Purpose Asia

     There’s a distinct advantage to living in Papua New Guinea (PNG) – there’s an incredible amount of variety in the types of foods you can eat here! We discovered this quickly as our host sister Christophilda (or Philda as she’s referred to by friends/family) started teaching us what local foods were available and how to cook them. We also had the advantage of living on the coast in Wargiden (our village) and were able to have fresh fish almost daily of all types of varieties and sizes. We had everything from small reef fish to barracuda and all of it was delicious. We learned to fry, dry and gris (said like “grease” meaning cook in fresh coconut milk) fish in a multitude of ways and in combination with a variety of gaden kaikai (garden foods).       Yum! I have never tasted better fish and I got seriously hooked on foods cooked in coconut milk. I learned to sigarap (shred and milk) coconuts, make coconut oil and use coconut in a host of P...

Sunrise over the ocean in our village This was it. I stepped out of the crowded truck and eagerly searched the faces of the group of people that had come to welcome us to the village of Wargiden on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG), our new home for the next month. All of us were timid but friendly at first. However, what none of us knew then was how dear we would become to each other over the short span of 30 days. Our host family introduced themselves and helped us unload our 16 pieces of cargo with supplies for a month. Our house in the village As we started to talk and get to know each other, I started to take in more of my surroundings. The house April (my village living partner) and I would be living in stood almost 15 feet above ground and was made entirely of materials from the surrounding area. It had a place for a cooking fire below and in the house and had a large veranda that gave a good view of the upper portion of our village. Our host “sister” Ch...