2 December
Jacinta
We left with a plan to find Mula and go to the block that the family own. His phone connection has been sketchy so we were hoping to bump into him on the road somewhere. Sure enough as soon as we stepped out there he was on the corner chewing his favourite nut (buai)
We caught a PMV and headed to the block. It’s a gorgeous piece of rainforest on top of a hill, with view to the beach. Other than a few little houses, the 25 acres is largely untouched. We hiked through with Mula’s help.
We headed back in to town sweaty and muddy (well only I seemed to end up muddy?), to meet Amos for lunch, on his work break.
Hotel number 1 had no seafood or salad. How can a restaurant in Manus run out of seafood!? Hotel number 2 was good to go with fish and chips. It felt extremely luxurious to be eating a meal at a hotel. Complementary coconuts. It was so good to catch up with Mula and Amos.
We dropped in to the pharmacy on the walk home for some supplies and PJ connected with the pharmacist. We got some very helpful information on how he can prescribe remotely and what we can do to potentially help some relatives.
We got back to the guest house, and as I described yesterday, no water…. So we packed and tried to work out what to do with the enormous pile of lovely bilums we have been gifted. It’s not simple to get them to Australia as they are all made of natural materials.
We were so happy to see Nawes, PJ’s sister who dropped in later on. We have not been able to spend any time with Nawes since we had the ‘culture food’ together and I had just spoken about her when she arrived. We caught up, and she was keen to see pictures of the girls.
Our final night in Lorengau. We had a bucket shower, as the whole town’s water supply was still off. I was relieved to get clean by whatever means necessary. Dinner was 2 minute noodles in bed, served in rice cooker bowls, the only bowls in the kitchen. The noodles were a gift from our friendly neighbour Bobby, who is in Manus as a sea cucumber buyer. The sea cucumber season is coming to an end but is still going strong. His business partner just arrived and has taken up chain smoking indoors. It ended up being a bit of a wild night at the guest house with not a whole lot of sleep.
Living the high life tonight.
