Hi everyone,

Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. I am sitting in a puddle of my own sweat in Madang. I thought Moresby was hot. This is another thing altogether. Huuuuumid. But it's the prettiest place I've ever been. Beach-wise, of course.

The end of my stay in Goroka was pretty quiet. We shuttled between town and ples both days. I rested, hung out with family, took pictures, recorded a little. The last night we had a goodbye dinner for me. It was a little hectic, since Moses (my "uncle") is standing for election and every night people have come to hear his thoughts and collect money to give him their votes. Yes, this is PNG politics. The election isn't until 2007, and it will only get more frequent (and more stressful for the women in the family, who have to provide food and tea for the visitors). Apparently this goes on until morning...and people frequently die over elections. Strange.

Anyway, we had a quiet dinner of taro, potato, kumu (greens) and rice. Then everyone gave me goodbye gifts. Bilum after bilum after bilum. Note to Mom and man bilong mi, there's one for each of you in my bag. I have about 6 of my own, plus two highlands hats.

I flew out of Goroka on Monday morning, after the plane finally arrived. It was a DC-8, one of those tiny little ones with about 40 seats. I couldn't fit my recording equipment in the overhead "locker," so I stuffed everything around me. Spent much of the hour-long flight making faces at the four-month-old girl sitting next to me on her mother's lap. I think she was half fascinated and half terrified.

Got to Moresby and my new friend Violet was there to pick me up. She took me to her office and then we went to the government building where the Secretary of Environment and Conservation was waiting for me. We had a half-hour interview, and then I started to investigate getting permission to bring the tapa cloth, two wood carvings and highlands hat with cuscus fur out of the country and into Australia (en route to the U.S.). Australia is apparently quite strict about wood and fur products... We finally had to go so I could catch my plane to Madang. At the airport, the computers were down, the lines were long and I'm really lucky Violet's friend checked my bag in for me and prepped my ticket.

Ended up waiting for the flight with a PNG woman who was heading back to Madang from D.C. She was pissed because an Australian guy had just told her the country was full of "jungle men and women." When she called him on it and said he was being rude, he said he was sorry but it was true. She was full of "we should do this"s and "we should do that"s, tons of ideas about how to improve PNG. I wondered if that was because she works for an American NGO (Nature Conservancy) or because she just came back from the U.S.

On the flight I sat next to the Central Province Juniors Netball coach. I am still not sure what netball is. I think it's kind of like basketball, but not exactly the same thing. We landed in Madang and WHAM, the heat hit.

My American friend, his PNG girlfriend and their daughter were there to meet me. We're staying in Jais Aben, a resort area that is maybe 15k north of Madang town. It's a stunning, beautiful, quiet peninsula surrounded by islands and birds I've never heard before. I had dinner with some of the nationals who work with my friend's organization and an Australian guy named Manrico who's here to talk about union organization. We had the most depressing conversation I've ever participated in, focusing mainly on the importance of land in PNG life and the way the Australian government has treated the Aboriginals. It's ugly what that government has done.

The guys want to talk to me about definitions of poverty tonight, and I'm excited. They all believe that PNG being a nation of landowners means its people are not poor. They have what they need and they resent having the definition of "poor" placed upon them by developed nations. Very interesting.

I went into town this morning to meet Jil, the PNG woman who is starting up Pathfinder International in PNG. We had a nice chat (on tape) and I'm heading in again tomorrow. Hopefully, once her American counterpart arrives tomorrow, we can go out to the Rai Coast District of Madang Province, where the project will take place, and I can see what they're doing to set up family planning services in the region.

Walked to Best Buy (ALONE! SAFE!) to buy some biscuits and Orchy (a mango-orange drink) and then to ANZ Bank to cash the first of my travelers checks. Yes, I'm running out of money. My friend's girlfriend took my tapa cloth, wood carvings and cuscus hat to customs to be sprayed. I have to present this certificate of quarantine to the Australian customs officials when I arrive on October 1st. Cost me K40, but I think it's worth it to cover my butt. Back at Jais Aben now. I keep retreating to the fan when life gets too hot. I don't have money to go diving/snorkeling, but this is definitely the place to do it.

Back to town when the truck makes its town run tomorrow for more talking with Jil. I want to get more into the family planning concerns here in PNG. She's trained as a nurse and has worked as a health educator for 20 years or so, so she has lots to say about it.

I'm happy, healthy (post-Cipro) and loving having my own room and bathroom in a peaceful, beautiful place. I'll try to write more in the next few days. Hope you're all well too!

S.