Curious Things at my Ukarumpa House

Cockroach:

This is a cockroach.  He is not my friend.  I put the glass over him and then slipped a piece of paper under him and threw him out the door (then I washed the glass).  There are actually a lot more cockroaches in the village house but for some reason they don’t bother me as much as the ones I find in my Ukarumpa house.

Passion Fruit:

This is one variety of passion fruit or suga frut in tokpisin.  You can by a bunch like this for a couple Kina (less than a dollar) at the market.  The insides aren’t much to look at but it’s very sweet and tasty.

Water Tank:

This tank, filled by rain, is the source of our drinking water and clean washing water.  There is a system that pumps water in from a near-by river which runs from our hot water taps and laundry machine but that’s not healthy or safe to drink.

Clothes Dryer:

There are a couple clothes dryers in Ukarumpa but most people just hang their clothes outside.  This is great except when you hang your clothes out in the morning and it starts raining when you’re at work.

Garbage Disposal:

The sinks here do not have garbage disposals so all egg shells, carrot peelings, food scraps and other wet trash gets collected in a bucket and then emptied into this hole in the garden.

Burn Barrel:

In order to ease the amount of trash being collected each week, we are encouraged to burn our own burnables.  All paper trash, boxes, etc. are collected and then burned in barrels like these.  It is not unusual for people to burn yard scraps or other trash just in their yard.  Food gardens are also burned in preparation for planting.

Louvers:

Most glass windows in PNG look like this.  The panes or louvers open and shut with a handle.  The bars are for protection and to deter raskols from just removing the louvers and coming in through the window.

Socket On/Off Switch:

Sockets have switches here.  This way you can save power by turning off the electricity source on things that you otherwise would have to unplug.  Notice the different style plug.  PNG has the same plugs as Australia and everything runs on 240v instead of 110v (except for some houses which have been wired for both).