First 30 Days in the Land of Unexpected: 3

Life away from home is difficult without internet access. There is one at the hotel business center but you can only use it for 30 minutes then the guy at the concierge would ask you to come back later. Nights are also not complete without it and without posting a picture or a status about my adventure in the ‘land of unexpected’.

I queued at Digicel to buy a wireless modem and also to find out why I cannot top-up or check my balance using my blackberry handset. I queued in 3 lines for different purposes, unfortunately, I left without a modem and my issue on the phone unresolved. They ran out of stock of the modem and my blackberry needs to be reset which I am hesitating of doing. I might end up buying a cheap unit where I can use to top up and set my monthly subscription to the internet. 

An old friend came to the rescue in the evening who took me to another Digicel office and I found the wireless modem for free! Not free from Digicel but free from my friend who gave it to me as a welcome present! Now, I am happy because I am connected to the world. The same person took me to a Chinese restaurant and I had proper dinner tonight!

At lunchtime, Fr. Gerald took me to “ChaoMasters”, a Filipino restaurant. It was a buffet restaurant which costs $30 each. It’s a complete set of menu from appetizer to dessert. There’s always a place to run to, if you miss a Filipino dish! Apologies for putting costs in everything here, I am just finding it really expensive! In the long run, I am sure I’d end up not doing this. We found Filipinos there, of course! A group of ‘pinoys’ in one table lively reminisced their childhood games comparing with the new generation type of games but before that they were seriously discussing the PDAF scam. Along the course of the conversation, I learned that the owner of the restaurant has been in PNG for 28 years and other pinoys are counting 20++ years here! One of them shared that his family was excited to be going to the Philippines but after two weeks of holiday in our ‘bayang magiliw’ they already wanted to come back to PNG. A pinoy pride maybe, one of them mentioned that Filipinos in PNG are highly regarded and all of them occupy managerial positions. I did not bother telling them what my position is, because having grown in a working environment where designation is not a big deal, it doesn't matter to me!