A bit about the people of PNG

Firstly I am just going to post some photo's which we couldn't do while in PNG. Hope you like them.
Daniel's birthday in Samarai a lady Maggie made this cake for him but her son said his name was Steven hence the name on the cake. She also gave him his first carving which was really lovely thing to do .Daniel wanted to celebrate his birthday a day late so we weren't at sea.
This monument is in Samarai. It is about a man Christopher Robinson who made the statement that his aim was to make PNG a good country for white men.
I think that it is amazing it is still there. There are a few Dim Dim's (white people) but not many.
We had a fire at Belesana we were robbed throughout this night. The kids showed the local kids and adults how to cook marshmallows on the fire some really liked them others found them to sweet. It was a great night Lilly had sent some fish down so we also cooked them on the coals as well very nice too.


A bit about the people of PNG

Well as you are aware we are now back in Aus. We only had access to the internet when we first arrived at Alotau from then on there were no such services on the islands so these next few entries are what we got up while we were exploring a new place. I am continuing on from when we left Alotau and started heading down to the Louisiades as there are already entries for that.
PNG is a very beautiful place as we really started to find out as we travelled down through the islands. The people who live on the islands are very friendly and love to come out in their canoes to trade different things or just for a say hello and have a cup of tea on the yacht.


Most of the people are subsistence farmers pretty much everything they need is grown or fished for. The frames for the houses made from coconut and betel nut palm trees which are cut into lengths of timber by axe and bush knifes which would be very hard work. The roofs are made from pandana’s grass which is weaved and folded to become very water tight. Most people don’t have furniture they sleep and sit on woven mats which are quite comfortable. Cooking is all done over a fire and any excess seafood is smoked for days over the fire for use at a later date.

Most people grow or make things to trade with yachts when they come to visit. The most requested things we were asked for was clothing, rice, sugar, exercise books, pens and pencils. We traded mainly for food like Cray fish, banana’s, green coconuts, paw paw’s, pumpkins, yams and potatoes (different from our potatoes) we tried some other things but these were the main food items. We also traded for shells, baskets and a few carvings. We had so many shells that we had to say no more shells which was hard as this was all they really had to trade. We had a good supply of lollypops for the children who came out to the boat or followed us around on land. We tried to give the children things they could use or play with like soccer balls, tennis balls and stationary.

Some of the islands don’t have a lot of children on them as they have to go to school on different islands. Some of the children get to stay with relatives but other go to boarding school. It is not unusual for only one or two children from a family to go to school as it is very expensive for them over a thousand kina ($500) a year which is a lot of money considering if they do have jobs they only earn around 70 kina ($35) a fortnight for working 6 days a week and 9 hour days. Most of the islands harvest Bech-der-mer (sea cucumbers) for the Asian market which is seasonal but they can make a lot of money from it. The other main income for the islands is shark fin which also goes to the Asian market.