Mount Hagen

Since we all love to eat a lot, we go to the local food market every day. We're eating loads of 'weird' fruits which taste delicious! My sister is starting to feel left out, because more and more people recognise me as Sjoerd's sister and they think Femke is ' just' family. We hug her more to feel part of the gang...

We're meeting up with some of Sjoerd friends (all volunteers from Mount Hagen or surrounding areas), great to hear all their stories although many of those stories are not all happy ones. Well, it gives us a better view of the PNG culture....

The first day we got to meet Sjoerd's neighbours/securitygard/friends/cleaner: lovely family who are going to take us to the Southern Highlands next week. Great stuff, just with the locals! On the picture to the right you can see my brother with Linet, a kid 'from the block', eating fruit. Femke would say the cutest kid, but they all look gorgeous....

After that we went to see one of Sjoerds wantoks (family, not the ones like we have, but just friends who will help you out if needed). They are taking care of Sjoerds pig. Yes, a pig. A respectable (marry-able) man in PNG should have a pig so he can ' buy' a wife. The pigs name is Bell (from Jingle Bell, don't ask me why...) His other pig Jingle (there we go...) died recently.

Sjoerd is putting my sister and me on the market as well, so he can become a rich man...Yeah, right. I will kick your ass, big brother...

So far my first impressions: great to be here, Sjoerds is making spectacular travelplans for the upcoming weeks, so it should be great fun!!

Check out Sjoerds website for his version!