our trip to PNG

After 7 years away, I went back to Alotau in PNG, where I lived for 6 years, initially as a volunteer with Australian Volunteers International. I took the girls to meet their Bubus (grandparents) and the rest of their extended family, and we stayed in the village in Milne Bay. What a wonderful adventure. I hadn't realised how much I missed PNG and my friends up there.

I am so, so grateful that my girls have an exposure to a life that is different to the one that we lead here in Canberra - that they understand that not everyone in the world turns on a switch for light or opens a fridge for food, or has a bath or shower at their house. I am thankful that they have had more exposure to their culture than they can get here, and I am indebted that they will have a loving, accepting place that they can run to when they are older if they ever need to.

The girls had a fantastic time running around with their cousins, bathing in the river, buying food at the market, learning to speak tok pisin and meeting lots of people. Hopefully I can take them back every few years and it isn't so long before I return again.