Adventure Is Out There

Melanie, Belinda, and their mother, Chris, decided to go on a month long adventure after their time with ADI (Australian Doctor’s International) was up and I just so happened to invite myself to tag along.  I arrived back in Kavieng at about 5pm on Monday night, repacked my bag, and then at 8am Tuesday morning I was on a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) down the road to Rubio, our meeting point.  From Rubio we repacked the car and we were off. 

The first night we went to Huris which is a village about 2/3 of the way down the island.  We arrived just as it got dark and asked a man if he knew where a guesthouse was.  After informing us there wasn’t a guesthouse in the area he offered his home to us.  His hut house had essentially 3 rooms – 2 bedrooms and an open space that could be called a living room but is empty and rarely used beyond walking through it to get to a bedroom.  This living room area was where we slept.  There were only 2 bedrolls and 4 people.  I elected to sleep on the wooden slats of a floor.  I did not bring a bedroll and though I really really wanted one it would have been a bit unfair to claim one.  So I laid a lap lap (long piece of cloth you wrap around your waist like a sarong and use as a skirt) on the ground, folded up my baby blanket into a pillow for my back, and went to sleep.  (Yes, I do still sleep with my original baby blanket even though I’m 26 years old and I have no intentions of ditching it anytime in the next 50 years.)  Every 30 minutes or so I woke to change positions – right side, back, left side, back, right side.  Also, it was extremely windy so the hut which was raised and situated on poles swayed with the wind.  Brings a whole new meaning to being rocked to sleep.  The next morning I awoke to the sound of children blowing on party horns… before dawn.  They acquired said party horns from Belinda the night before as a gift.  This was a rude awakening in the wee predawn hours of the morning after a night of broken sleep.  Though, all irritation dissipated after I came down stairs and saw the smiling faces of the horn blowers.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Chris went to read her Kindle and all the kids wanted to check out
her book and get in on story time.

Party horns.  Rookie move.

The morning was spent wandering around the village taking photos and collecting shells on the beach.  We packed up our things and went down to the river for a wash and then headed on our way.  We asked the governor’s haus meri (house woman = a maid of sorts)  if there were any guesthouses around we could stay at and she offered one of the governor’s guesthouses.  “Umm yes, please!”

The house in the background was where we stayed.

You want good shells?  Get the village kids looking.

These ones are my favorites.  Small and swirly.

Showing off their finds.  I still can't get over all the blonde hair.  Love it!

Giving out party horns is like a BFF necklace here.  Belinda
with all of her new besties.

I think I was showing them pictures.  Also, note the party horn
in the mouth of the girl on the far right.  This was about 12 hours
after we'd arrived and they were still blowing strong.

Chatting it up with the local kids.

The view from our balcony at Sir J's guesthouse. The water to the
left is where Huris village is.

Belinda's eyebrows were a little out of control... I took care of that.

Marta 3 years ago with her "Scary white
lady" look.

Marta now with her "I love white ladies" look.

Where they make canoes.

Thursday we hired a boat at Nokon village – about 10 minutes away from Huris - to take us out to Lipek Island so we could have a picnic and go for a snorkel.  I, again for the 3^rd time forgot to bring my snorkeling gear along.  Lucky for me a shop in Namatanai sold a cheap snorkel and an awesome pair of 60’s James Bond style goggles.  Unlucky for me, this mask wasn’t quite deep enough for my large schnoz and therefore pressed my nose flat down (or to one side depending on how I put the mask on).  If I smiled or laughed while under water it also leaked.  Everyone found this to be rather amusing.  While snorkeling I saw a couple huge cone shells and about 10 clams all different colors – teal, purple, pink, green – among a number of other awesome neon fish and coral.  I could only handle a smooshed nose for so long before I started getting a head ache and decided to head back to the island.

No caption necessary

Bongo making friends.  They even sang
him a song.

