Kina Beach.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008. There are no sandy beaches around the mainland of Madang town, only coral reefs so the name for the area where I live, Kina Beach, isn’t really fitting. I cannot hear nor do I have a clear view of the sea from my apartment, but I know it’s just a walk down the road a bit. I do however have an abundance of banana, coconut, and buai (beetle nut) trees and flying foxes. Kina Beach is a safe area near the hospital and Provincial Government Offices. It is also a lively place. There are always bats screaming, dogs barking, roosters crowing, birds singing and children crying—there is a nursery school next door. I didn’t imagine I would be living in an apartment complex in PNG. I expected something like a house made of bamboo on stilts, not a concrete building with 7 other apartments. Living in my complex are 2 local PNG families and their many wontoks (clan members) who seem to come in and out, a young Indian couple who have a 2 month old baby, 3 single guys (my neighbors) who work for Digicel, one of the two local mobile phone companies, as well as, 3 other VSO volunteers. The VSO volunteers are Ed from the UK, Marleen from Amsterdam, (me and Marleen)
and Veronica from the Philippines. There are 3 other volunteers who live in the Kina Beach area, Hayley and a married couple, Ian and Sue, all from the UK.

I have pretty much settled in. I have bought sheets, pots, towels and all the other things one needs. The apartment came equipped with furniture, fridge, stove and washer. I am thankful for the washer, yet I am fairly certain that I am not doing something quite right. It’s one of those double tub washers. The first tub is for washing and the second for spinning but it’s the rinsing that I haven’t figured out yet. Do I drain the first tub and refill it to rinse or do I periodically open the spinner and pour in buckets of water? I have tried both ways and my clothes still come out sudsy and dry crispy. Although I conserve water, I try not to worry too much about wasting because we use rainwater and it pours down rain every night. The rainwater is collected in tanks and attached is a solar unit that provides hot water. I look forward to my cold showers at night, so I haven’t had a need for hot water. I boil my water for drinking but Marleen upstairs says she drinks from the tap. I also have a gas stove, which is good because that means I can still cook during the daily power outages.

Gecko and ants are inescapable! They are everywhere crawling on everything. The good thing about geckos is that they eat mosquitoes and keep to themselves as they hang on my walls and ceilings. The ants are a bit more annoying because there always seems to be two or three of them crawling on and biting me. The good thing I can say about the ants is that they carry away my crumbs and the dead roaches!