Independance weekend

We celebrated PNGs 31^st Independence Day in Buakap, a small coastal village 40 minutes boat ride south of Lae. Kisung, a friend from work has kindly invited Rich and I to stay for the long weekend. How nice is it to be able to sleep in a haus win (a house without walls usually used as a place for the family to socialise) looking out over the ocean, cook over a fire, scrape coconuts and bathe in a river?! It is a different world from Lae (which despite the many friendly people that are around, you still wouldn’t want to be sleeping outside at night….). We could just make out the fireworks in Lae Saturday night and we were glad to be further down the coast in Buakap listening to the waves and smelling the fresh air.

Rich's first coconut scrape Cooking bananas

Preparing Sak Sak (sago) with Mooks


Mmm, now eating it - Rich looks so pleased!

A haus win - our perfect accommodation

Kisung and I

We met this man who used to work for the Department of Labour and be the PNG rep for the International Labour Organisation. He has travelled all over the world - Switzerland, Dubai, USA... but he decided to give all that up and retire early and live the easy life back in his home village. This guy seems to have the right idea about a good life!

Rich getting some advice on life