Monday, September 16, 2013

First 30 Days in the Land of Unexpected: 1

Upon reaching Lamana Hotel, I unpacked which was really ‘me’. I feel restless on travel if I don’t unpack immediately. After organizing my stuff since this will be my home for 3 weeks, I lied down and didn’t notice that I fall asleep and even missed the call of my boss. Upon waking up, I took a quick shower and decided to have lunch at the hotel restaurant. There I found 3 Filipino staff. We are everywhere!!! I did not convert the price of my lunch otherwise I wouldn’t be able to eat. This place is more expensive than Dili!

I had my local sim card loaded but I failed due to network error. I contacted Fr. Gerald through a land line and mentioned to him my issue with loading credit on my phone. He kindly volunteered to send me credit ‘pasaload’ and we agreed that he would pick me up at 2:30PM so he could take me around. We went to Vision City, the biggest mall to check the shops. I was happy to see all my toiletries available. There was also calamansi! According to Fr. Gerald, the Filipinos introduced it here. Most of the goods are expensive but the secret like any other countries is to refrain from converting; otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to spend. We went for a coffee at Figaro which I heard to be a franchise of a Filipino here. Since it was their 38th Independence Day celebration, I still found a few locals in their traditional dress and even got the chance to have a picture with a couple of them in Figaro. There were quite a number of locals moving around the mall but you’ll never miss a Filipino because you would bump into them as we were moving around.



A common sight on the grounds outside the mall is red stains which were spit on the ground of beetle nut. Chewing is a common tradition in PNG. Looking around, the landscape was nice with hills surrounding the city yet it’s very warm. However, the hills are slowly being bulldozed to pave way to infrastructure development. There is a lot of on-going construction work. PNG is one country which is blessed with so much and diverse natural resources. Natural gas and mining are two major industries here.

Fr. Gerald dropped me again at the hotel and after a few minutes, my boss came to see me to welcome me and we had informal meeting. He warned me that lamina hotel gets busy over the weekend because it’s a popular spot of expats for night life including a live band and a disco house.  


So far, my first impression of the city was good by looking at it physically. Things are yet to unfold as I start to learn PNG in-depth. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here if there are no social issues confronting the marginalized sector of this country. Grateful and thankful to Fr. Gerald Gutierrez for his kindness on my 1st day!

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