Apinun olgeta,

1:50 p.m. on Saturday. It's my last full day in PNG. I celebrated this beautiful place this morning by diving for the first time at Jais Aben. After a chilly introductory session in the resort's pool, I headed out into the solwara (salt water) with my instructor. Man, is it beautiful. Corals of all colors. Lots of neon yellow. Parrotfish, angelfish, lots of electric blue fish, clams, even a sea fluke. (That's a relative of the sea horse, I've been told.) No sharks or sea snakes this time, though I've been told they're around. We dove down to 40 feet. I love how the fish look at you when you'e swimming close to you. You can just tell they're trying to figure out what the heck you are. There were schools of fish off in the distance, and even an old Cessna airplane underwater. It's just awesome. Another world.

To my friends from Redondo, you must come here. I'm bringing you a CD of information about diving at Jais Aben.

The only down side of diving was the fact that my BCD kept inflating for some reason. That's the vest that you wear to help with your buoyancy. I was really fighting to stay down at certain points, despite an extra weight on the weight belt and repeated deflations of the BCD. Panicked once, then realized that did me no good and I had to just breathe easy.

Now it's early afternoon. I've stuffed myself with the homemade bread that's the best I've ever had. Might grab a banana or some papaya later on. I've been rationing out my lemon creme biscuits. There's a young American guy named Teddy here who's apparently on his way to Ok Tedi Mine. Research of some kind? Not sure. I haven't talked with him much, but I'll find out more tonight when we have dinner.

It rained hard last night and much of this morning, and it's still a little overcast. The rain cooled everything down to a more manageable humidity level. I'm just trying to soak in the sounds and sights. Madang is really a place you have to see to believe. I don't think my pictures will do justice. I wish I could stay here another month.

But real life intrudes into PNG. I have lots of CDs and photos to copy and send out. Lots of work to do on my stories too. And I have to pay the bills. I've lost a month's income -- and almost all my savings -- doing this reporting trip, but it's worth it 100 times over. I'll find a way to make it work financially.

Once I get to Darwin, I may try to do some recording with some of the Aboriginal people that the P/deKs have worked with during their doctoral fieldwork. I think I can incorporate their stories into my "definitions of poverty" piece, since their lack of land is such a stark contrast to the situation of Papua New Guineans.

We're having a slide show on Wednesday night to show their pictures from Peace Corps/PNG and mine from this trip. Should be fun...

I also look forward to finding a wireless connection and showing you some of what I've seen. The sounds will have to come later.

So here's my last lukim yupela from PNG. Thanks for sharing the journey. From the next post on, it'll be g'day. Stay tuned.

S.