Tis the Season

A buzz fills the humid air of Madang. Everyone is flooding into the Provincial Capital for graduations and to visit wontoks for the holidays. The streets and shops are swarming with people. Ships flow in and out of the port filled with visitors and cargo. All the resorts and guest houses are booked through the end of the year. With the incoming tourists and rascals looking for opportunities, the none too hidden costs of security are heightened. The crowds gather at the main bus stop outside the market, where Nestle and Digicel adverts painted on cinderblock passes for development. Street children with yellow eyes walk aimlessly hustling for toea (coins), or for nothing. They cling to uncles and brothers who sell single smokes and stolen mobile phones as they walk through the diesel fumes between buses. The alleys between shops are filled with vendors selling buai and smokes. Men with bowl cuts, shaved heads, cornrolls, and dreads spit and throw market trash and buai everywhere. Big football sized bare feet stomp around mounds of pawpaw rinds and wopa biscuit wrappers.


In Papindo Supermarket it’s definitely the Christmas season. The decorations look as if they were taken directly from Clark W. Griswold’s attic. Cheap plastic Santa Clauses and reindeer are hung to anything standing still. Loud speakers blaring Pacific reggae music lure customers inside for a free cup of rice. Two solemn faced security guards give pat downs as you enter and exit the shop.

School holidays have unofficially begun despite the approaching official closing day, December 5th. When I first arrived I was told that the Country basically shut down for over two months during the Christmas break. This is proving to be true. Several weeks ago when visiting schools to follow up with teachers who participated in a training, I found schools partially filled with students without teachers. The classrooms were speckled with the occasional gathering of children twisting each others hair and playing cards, Head Teacher offices were empty, and oblivious mothers were selling flour balls and ice blocks under nearby mango trees.

For these reasons, tis the season for a vacation! My great Pacific adventure by sea begins today!!! For 10 weeks, with my backpack, camera and snorkel in tow, I plan to travel solo from Papua New Guinea, across all the islands of Indonesia, through Malaysia and back.There’s an amplified tendency to give into whims when traveling independently. It’s fueled by the sense of empowerment and backed by inspiration to take a chance, to explore, to learn. The embodiment of life leads to the most interesting of destinations. I hope find internet cafes to be able share my stories during my travels!