As we arrived we heard the sounds of the conch shell welcoming us to the village which was across this bridge.
The kids were hidden in the bush and jumped out at us with spears as we came through the bush.
We were greeted by the chief and lots of family members. Huts were dotted about the gardens.
Then we were welcomed with traditional dancing and singing.
We had a delicious lunch here – fresh paw,paw, mangos, bananas and other fruits. Fruit never tastes as good as it does on the islands, especially bananas. Various members of the village spoke about their home, the dancing group and life in PNG which was really interesting. Its quite a challenge for a young girl and her family to run a business here.
The men gave us a demonstration of how they build with local plant materials.
Then it was time for tour of the gardens, each of us paired up with someone to show us around and answer any questions. This lovely lady came over to me after another person on tour asked if she could ‘take her baby’ – honestly – one thing I’ve learned in travelling that jokes don’t generally translate well out of our own culture – ( as Tony has learned in Japan lol).
Anyway Julie was lovely and I’m sure I saw more than a lot of the others. She took me inside a few homes and gave me a very detailed tour of the garden, naming the plants, telling me their different uses. She introduced me to her other children and asked about mine. Julie had some betel nuts in her bag which she ate, and she offered me some, but I didn’t try them. We had about an hour together and I really enjoyed it. Lovely to just chat to people and learn about their lives.
These plants were everywhere and we saw people using the big full grown leaves as umbrellas to keep the sun off when we’d be driving around.
After a few hours at the village it was time to go back to the ship. By this time the older kids had arrived back from school and so they were excited to talk to us and happily chatted away. When it was time to go a few of them wanted to go for the ride back into Alotau so they squashed in with us. The girls I sat with talked about school and their plans for being nurses and teachers one day – no shyness here they were very friendly. They walk an hour to and from school every day. Once we got back to the ship there were hugs and goodbyes and they waved us off – it really was one of the best days I’ve had travelling.