PNG Rapid Response - Rest

I have written all about what we did in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the SIL hangar. So now it's time to write a little about what we saw in Papua New Guinea, and a few of the exciting things we did during the tool-down time of evenings and weekends. 

We had a chance to get out of Ukarumpa and see some of the countryside in the East Highlands of PNG. The landscape that we flew over and drove through is very mountainous with rivers running though the valleys. The hills are either covered in trees with no visible break anywhere or the landscape had been cleared to make room for plantations, gardens, or villages. We were in PNG during the rainy season (usually rained for about 30 minutes to an hour every afternoon). 

The traditional houses are made from wood with woven banana leaves as side walls and grass on the roofs. There are houses that are built with more modern materials like corrugated steel roof panels and prefab walls. But it was interesting to note that they did not use the same techniques of African built houses made from a mixture of mud, manure and water. Maybe the weather and earthquakes do not mix well with this kind of building material. 

We also got to see numerous local wildelife in the hangar. There were large spiders, plenty of flying insects (especially at dusk), toads at night time and the rhino beetle below. They just seemed to multiply each time we went back to the hangar. Thankfully, they aren't dangerous or poisonous. Just watch out for their pinch.

The nearest town to Ukarumpa was called Kainantu. As well as local shops, supermarkets and markets ... Kainantu has a Cultural Centre. Inside they have numerous local arts and crafts including masks, bows and arrows, wood carvings, baskets and stuffed animals. They also have a room for making wool rugs from scratch and a large pottery studio. It shows some of the traditions from the area and they are all for sale. We had a chance to visit the first Saturday that we were there.

Something that we all found very interesting was the variety of bridges and the different states of repair ... or disrepair. Also, noting the variety of building materials used.

The first photo below is of the main bridge between Ukarumpa and Kainantu. The bridge is not too bad but the bank at one side has collapsed and the bridge is slipping down. Its only a matter of time till it will fall into the river. But don't worry, a new bridge has been ordered, but then who knows when it will get put into place?

The second photo is of the bridge that we took to go to a local church one Sunday. It used to be the main route into Ukarumpa but now it's just made up of rotting wood and rusting steel. Half way across you have to traverse to the other side, with nothing to hold on to. One word of advice, if you cross, look up not down.

Number three is a bridge that we drove over one day. When we came back later that same day, we decided to jump out to take a few photos of the river etc ... It wasn't until then that we realised that the wooden bridge was being supported by empty oil drums.

In photos four and five there is an interesting bridge. The top is made of the standard steel matting which is rusting and falling in, but the real fun bit is what is keeping the top section up. Underneath are two wings from a Martin B26 'Marauder' from the Second World War. Was very tempted in trying to remove a part, but I think that anything removable had already been removed.

The final photo shows a typical bridge construction. Rusting steel beams, dodgy surface and a beautiful view.

On the second Sunday, we were lucky enough to be invited to have a Mumu with one of the nationals that works at the hangar. This is a traditional meal in PNG.  A hole is dug in the ground and hot stones are placed inside, then the food is placed on top, wrapped up in banana leaves. This is then all covered over with soil with a hole in top to pour in water to steam the food. In a few hours, the food is nicely cooked and all that is left is to uncover the food and eat. This Mumu was made up of chicken, lamb, beef sausages, savoury bananas, cabbage, sweet potatoes and squash. We also had rice, sugar cane and sweet bananas.

Yummy!

Chewing on Sugar Cane.

Apart from the meat, everything else was grown right there at the house. Whilst walking around the land we found out that there were almost 20 different things being grown or cultivated. Below are just some of the produce. Rice, sugar cane, peanuts and pineapples.

One of PNG's biggest exports (apart from gold, copper and oil) is coffee. So whilst we visited the town of Goroka, we visited the Goroka Coffee roasting facility. They gave us a tour of the place, where they roast the bean, how they get the different grades of roast, where they grind them and how they pack them (either bean or grounds) ready for delivery. This place was great for Andy as he is a coffee lover (as indicated by the hugging of a coffee bush and the big smile on his face).

Whilst in PNG helping out SIL with their King Air, we wanted to find out a little about what the rest of the SIL staff were doing there in Ukarumpa. The main focus is to develop a written language for each of the hundreds of languages that are in PNG, and from that, get the bible translated into each language so the people of the villages can have the bible in their own tongue. The top two shelves in the first photo below shows all the New Testaments that have already been written in a local dialect. I also took a photo of a page from just two different languages to show just how different some languages can be in PNG. The final two photos shows a map of all the active and completed translation programs that are in PNG. Quite a few, especially considering that to develop a written language and translate the New Testament can take over 25 years to accomplish.

I just thought you might be interested to read a little more about what we were able to experience in PNG, during our downtime from work in the hangar.