Keeping up with Beth

I made it to PNG safety, and totally ready for the adventure. Flying over the country was so beautiful, with so many mountains, and a few settlements while the rest appears completely untouched. I was sat next to a local, who noticed my obsession with starring out the window and started talking to me about PNG. He pointed out that in that moment we were flying right above his home village, and you could see it right out the window. It was so breathtaking. He also showed me where the boundary of his village was and how far it went, and telling me so many facts about he beautiful land of Papua New Guinea. It was fascinating to have someone as captivated by their homeland as a first time visitor, I could feel his passion and his excitement for returning home. He asked me about what I was doing visiting PNG as its obviously not the normal place for young females to go travelling especially solo, so I explained I was joining the YWAM ship, to volunteer with their work. He told me he had memory of the ship passing through his home village sometime last year, and seemed super interested in the fact he was meeting someone to be part of that. I felt super inspired by the fact that this man had heard of the work YWAM does, and to hear he had had some impact from it, was super awesome, before I even stepped onto the boat.

We landed and I grabbed my stuff, ready to find my hotel, and try relax and prepare myself for the next couple of weeks.

As per I had some troubles and was wondering back and forth for a few minutes before realising I wasn’t going to find it myself and asking for help. The guy I asked was more than happy to help me and while we were waiting for the transfer car to arrive, he struck up conversation and we chatted for a bit.

After a while the car still hadn’t arrived, so he told me to head back inside, to call and find the car and wait in the aircon.

I have no problem with heat, and I had already acclimatised since I’d been in Australia already, and I really love feeling warm. But once you’ve been in the warm, lugging stuff round, without even realising I was feeling really warm. Nothing compared to the feeling of walking back into the cool aircon and not having to worry about melting into a puddle at any second.

Inside, the people were just as lovely and wanted to help as much as they could, and kept comforting me that the car would be there soon. I wasn’t too fussed, I didn’t mind waiting, I just waned to know I was in the right place and I was going to make it to the hotel preferably without having to pay for a taxi. The people I was stood with now, were all reps from various hotels across Port Moresby. It short of shocked me that they were so helpful, and so adamant on getting me to the right place, and looking after me. I feel like in the Uk or Australia, its such a different culture, you can ask for help, and you get a short curt response and maybe a little direction, but they wouldn’t necessarily push themselves out of their way to help you or make sure you are safe.

I was blown away instantly by the kindness and hospitality of the PNG people. Before I arrived we’d been given information about PNG to give us a taste for it, but I couldn’t imagine being greeted with such incredible hearts.

The transfer arrived after a while and I bid goodbye to the amazing people who greeted me, and set off on my way. I had gotten a booklet giving a little welcome info about PNG and what to expect and was in the car reading it, and was trying to catch up, but I looked up for a moment and decided my reading could wait. I wanted to appreciate the views I was driving past. While I wanted to experience PNG I wasn’t sure how much I could get out, so I thought I would take in this new location. I had no idea how different PNG would be. I figured since I was in a city it would be not too dissimilar away from any other city I would go to. I was so wrong. Everywhere looked like the pictures you see if you look up PNG. I was expecting the most remote places to have those aesthetics, not the capital city. It was such a shock, but I loved it. I wanted to take in as much of this new surrounding as I could. I only had a few weeks in PNG and at that 2 days in the city, so I kind of wanted to just enjoy the time I had around. It was awesome.

We made it to the hotel, and I arrived at the reception. There isn’t too much to tell from there, just how incredible the kindness of the people was and how their hearts were so open to serving- whether it was their job or not, they want to give so wholeheartedly.

I decided that PNG wasn’t the place to travel round and do the whole backpacker thing, so I decided to make the most of the fact that I had a whole hotel room, and entire room with 2 beds all to myself, with a pool right outside. I wanted to make sure I was safe first and foremost, and I wanted to enjoy the time I had free, so I had a few days to enjoy before I began my trip with YWAM.