell.

Husking a coconut:

The husked coconuts are then broken in half and put into a drying hut for a couple of weeks until the coconut flesh has dried sufficiently.

Splitting a coconut:

After they have been dried, the coconuts are chopped up into smaller chunks for packing. Then they are transported into Madang to the copra processing factory.

Julie and Bill enjoyed chopping up the dried coconuts and managed not to lose any fingers in the process!

Village – Fishing boats (post by Bill & Liz)

Fish is used to supplement the village diet. The traditional method is to use wooden outrigger canoes and many people still use these boats. Our village had a modern boat that they use for fishing and hope to make a little business out of it. Currently, they just sell locally on the beach, but are looking into being able to transport their catch into Madang town.

Here’s a picture of fish being sold at the beach.

The modern boat is moored in the river after fishing.

Here’s a traditional outrigger canoe that was used for fishing.