The postage to PNG works!!!

You will all be very pleased to learn that Cadbury's Chocolate and Twinings Tea can both make it to PNG in the post, as you can tell from my little tea set.

The chocolate did get a little deformed, but I'm sure it will still taste the same, and it's much better than the chocolate on sale here which is imported from Australia, it's far sweeter than Cadbury's back in the UK, yuck!

February Newsletter for Ruislip Baptist Church

For more information about my Home/Supporting Church, click on the link below:
http://www.ruislipbaptistchurch.co.uk

The excitement of running water!

I woke up this morning, went to brush my teeth and discovered the taps were all working, yeah!

How important the small things are when they are not guaranteed. 

The electricity's a bit dodgy

Since I arrived 5 days ago the electricity current has been a bit low, they were running generators outside some people's houses for a couple of days to keep the refrigerators going.  Yesterday the power went off for most of the evening and overnight and blew out the pump which pumps water up to the header tank so I can have water in my taps.  The town water has had no pressure for over a week, apparently!

Just now there was a really loud buzz and a bright blue light outside whilst my lights flashed.  At first I thought it was fireworks, but it turned out to be a large street light, just outside the compound, overloading and showering sparks across the street.  Scary!

Fortunately the power is still on, and if it goes out I have torches, a gas stove and a bucket to re-fill the toilet cistern so I can still flush it.  All fun and games in my 1st weekend in PNG!

My 1st Dinner in my New Home

Washing the fruit and veggies from my 1st trip to the market

After a fun and exhausting trip to the market where Nicki, my Tok Pisin language teacher was trying to teach me lots of useful phrases and learn which leaves could be eaten raw, everything needed a good washing, with just a little bleach to be sure.

Testing my new, inherited, electric wok

As there was fairly decent electricity for a couple of hours, I managed to test my new electric wok (Thanks Jenny & David W, previous Mt Hagen residents).  I was even brave enough to just throw stuff in and see how it tasted.  You might see a few similar posts over the next few weeks as I try and figure out how to cook for myself from scratch.  You can buy some fast food type things from the supermarket, but there is little choice and a big price tag!

Stir Fry ingredients:

Broccoli leaves & flowers

Bok Choi

Carrots

Pine Nuts

Bacon

Oyster Sauce

The results were altogether delicious, with strawberries & bananas for pud!

It's amazing how such a large pile of greens cooks down to such a small amount.  I will be sure to use a few more greens next time, which is generally the way to eat out here.  The cost of just all these fruit & veggies (minus the bacon and other embellishments) is around £1!

Enjoying my 1st dinner in my living room!

And the adventure was well worth it.  So I now have a massive pile of Broccoli leaves and flowers left, I might steam them and have them with roast cow-cow (The local name for sweet potato) and carrots...

Welcome Home!

My Yellow Front Door!

Having arrived in Papua New Guinea on Monday 3rd March, I would like to welcome you to my new home in Mt Hagen, the house with the yellow front door.

I would also like to point you to my new website http://yellowshiv.net where you can access all further news items from my blog, along with photos of my travels, contact details and various other bits and pieces.
Thanks to Matt Easton for making it for me!

Welcome to my online home, http://yellowshiv.net!

Celebrating at the Anglican Church, Mt Hagen, PNG

Tribal Princesses

In the middle of my visit to PNG, I was taken to the Anglican Church in Mt Hagen to their annual celebration of the building of their Church and Confirmation Service.  It was fascinating to see the fusion of western-influenced Christianity with local tribal dancing and costume.

The clergy entered the Church, in a procession, following behind a local tribal dance group, and after the Service the Youth Group entertained us all with some dances they choreographed themselves whilst the food was brought out, the 1st song, "Yes Lord", you might recognise, the 2nd song "Mi gat Jisas mi Ammamas" roughly translated means "I've got Jesus, I'm happy".
This video gives you a flavour of the celebration.