I wanted to give everyone a taste of what life is like in a developing nation. The photos are coming from various sources, missionaries' web pages and blogs, almanacs, etc. and most of them are recent. They are accurate depictions of how I remember my time there!
This is a good map to orient you to PNG. Some enterprising Organization person has added Ukarumpa to this "official" map.
So how do we get there? The travel time (via the Pacific route) is about 30 hrs of airport hopping. Most of our belongings will be shipped via container boat. The boat will arrive in Lae, the crate will be loaded onto a truck and driven 3 hrs up into the highlands. We will do without many things while we wait for our crate to show up in Ukarumpa. If I remember correctly, you have to ship the crate about 3 months ahead of your arrival so you and your stuff gets there "about" the same time.
Once the getting there is done, we will get to experience getting around! SEE BELOW:
This is a great photo!!! Do you think if he drove through the middle of the "puddle", he might have gotten swallowed up? The roads can and do get to this condition. The ones around Ukarumpa are maintained by The Organization's grader and so they usually look better, like the one below.
Public Motor Vehicles (PMV's) are the taxi service for the nationals. You can see that there is not much room for anything else! Also take note that they are on a paved road! It's also left-side driving because PNG has close ties to the British Crown.
PMV's operate under the little known physics principle that the more mass (people, animals, bags) you sqeeze into a given limited space, the less likely that mass (people, animals, bags) will be ejected in the event of a collision or rollover. 
Aircraft are the lifeblood of what The Organization does in PNG. The translation teams are in some very remote places that have no roads. In many cases, teams go in ahead of the translators and cut an air strip out of the jungle for the planes. Much manpower, time, and money go into this aspect of the mission.
The above Cessna is the most common plane The Organization uses. I don't know much about planes, but I think it carries 3 people and a pilot. It has a very short take off and landing capability which makes it ideal for the environment in which it operates.
For heavier loads, longer trips, and more people, the Islander gets the job done.
The King Air is the long-distance carrier for The Organization. It is capable of carrying passengers directly to Austrailia. Our friends Paul and Kelly Stewart already tested this very useful feature! They had a medical emergency and Kelly had to be taken Down Under, but all is well now. Apparently it is a very nice ride! 
Some places are just not practical for fixed wing aircraft. So, they use the helicopter! It has a limited range and load capacity, but when you need to fit it in a tight spot, it will go! I have never had a chance to ride in one. Maybe next time...
This is the Kodiak. It is brand new to The Organization in PNG. It is a purpose-built aircraft, specifically designed for missions organization.
As for us, we will wait to see what sort of vehicles become available when we get there. I am hoping to get something with a cab (car, truck, van... whatever) as soon as possible to cart the family around. Until then, we'll beat feet!
Here's a little info on the country itself:
Population: 5.9 million
Size: 452,000 sq. mi.
Economy: Agriculture (85% subsistence farming), Mining, Logging, Fishing
Official Languages: English, Melanesian Pidgin, Motu
It's hard for me to know where to start with this section. For most of you, this country is like nothing you have ever experienced before. It looks like Hawaii around the coastal areas, and the Amazon in the low lying inland rivers. It's highlands are the result of volcanic activity and are mostly dense jungle, but Mt. Wilhelm (below) tops out at about 14800 feet and sees the occasional blizzard.
The country is crisscrossed by thousands of rivers, mountain ranges, huge swamps, and lots of JUNGLE. It is a remote place. I begin with a short description of the land because that seems to be the most important feature in creating the culture of PNG. Everything is fragmented and tribal because that's the way things have been as long as people have been there. The terrain has effectively kept the connection of people and languages to a minimum.
I don't know the anthropological reasons for the appearance of the nationals, but to me they appear mostly African in physical feature. The highlanders are generally shorter and thickly built with medium to dark complexions. As you can see, the "whiteskins" are a head taller than most nationals there. The story behind the photo is that the Kuman people group are just receiving the Bible in their own language, and the celebration is about to begin.
The nationals that live near the coast or on the outlying islands tend to appear more Polynesian. They are lighter skinned and taller, and certainly more westernized, having had more opportunity to connect with traders that have been coming there for centuries.
And for all of you who think we will be living in a grass hut, wearing loin clothes, eating bugs, and hunting with sticks...
...here are the requisite "full dress" photos! These are special event outfits, designed to impress! There is an annual cultural festival near Ukarumpa where people from the various tribes get into full dress and mug for the cameras!
I hope our readers will get an opportunity to visit us while we are there! I promise you a mountain of experiences that you can brag about!
I knew I had to show some of the beauty of this country. So I am going to continue ripping photos from the web and put PNG's best foot forward: It's unspoiled natural beauty. Think tropical!
This is a decent topo map for elevation change and basic geography. The landscape was formed from volcanic activity from the Pacific Rim, and a lot of the mountains are volcanic glass. We will be living in the Eastern Highlands Province, elevation 5,000 feet. 
This is the typical eastern highlands scene. Grass and tree covered mountains and valleys as far as the eye can see. Up here, the weather is nice all the time, unless it's raining! On a side note, tropical seasons are as follows: Wet and Dry. Here's some more mountain scenes...
Dawn. It happens everywhere, and usually in the morning.
Amazing what a filtered lens from 30,000 feet can do huh?
This one has a rain shower moving accross the valley flooor. This is one of my favorite memories of PNG weather, watching the storms approach.
An endless valley near Mt. Hagen.
How about some of the coastline? There are so many WWII era wrecks, endless coral reefs, underwater caves, and other structures, that PNG is becoming a divers paradise. I am hoping that I'll get to test my fishing rod against some of the species in both fresh and salt water! (Maybe I'll do a bit on the fishy population at some point!) So here's to salt, sun and sand in the tropics!
Feel free to drop in!
Caleb
0 comments