Comments and other things – Sunday 19th September 2010
Now for some observations and silliness:
We walk a lot – at least 1-2 hours every day. 20 mins to and from work, 15 minutes to the supermarket, 15 mins to the mess, 20 minutes to the Golf Club etc. Everyone walks. You can say hello/good morning and any other appropriate greeting up to 100+ times per walk. Everyone say hello and smiles – it feels like the scene from “a fish called wanda” where the gold fish say good morning all the time. I feel much fitter.
You can eat a lot – the food at the mess is very good, just like any cafeteria/bistro in Australia. You can have hot or cold meals, the only thing you need to watch is that the chicken is well cooked. They eat lots of chicken. (Chicken is called Karkarouk in pigin and Aywon in the local language).Each day we have a delivery of lunch food from the mess for our classes. We usually have a mixture of sandwiches, hot food (chicken and chips or mini spring rolls etc), cake, fruit and cold water and juice. Quite OK but the same thing everyday gets a bit boring. They do vary the sandwich fillings a bit and some days I am not really sure what it is but neither of us have had any bali belly.
The only place you can get alcohol is at the Golf Club and you can’t buy it to take away. So to have dinner and a glass of wine you need to eat at the club. The meals are about 20-50 keena which is $10-$25 depending on what is on the menu. The food there is good too and most nights there is a reasonable crowd. We have been a few times because of the variety and the chance to mix with people. We have also cooked a couple of meals at home.
Saturday afternoons you can buy take away alcohol at the Golf Club but it is very restricted and a ticketing system applies. You can only buy a carton of small beer cans or 1 bottle of wine.
Last night we went to Ian and Linda’s for a BBQ. Some of Linda’s friends were at the Golf Club at a different table to us on Friday night and they won the meat raffle, so they donated the meat for a BBQ last night. We had a fantastic night eating and drinking and exchanging information and comments about our cultures and how the tribal systems work. Teresa is a chiefs daughter and told us all about how that works. She is a nurse with 20 years experience in theatre and now runs the blood bank. The other three girls are all administrators either for OKtedi or contractors. Gerard took some photos and I have now been accepted into the sisterhood and they will keep an eye on Gerard for me and if he gets a girlfriend up here they will kill her for me, and I think they would, too. They will dance with him at the dances, but they will respect him and me and will not touch or kiss him. Go the sisterhood!! They are a great bunch of people.
