Robert@PNG

The Kopi Haus…

The local coffee shop!! And guess what? Doesn’t sell any coffee!!. A coffee shop that doesn’t sell any coffee. Man…. They have the best coffee in the world here and a coffee shop with no coffee !!!

Only in PNG.

This place is the main canteen on campus and I go here most days for lunch. What do I normally have for lunch I hear you ask…. : 1x Yam (or meat pie) + 1x Sandwich + 1x packet of twisties (twisties here are exceptional) + 1x small can of sprite (lemonade). The shop also sells ciggies, icecream, newpapers and other items of necessity (such as toilet paper).

Students and staff gather frequenylu at the Kopi Haus. Two old men come in everyday (except weekends) to sell newspapers, they setup “shop” on one of the tables and sell papers for K1.50 (about 60c). Most people don’t buy papers, they stand around the table and read the papers, sometimes there can be up to 10 people standing around, looking over each others shoulders, reading.

There is always someone at the Kopi Haus, it open’s between 6:30am and 10:30pm and you will always find someone there. I suppose back home on campus students would gather at the “bar” and have a beer. Here they gather at the Kopi Haus, chew some buai and smoke a spier. Lose “spiers” can also be purchased from the Kopi Haus at T40 a pop (around 15c). A spier is a single ciggie made with local tobacco and yes… rolled in newspaper. I haven’t tried one yet, they assure me it is very strong. Even stronger than a “spier” is what the locals call smok brus, which is locally grown tobacco that is sold at the markets. Newspaper is also used to roll smok brus.

Today I did’nt have lunch at the Kopi Haus. I had to go and pay my 1^st electricity bill and for this I had to go into town to the local energy office. Do I have a story regarding my trip into town? Of course !!!! Well, I caught the PMV into town and went to the energy office and stood in the queue, waiting, waiting, waiting. Just a word on queues in PNG, some people wait in queues and other people have absolutely no regard for queues, these people just go straight to the counter and ignore the fact that there are people waiting. This happens everywhere and I haven’t quite worked out how to deal with this one yet. Back home I would speak up. The strange thing is that some people do wait there turn and say nothing to the queue jumpers. Not sure how to handle this one yet. Anyway, back to my electricity bill… it turns out that they were going to charge me all the way back to beginning of 2005. I said : no way Jose… “I’m not paying this bill”. TO cut a long story short… I had to take the bill back to the Housing Department back on Campus and ask them to issue me with a new bill. If only they got it right in the 1^st place.

Inefficiency and mismanagement are prevalent in this country and people just seem to accept this as the status quo. I am starting to accept it. I know I am because the small things that used to bother me back at home, no longer do. Are you worried Mum ? I remember you saying to me before I left : “Please don’t turn into one of them”. Guess what Mum ? I think I am. One thing that will never happen though… my skin will never turn black !!!

Only in PNG….