Land of Contrasts

Sara and I arrived back in Ukarumpa late yesterday afternoon from our trip to Madang. Thank you for your prayers. We had a safe trip and experienced many blessings during our 10 days of travel.

Once again I am finding it difficult to sum up our adventures in one blog post. There are so many stories I could tell, not to mention oodles of photos I've taken! PNG is called the "Land of the Unexpected" but after being here for a few weeks and seeing some of the country, I think maybe it should be called the "Land of Contrasts".

In PNG, I have seen some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever encountered. Flying from Ukarumpa to Madang in a Cessna 206, we passed over gorgeous, rugged green hillsides and spectacular mountain ranges. In contrast to that, PNG cities can be quite dirty and littered with garbage.

Crime is rampant in PNG - though thankfully we didn't have any personal experiences with raskols on our trip, we heard many stories of people who have. In contrast, while we waited on sidewalks for our PMV rides, we had people come up to us and ask if we were alright or needed help. People in the village we visited for 5 days were extremely friendly and welcomed us like we were family (they were Sara's wasfamili for 5 weeks during her orientation, so I guess we were!)

Another interesting comparison we've seen here is the difference in clothing. We were lucky to be at the village during a weekend when there were two Sing-sings. At these, we got to see the wonderful native style costumes worn by the dancers.

Many of the ladies here wear "meri blouses" which are quite colorful. But most of the people wear Western-style clothing bought at second-hand stores. So, you see people with all sorts of t-shirts - such as with rock band or sports team logos. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this child wearing a shirt which read "Chaos, panic, disorder... my work here is done"!


One of the biggest contrasts in PNG is between the "old" and the "new". In the village, it was not unusual to see a man carrying a small log, smoldering on one end, stuck into the tip of his machete. This is a primitive cigarette lighter! It was also not unusual to see a man pull a cell phone out of his pocket to send a text message or make a call!

Most Americans would look at the way the people in the village here live and feel sorry for them. It's true that they have few possessions and live a primitive lifestyle compared to us. But they have good food - raised in their gardens or caught in the ocean or bush. They can build their houses literally for free from the materials at hand. They have large, close-knit families. When they hear how Americans have to work hard for money to buy food, cars, and houses... they feel sorry for us!