The Things We'll Miss...

As we get a little closer to the time when we will have to "go pinis" (no trouser python jokes here... go pinis = go finish = head home), we are going to miss a whole bunch of people, places and things. We'll probably cover a whole lot more of these in the coming weeks (particularly people and places) but for now we'd like to cover some of the things we're likely to miss the most...

The market: The market is something that we've been really able to enjoy (but that other Dim Dims in less safe parts of PNG have to miss out on). The best thing about the market is without doubt the fresh fruit...


Bananas!!! Year round, sweet, savory, ripe and not $13/ kg (for those of you noticing the price tags 1PNGKina ~/= 50c)


Pinapples!!! Sweet, delicious and not chemically ripened which means that they are not at all acidic like the ones we get back in Aus, they are so nice that you can and do eat the core, it is the sweetest part.


Pit Pit & Kalamansis. This young lady is selling Pit Pit (the corn looking green things) which is a sort of fibrous vegetable which is a really lovely with coconut milk, chili, tomato and ginger. She's also got Kalamansis which are a citrus fruit half way between kumquats and oranges, they go bloody well with green coconuts ("Kulau" left of shot) pineapple and just a little Cuban Rum...

There are of course other things that we'll not necessarily miss but which all contribute to making the market such a uniquely PNG experience.


Smoked Marsupial: Yeah see that cute curly little tail, that means it is a Cus Cus, a small possum-esque marsupial distantly related to endangered tree Kangaroos (and for all we know endangered themselves), these guys are taken down with GIANT slingshots, quartered, smoked and delivered to market all for the princely sum of about PNGK 4.00 per chunk...


Coral Lime: no despite the resemblance this photo isn't of a hollywood starlet or movie producers wet dream. It is in fact one of the things that is contributing to the poor dental health and alarming rates of mouth cancer in this country. An integral component to chewing betelnut (or "buai") you add this to the nut and a bit of mustard plus of course your own saliva and get ready for a buzz... of course as it is lime (which mobsters use to help bodies decompose faster) it eats away at any fatty tissue in your mouth, also the chemical reaction with the other ingredients do tend stain your teeth permanently and horribly. To make yourself some baggies simply find a coral reef and destroy it...

Also there are the occasional things that you notice on the ground near the market which make the above little beauties pale in comparison.


This is a beer bottle lid, thats right the more perceptive amongst you readers will have already followed this to its logical conclusion... In a country with poor education and a terrible amount of domestic and sexual violence the major brewery thought that they'd help out the families of PNG by offering drinkers the chance to "win school fees" that's right folks the more you drink the more chances you have of being a good father...