Shopping and Food Preparation

I, Tyronza, thought I’d share some concerning the shopping and food preparation for ourselves in PNG. To begin you must first get into town from Kudjip. The nearest town is Mt. Hagen approximately 30 miles away and the drive takes around 45-50 minutes. Actually, you have to start by getting a ride with one of the missionaries going into Mt. Hagen and we have to have a watchmon (a guard) with us. Basically, the watchmon keeps an eye on the vehicle.

After we pick up the watchmon and have a prayer for safe travel, we depart Kudjip and start dodging the many and deep potholes on the road to Mt. Hagen. We also keep an eye out for all the foot traffic along the road.

Upon arrival in Mt. Hagen, the bank is often the first stop to obtain the necessary kina (PNG money) for purchases. The current exchange rate is slightly less than two to one. Our first exchange at the airport of $200 gave us 377K. There are several small stores in Mt. Hagen. The main ones we shop in our Best Buy, the largest grocery, Brian Bell, it carries small appliances and Westpac, a very small grocery and meat market.

Food is expensive and anything other than the locally grown fruits and vegetables can be hard to obtain. If you find it, buy it, because it probably won’t be there next trip! Items I purchased in town recently range from a slow cooker (159K), napkins (6K for a package of 100), large can of mushroom pieces (5.5K), medium jar of mayonnaise (22.5K), 2 kilo brick of cheese (79K), 8 oz. butter (7.75K), pork mince (22.5K/kilo), large can tuna in water (20.95K), lamb necks (14.95K/kilo), beef mince (27.9K/kilo), can of cocoa (17.9K), can of tomatoes (5.75K) and small box of cereal (11.80K).

The final stop is the fresh market where there is a large variety of fresh produce and fruits sold, also live chickens. I purchase onions, potatoes, kaukau (yams), pumpkin (squash), kumu (greens), bell peppers, garlic, ginger, pineapple, bananas, coconut, and many other interesting edibles. 

After the return trip to Kudjip, groceries are sorted and stored away and fruits and vegetables are soaked in a diluted bleach solution for around 20 minutes. Then they are dried and stored for later use. As the meat is rather tough, the slow cooker gets frequent usage. I bake bread every 3-4 days. Scot and I typically have some of the other volunteers or missionaries over for meals once or twice a week. It is the evening’s entertainment.

My little oven and I are getting used to each other, but I certainly miss my Kitchen Aid! Scot is a great help in the kitchen, when he is available. We brought a “yonana” appliance with us and are enjoying making smoothies from the local fruit.

More to come later,

Tyronza