The Formal House

On Saturday, November 18^th Jeri and I attended our first formal event in Alotau. We were invited to attend the Raven Estates Corporate Dinner (Raven Estates is the housing development where we bought our land). However, it turned out a little different than such an event would in North America.

Dress Code – the invitation stated the event was formal. Well we were smart enough to know that means different things in different places. After asking someone I found out it did not mean a tie or jacket. After attending I found out it means at least a pair of jeans and shoes. I guess I didn’t exactly need to go rifling through my ‘North American’ clothes for dress pants and a button down shirt.

Start Time – The event was scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Because we had just had a Christian visit with an emergency situation we found ourselves 25 min behind schedule. We felt terrible. We were sure we would be embarrassed walking in that late. However, when we arrived things were barely getting started. By 8:30 p.m. the m.c. finally announced that we ought to go ahead and get started with the meal. Perhaps he should have listened to my stomach which made the announcement several times over the previous hour.

The speakers – Three distinguished speakers were supposed to be present. Two were professors in Port Moresby. Both were unable to attend because Air Niugini canceled the only flight of the day. The third was the Milne Bay governor who claims that he had a busy day and didn’t feel up to the event. Needless to say the event sponsors were not very happy.

The house

Friday morning began with a pleasant knock on the gate (door). The manager at the construction company was looking for a key to our gate so they could start building the house. We are now officially five days into the construction process. They have the house marked out and soon will begin to lay the cement slab. They are anticipating completing the house in February sometime.

Biwa, Banana

Greetings and salutations,

THE BANANA STORY

(Not to be confused with the famous Don Richardson story – the Pineapple Story)

A riddle: What is green and weighs about 70 pounds and is able to kill a banana tree?

Answer: The bunch of bananas that someone gave us to eat.

Explanation: To get the bananas off the tree you cut the tree down. Thus, each tree only produces one bunch in its lifetime.

The banana story is an interesting insight into the culture here. When I was building my fence we hired some local guys to help do the work. All are contacts through the church. At the end of the first day of work when I paid the workers one man insisted that it was not right for me to pay him. I explained that had I paid the company to do it the cost would have been much more and I just wanted to share the savings with the folks who were working with me. Anyways, he reluctantly agreed to take his pay. Since that point, however, he has felt indebted to me. Recently when a bunch of bananas was ready, he gave them to me. Any suggestions on what a family of 3 ought to do with 300 bananas. I mean, Hannah loves bananas, but that is ridiculous. We had around a week to consume the bananas. That would leave us each with about 15 bananas a day. Too bad Bubba [the shrimp guy from Forest Gump] had not been a banana farmer and offered all the things one can do with bananas. Our list was small – banana bread, banana cereal, strait-up-eating bananas. Even at that after about two days we were sick of bananas. So we gave them away. Really the only reasonable thing to do.

BIWA BEACH

A picture is worth a thousand words. This means that batteries are worth several thousand words. However, since our batteries died and we did not take extras we were not able to take many pictures so you will have to believe us when we tell you this place was beautiful. It was amazing to look at above water, but the snorkeling was unbelievable.

While snorkeling we saw some of the most amazing fish – purple, blue, red, yellow, orange … We saw blue starfish. Jeri even held a starfish after much coaxing. Hannah, on the other hand, was a trooper and picked up the starfish and played with it like it was just any toy. We don’t think she had any idea it was a living creature. How many of you can say you have touched a starfish, let alone taken a bite out of one? My 16 month old daughter has!

We found out the area has a guest house (no running water or electricity). The place only costs the equivalent of $3. So next time you are looking for a tropical get away on a secluded beach with snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef for only $3 per night – you know where to come.