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Papua New Guinea, Nuts to You
If you travel, perhaps you have been somewhere that confuses you a bit, where things don't quite add up, where you can't get a good sense of where you are. Perhaps that happens geographically, because it seems like some places you have been, and unlike any place you have been as well. Perhaps its the local culture, the people, unlike any you have encountered. Perhaps its the economy, you can't get the monetary conversion right; it's cheap one place and ridiculously expensive another. Perhaps it's security, and you can't decide whether all the happy smiling people are friendly, or whether, in a different circumstance, they would steal everything you possess. What if it's all those things. What if every ten minutes or so, someone says something that you just can't quite believe the said. Like "that guy with the crutches on the road, I had to shoot his leg, during the siege, when the village elder told the locals it's okay to take our farm and kill us." But then you just sorta wave and drive on. Isn't that sorta odd? Okay, that's extreme. What if you were at work, and there was an argument with a visitor, and he punched you in the face, and everyone you work with just waited to see how it turned out, rather than helping and later they all said they were "there for you" and were extremely nice and caring. Things that seem one way change quickly in PNG, apparently, and trust is in very rare supply. The stories like these were pretty much endless, as well as very different ones that were much more heartening. It gives depth the the lit-crit term "multiple narratives", and makes a brief visitor like me think this is a very complex place, and somewhere not quite like any other place. -Tom
Coffee picker in PNG
Coffee picker in PNG

Many of the women (and men too) have small facial tatoos that are either tribal or familial....

Showing me how it is done
Showing me how it is done

He insisted on a crash course in coffee picking for me... . Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea...

All thumbs.
All thumbs.

Complete instructions on correct harvesting technique, courtesy of a local picker. These are...

Papua New Guinea Typica
Papua New Guinea Typica

The majority of the coffee is Typica here, which suits the climate, and produces less so people...

Large Typica trees under shade
Large Typica trees under shade

This is quite typical for the shading and spacing of coffee plantings in PNG, perhaps more...

Krazy goaty smiles...
Krazy goaty smiles...

Something is just so odd about that mouth! . Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. Sweet Maria's...

Blue Tarp Drying
Blue Tarp Drying

This was a little depressing, especially since it was raining like crazy most days we were there...

IMG_7668
IMG_7668

. Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. Sweet Maria's

IMG_7669
IMG_7669

. Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. Sweet Maria's

Burned Down
Burned Down

The family house at Boroida burned down last year after some electric work was done. All that...

Cherry Sorting
Cherry Sorting

The coffee cherry bought at the mill, or the cherry they go out into the communities to buy, is...

John Gordon pulpers
John Gordon pulpers

The mill is undergoing some improvements, and they are building new fermentation and washing...

Coffee cherry entering the pulper
Coffee cherry entering the pulper

Plentiful water allows the mill to transport cherry without being too concerned with resource...

Coffee Pulp
Coffee Pulp

After peeling the skin, the pulp is collected for composting . Eastern Highlands, Papua New...

Chris Colbran
Chris Colbran

Chris at the buying station on the farm. . Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. Sweet Maria's...

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