Some Things to Expect in PNG: #1

We thought it would be fun to share some of the things we see here from time to time that are relatively “normal” (for PNG), but might not be normal for those back in the USA.

In the United States, we pride ourselves in diversity, yes we all speak the same language (with variances), and we have a melting pot of different races spread throughout the continent. Here in PNG, if you do NOT have dark skin, expect everyone to give you a good long glance, you are the abnormal one, so they look.

When you are walking into town or walking through the village it is not uncommon to see a lady carrying a bag (bilum “bee-loom”). In America, this is normal, we call it a “purse” and it holds too much makeup, tissues, credit cards, and money, among other things. It is not only how the PNG women carry the bag (on their head) that is different, but also what is found inside…like groceries…many times a baby. Yep, seeing a baby inside a bag is quite normal here. It can be quite comical (to us) as we walk by a tree and there are some ladies sitting underneath a tree and you see several babies asleep inside string bags hanging from the tree. We are still getting used to this one 🙂

Amilia Carrying Russell in her Bilum

Make sure you always clean up everything, everywhere. PNG is in no short supply of ants, yes, ants. There is not a day that goes by we don’t see ants on our counters, in our kitchen sink, in our bathroom toiletries, sometimes our food, and it is always fun finding ants in your sealed cereal bag, extra protein! You always feel like something is crawling on you. Ants are everywhere!

When you live here in Madang, everyone stops and appreciates the wind. It is quite humid here so every little breeze is greatly appreciated and we thank God for a break from the humidity; the breeze is as close to air conditioning as you get.

Almost everyone has a garden here. There are markets but it is a common practice to have your own garden. We do not have our own house yet so we do not have a garden. Garden produce is the Papua New Guineans main source of food. Everyone looks at us like we are weird since we do not have our own garden.

When you go to the produce market, there are no refrigerated sections; all produce is on the ground with bugs near by and dogs walking about. This is one of the many reasons why you must wash your produce with bleach.

Nicole Buying Greens at the Market

While you are in the market, do not be surprised if you see giant larvae for sale, the locals love them. We can’t bring ourselves to try them…if someone offers one to us, we will do it (for the sake of the Gospel), but we will not volitionally bring this upon ourselves.

“Binatang” or Larvae…Yum?

Talk about going to the market; make sure you drive on the right side of the road, which is the left side. The driver is on the right side and all the switches are reversed, so it takes a little getting use to. One of our friends drove and they forgot they were on the right side of the road (which is the wrong side here), luckily no one was coming on the other side.

The language Tok Pisin has a lot of interesting things about it. It is a very descriptive language: in English we call water coming from underneath the ground a “spring”. In most cases we would say, “that is a spring, or this is spring water”. In Tok Pisin you would literally say, “that non-salt water is non-salt water that comes from inside the ground”. The word they use is a prefix that can denote cold, or clean, or water to wash with or drinking water, or water that comes from a river or lake, or is simply NOT salt water (and they might give the direction of where it is going). Short simple sentences alleviates most ambiguity, it is rather nice. The major thing we find that is hard in terms of ambiguity is the use of prepositions. They basically use one prepositional word for almost everything. Which if you are having a lengthy conversation or having multiple discourses it can be a bit unclear. Other than that, expect to hear many words like: pela, pla, bilong, blo, planti, lukim, tok, and long; you will hear them everywhere and in every context! Seth jokes a lot with the locals about that, they all laugh together.

With some exceptions in the US, you will typically find people who are reserved and mostly keep to themselves. Here in PNG, people are always ready and wanting to help. They always want to help us learn their language and they love teaching. Hospitality and giving up your time for another is common, you can pretty much walk up to a persons house at almost anytime of day, and they will stop what they are doing and talk to you. Being with someone and talking with someone is a huge lifestyle here in PNG. In America, we value alone time and solitude, but here in PNG all things come to a stop if a stranger walks by, maybe they want to just sit down and talk, maybe it is to get away from the sun for a period of time and or maybe it is to drink a coconut.

There are a lot of things we are still getting use to, like not holding one another’s hand in public (men and women do not touch in public), but it is common to hold a member of the same sex’s hand; it is a sign of friendship. Some other things we are getting use to is ladies walk in front of the men when in town for security purposes, cooking from scratch, no microwaves, the power going out regularly, keeping track of the data we use on our phone/internet, always swatting flies and mosquitoes, always taking prophylaxis for malaria, walking most everywhere and much more. All in all everything in our life is new except for each other. Though many things here are different from what we are use to, God is allowing us to have joy and appreciation with most things (we don’t-and probably never will-like the bugs) here in PNG. At the end of each day, we know God brought us here and He has given us a love for the people and the work He is doing here in PNG. Hope you enjoyed reading some of the differences; we will share more another time.

Boiling Coconut Milk to Make Oil

Seth Scraping the Coconuts

Cathy & Family Teaching us How to Making Coconut Oil From Scratch

Your feet to the unreached in PNG, Seth & Nicole Stokes

 P.S. We have now talked to a handful of people via Skype and FaceTime, feel free to call anytime. If you have Apples products: iMessage/text us at nicolestokes22@gmail.com. We also have received our first American letter a little bit ago; thank you uncle John and Aunt Di! Funny story: Seth was talking with his mom on Skype while we were ay a friends house (a national), and he let his mom talk to them briefly… afterwards our friends were tickled that they got to talk to Seth’s mom and talk to someone in the U.S. for the first time. It is the little things that make people smile.