Mad Brits at Boroko Food World

I’m afraid Sandra has made her stamp on PNG with her desire to teach practical science. The initial problem was NO RESOURCES (and trust me we mean NO RESOURCES). Never mind a trip to Boroko Food World (aka our favourite supermarket in PNG) to buy vital resources:

·         Bicarb of soda – no problem

·         Yeast – no problem

·         Vinegar – no problem

·         Alka Seltzer – no problem but v expensive

·         Film Canister – problem no empty ones so had to buy a film as well

·         Balloon – problem – we had to ask the boss a lovely Chinese man who always brings us the special card machine every time we pay with a credit card. He could only find an inflated balloon from a display. Phil and Sandra saw this as a challenge. Wouldn’t you know it though after an hour of patient persuading the balloon broke!! Phil was, at this point, not pleased (you see Phil is still grumpy). Fortunately we got a balloon from a nearby school.

Our trainee teachers were treated to exploding film canisters, rising dough, expanding yeast plus Sally and Simon the snowmen and the sheer pleasure of being blood vessels.

With Sandra’s food allergies getting worse and worse, now not eating any wheat (not a biscuit, cake, slice of bread) and even now not drinking soy milk, special treats are few and far between.  Enter the very important role of the Crunchie!!  Crunchie is one of the few things that can be eaten and enjoyed, trouble is that it is only about once a week that we ever find one.

Phil decided that the time had come to ask the previously mentioned, very nice Chinese man about the supply of Crunchies.  On Friday evening we approached him.  He happened to be with another man, obviously an important man in the supply chain of Crunchies.  They assured us that new supplies were expected on Saturday and that they would save us some.  We didn’t really hold out much hope.  Imagine our delight, when on Saturday we approached said Chinese man and he immediately rang his colleague to find out where the precious Crunchies were.   To Sandra’s delight, the entire box of some 40 bars had been secreted in the tobacco section – JUST FOR US!!! We bought 10 bars(they only cost about £1.30 each here!), most of which(as we haven’t been greedy) are stored safely in the fridge.  Little things please little minds………..!

We finally moved into our new house at the weekend.  It is absolutely amazing! We are so very lucky, the guys who have built it have put such effort into it and have paid so much attention to really beautiful detail.  We are slowly beginning to make it feel like home by adding some personal touches, such as photos and pictures which we had brought from the UK(notice we don’t say home – PNG is our home now).

Interesting……………………just went to put some more dirty crockery in the dishwasher(yes, the new house has one) and have found that it is empty.  We think that means that the haus-meri has taken it out and washed it by hand?????