Week 1 Part 1: Welcome to Wargiden!

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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” Christophilda took us under her wing immediately and showed us around the village that sat right on the seaside. She showed us the beautiful coast and the three nearby islands (one of which was used to film the 1994 Robinson Crusoe movie with Pierce Brosnan). She walked us through the nearby cocoa and coconut plantation and showed us where to find water for bathing, cooking, drinking and washing clothes.

Christophilda was incredible and really helped us navigate our way through learning everything we needed to know for living in her village as well as general things that we needed to know to thrive in PNG. During our time in the village she taught us to prepare local foods, interact well with others from the community and from surrounding communities, make bilums (string bags used for almost everything here in PNG), pilot ocean canoes with outriggers, Tok Pisin (the trade language of PNG) worship songs, and so, so much more. However, Christophilda wasn’t our only guide during this time. We had our host “parents” Paul and Mary and all of their 8 children (including Christophilda) as well as the myriad of extended family members that included us as part of their family and village. By the time we left Wargiden we felt we not only had new friends but we also had a new family.

More on the things we did our first week in the village coming up….



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