It's been 4 whole weeks!

Can you believe it? We’ve now been living and functioning in a foreign country for 4 entire weeks, and in the world’s 3^rd least liveable city, no less!

What’s it been like? Well, it’s been exciting, terrifying, awesome, interesting, entertaining, humbling, exhausting, stressful, frustrating and amazing all at once.
There are things that I love, things that drive me nuts, and things that make me shake my head a laugh.

I also need to stop making naïve assumptions based on my Australian/First World experience. For example, I made a comment to an Aussie expat about how woeful PNG driving standards are and wondered out loud how some people were able to get their driver’s licence. He shook his head and laughed at my assumption that everyone would have a licence.

On the serious side, we’ve been advised that security incidents and robberies tend to increase here in the lead up to Christmas, so to be extra vigilant. The Port Moresby Nature Park that we visited a couple of weekends ago was held up with makeshift guns on Sunday afternoon, and two people were shot. There was also an armed robbery near the Australian High Commission compound in Town. Having said that, I am still yet to hear any gunshots myself. One of my other colleagues said she hears them from her compound almost every night. There have also been reports of a few riots and political uprisings around the provinces, namely Lae, Mt Hagen and Oro. However, there hasn’t appeared to be any of those in Port Moresby since we’ve been here (touch-wood).

To finish off, we had an awesome weekend last weekend. Saturday was a jam packed day. In the morning we set off to the Ela Beach Markets to check out what they had and to watch a ‘sing-sing’. Afterwards we went and did the grocery shopping then headed to the International Food Day at Bree’s school. Many families brought food from their homelands to share, and it was amazing. It was a great experience to be at an international school, eating homemade international cuisine, surrounded by people from all corners of the globe. After our busy Sat, Sunday was a nice leisurely day, just hanging out and swimming at the pool. Our whole weekend reminded me that these experiences are the reason I took the job and brought the family with me.

I was going to post some more pics, but I'll be here all day waiting for them to upload. I'll try again later.

Finally, is anyone reading this blog? If so, please leave a comment so I know who you are.

Till next time....


Gorgeous dancers from Bougainville



My boys enjoying the international food

International Food Day

First week recap

We've survived our first week in Port Moresby - yay!
To say I've been on an emotional roller coaster is the understatement of the year. However, the nagging doubts are slowly fading and life is getting easier.
Bree is so happy with her school that she thanked me for bringing her PNG. That has eased my concerns quite a lot. Matt & Lachie are developing a good routine with Lachie's distance education program. We should receive a parcel in the next week or so with work and reading books for him to use. Having said that, Lachie's missing his best buddy from home. Hopefully we can schedule a Skype call for them in the next couple of days.
On Tuesday I finally got my PNG driver's licence. OMG, it took over two hours and the photo is absolutely hideous. The photographer kept telling me to put my chin down, which made my double chin squish out, and because of that I had to almost look upwards, so my eyes look deranged. The best way to describe it is I looked like the alien guy from Men in Black that wore the people's skin.
We've also been making use if the wonders of iMessage. It's enabling us to text home without the international charges - sweet!

So it's been nearly a month......

Oops. I've well and truly fallen off the blogging bandwagon. My excuse is that the past month has been crazy, which it has.

The biggest news is that we're in Port Moresby (finally).

It felt like such a mammoth effort to get here, and after 3 days in-country, we're starting to feel some level of normality. To say we were feeling the effects of culture shock would be the understatement of the year. I was terrified that we'd made the wrong decision. Both Bree and Matt were freaking out and my protective mothering instincts were in overdrive. Adding to the stress was that our accommodation was pretty average, and my favourite uncle died on the day we arrived.

It really has been a hard week emotionally for all of us.

ON the good side, we've moved into much more suitable accommodation at the Holiday Inn in their brand new apartment building. They also provide free WiFi - sweet! I also got the keys to my car today and have managed to not only drive it, but successfully navigate my way around. We also took Bree to see her new school. The Principal was so lovely and welcoming, and the students all seemed to like her. The girls in Bree's new class all flocked to say high. They were so excited to have a new girl in their class, and a few of them know her friend from her Aussie school who lived in PNG previously.

We're still a little nervous, but the anxiety levels are dropping as time passes on.

Til next time.......

Day 6: What am I afraid of?

After feeling down in the dumps yesterday, I am feeling much better. So lets get cracking on today's blog challenge: my fears.

Spiders
Spiders give me the heebie jeebies, although I'm getting better as I get older. Small ones are fine, and I can cope with big hairy huntsman's high on my wall, provided they don't move, and are nowhere near my bedroom. However, if they move, they're dead.

Confined space
I can cope with elevators and other small spaces with out any issue. I'm talking about really squishy spaces, like crawling through squeeze holes in cave. My heart is beating faster just thinking about it. It's not the space, so much as the fear of being stuck that freaks me out.

My kids safety
Nothing frightens a parent more than a threat to their child. Hell hath no fury like a mumma protecting her babies!

Making the wrong choice
This one is tied to my depression. I can tell when I'm really down because I cant make simple decisions like where to meet someone for coffee, or what to make for dinner. I'm so worried about making the wrong decision that I just cant make one. It only affects decisions that affect other people. It's almost a fear of upsetting someone.

So there you have it, day 6 of 30! That's one fifth of the way through. Tomorrow's blog: My 5 favourite songs.

Til next time xxx