Chris was out fishing and Melanie and Belinda were still snorkeling so it was just me and the village kids who accompanied us.  I started writing out math problems in the sand and they would answer.  After seeing they knew simple addition and subtraction we moved onto multiplication.  The kids were 1^st-4^th grade.  I explained how to draw pictures in the sand to figure out the problem.  (Example 4 x 5 you draw 4 large circles and then inside each circle you draw 5 lines then count up all the lines and you’ve got your answer).  The kids LOVED it!  Each one picked a spot on the beach to draw their pictures, count, and then return to me to whisper their answers.  If they were wrong they were sent back to their pictures to start over and they happily did.  This went on for about an hour until everyone came back and we returned to Nokon.

9 x 11 = GO!

Fish.  It's what's for dinner.

They got goodies for helping us with the picnic

After three days in Huris we moved on to the next village, Manga.  We were put up in the priest’s house the first night (the priest was not there).  But the keys to house were with someone who wasn’t at the village so we hung out at another house in the village that belonged to a 16 year-old girl named Elaine and her 12 year-old brother named Larry (and their mother, but she was in Namatanai for a few days).  They cooked us dinner and hung out with us until we had the keys to the house. 

The house we had dinner the first night and stayed in the second
night when the priest came back.

The next day we walked along the beach collecting rocks and shells, read books, and relaxed.  Belinda, with her trustee co-pilot Larry, went out in search of a boat, a driver, and fuel so we could go for a picnic at another island the following day. 

So pretty.

These rock beaches were lovely.

The following day we got our things packed and then jumped on a boat with a number of village folk and head out toward the island.  Then the boat sputtered.  They tried to fix it and decided to turn back and attempt the picnic the following day after they’d fixed the problem.  We set up shop on the beach and had our picnic there.  The next morning the boat still wasn’t fixed and we decided to head back to Namatanai but not before a bit more fun and games blowing bubbles for the Manga kiddos.  They LOVE bubbles!

Our picnic on the beach.  It was windy so the kids built a shelter
for the fire so we could cook lunch

Larry wanted to use Belinda's zinc.

Every time I looked at this little guy he
broke out in giggles. A-dorable!

Kids love bubbles.

On the way back to Namatanai we stopped back in at Huris to retrieve the head lamp I forgot and to say good bye to some of our followers one more time.  After recovering my head lamp parting gifts were passed out and we were on our way again.

Searching for my head lamp

Tooth brush in hand.

The whole brushing teeth thing was a bit confusing.

Far more confusing than driving a stick.

On the way home we stopped for a number of reason one of which was to stop and give an albino girl a hat and some chap stick.  We also got detailed instructions on which road to turn down to get to LiLet (up in the mountains).  "The house with the rock, turn there."  Oh great so we're looking for a house along the side of the road.  It's a good thing there's only one every 50 feet.  And a rock.  A big one?  A small one?  Round? Square? Tan? Black?  Amazingly, we found the road with the house with the rock and we turned down it and began our 18 kilometer ascent up the mountain.  And one more stop along the way back to Namatanai was for was was where I made a kid cry.  After overnighting in Namatanai we continued home to Kavieng.

Poor girl was sunburnt.

The road to Lilet

More of Lilet.  So beautiful!

Token "Scary white lady" photo

This kid loved me

WARNING!  WARNING! WARNING!

There is a picture below that may not be suitable for children!!

You cannot see me in this photo but I am peeing in front of the car.  I chose the front because we passed people coming up the road and didn't want to get caught mid wee behind the car and there weren't any bushes around to hide behind.  You see, I thought this was a safe, discreet place.  I took great care to avoid splashing on my feet because, well, who likes pee on their feet?  Belinda being the jokester that she is, decided it'd be hilarious to honk the horn while I was peeing causing me to pee all over myself.  What this photo did not capture was my hand that shot up above the hood of the car with a single finger extended.

So when Belinda went to pee behind the car a few days later (she was smart enough not to pee in front of it) I took advantage of the opportunity to get her back.  As you can see, mid pee I slipped a camera around the corner of the car and got a couple shots.  Best photo I've taken thus far.  Ahhh, revenge is good!