PNG Photo Journey 9: Kerema Market

Kerema by air as we depart. It's fun to be on a plane that allows you to use your electronic equipment! I have about a half hour of video footage from this plane ride that I will be able to view someday!

For today's photo journey I thought we'd take one last look at Kerema by touring the local market. Now imagine that the temperature is over 90 degrees and it's humid, but that's not going to stop you from doing some late afternoon shopping. So here we go!

Kerema post office is in the distance behind the basketball court on the right. You can see some shop stands in the left past the court.

Peace! (My friend chillaxes on an empty shop stand...nothing for sale today.)

T-shirts and meri blouses for sale.

Busy Kerema street during rush hour! It doesn't usually look this busy but there may have been a sale that day.

Kerema is a good place to buy bananas and betelnut. But what you really want is the pineapple. Oh, and the tapoica chips are also yummy.

Big Kerema intersection. Great place to bump into a friend and have a chat for a bit. That's the post office behind the AIDS sign.

More corner shops. Buy stuff here cheap. The wood stands are stradling a gully. The smaller stands under the umbrellas are where you pick up your addictive substances such as cigarettes and betelnut.

And another shop selling various snacks. This man reaches deep in his back pocket to purchase a stick of gum.

A few Papuan fellows outside the old bank are having a good time hamming it up for the camera. This community proved to be very amiable but friendly. If you offered a greeting it was always returned, yet usually required some initiative on our parts.

Kerema was our home for six weeks and we poured a lot of love and devotion into this place, only to have returned to us a hundredfold. Everyday there brought its share of challenges, yet it was worth it to be there to see the community transformed during our time there. We already miss this place and expect our travels will someday bring us back. Until then we say in Pidgeon "Geev' um praiz lon Papa God."