We wanted to show everyone what a typical day in town looks like for us when we go to pick up all the food needed for a conference... a day in the life of a supply run. :) First we load up the vehicle with all our boxes and coolers. A lot of times we take our larger truck but we didn't need as much for this supply run.
Then we are on the road...dirt road for 20-25 minutes, paved road for 25-30 minutes.
First stop, Bintangor Wholesale... to drop off our wholesale order and check to see if they have everything. We usually come back a few hours later, on our way out of town to pick it up.
They have a lot! But unfortunately, they never have everything on my list! Usually I am just thankful when they have the basics: flour, eggs, margarine and sugar.
We place our order and they let us know what they don't have, so I can try to find it somewhere else... it is like a scavenger hunt most days. :)
And since we are in town, we usually stop into a few Hardware stores so Jacob can check on a few things... You'll notice the name of the store... Hardware Haus, "We have it all!" Hmm.. not sure what their definition of "all" can be, must be different in this culture... because usually we can't find what we need... for example: Philips screwdriver, safety glasses, wood stain...
We wait in line a lot... Jacob needs to find some oil filters for one of our generators.
We usually bring in the part we need.. sometimes the pidgin language is hard to use when describing what we are looking for.
But usually they say, "Nogat, em i pinis". No, it's gone.
So then we are off to the next store, just to check.
Jacob and Marco, one of our Interns, doing some more waiting... just to find out... "Nogat, Em i pinis"...and they usually have no idea when they will have more.... looks like we will have to try again next time, or see if the port city has any.
Then we are off to pay the phone bill.
Towards the end of our time in town we go to this grocery store to pick up our meat order. I usually order the meat 2 weeks ahead of time, this way they have time to order the meat from the port city, if they need to.
Meet Willi the head butcher... he does quite a good job getting us our meat on time!
Sometimes during our supply runs we find a surprise! This time we found celery! I know it doesn't look like real celery that you find at home, but it is a nice find! I use it in soups and sauces a lot!
Time to check out and pay for everything... checkbooks are still very handy over here!
This is one of our favorite stores because it is the newest and cleanest one in town! And it usually has some of what we need!
Loading up the car...
On to the next store... Jacob does a great job as my chauffeur as we travel all over town on our scavenger hunt. :)
Picking up our wholesale items on the way out of town...
Now we are full! Just enough space for a few people and we are off!
PNG Road construction
On our way home we sometimes stop at the NTM Center store to pick up a few things.
This time we were excited to see American mayonnaise and American mustard!
This is my type of store... not too overwhelming because there aren't many choices. :)
While at the NTM Center we stop to pick up the mail for Interface. Usually it is a pretty empty mail box. Or just mail for our co-workers. :) Hint Hint... we love mail and packages! :)
Back on our Interface road again... which is constantly being fixed at the moment!
Jack, co-worker, working on the road.
Back at Interface... time to put everything away!
Just a few pineapple and papaya!
