How tall are your fingers?

That was the memorable question posed in a newspaper competition this week – it is unclear what the prize is, so perhaps just the undoubted prestige that comes from being the owner of the tallest fingers in Madang!

This week has flown past. The work side of things has gone really well and socially it's getting ridiculous – I was grateful for a quiet night in tonight after having been out most nights this week. I have also been very happy to find that I have had a lot more contact with PNG folks, partly because I have made a concerted effort on a few occasions to avoid the other foreigners, and also because for whatever reasons my social groups this week just happen to have been more integrated this week.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting contrast: hiking through some villages in the morning, and a cocktail party at night at the Madang Club with a 'hats and hair' theme. I'm not sure whether I need a hat seeing as how I have hair, but am assuming that just the hair will be sufficient. I was at the Club the other night and it was a rather surreal experience. In almost every way it felt like being at a club in North Queensland but with a few minor details changed, as if in a dream. The traditional meat tray raffle had become a bag of roast chicken, the beer was SP, and the ethnic mix was a bit different (PNG staff and customers, Chinese owner and customers, and assorted westerners and other Asians), but the bar, the lighting, the notice boards and seating area could all have been transplanted from Innisfail.

I can notice that I am settling in now. I am far more comfortable in all situations and am interacting better with people generally; at the shop, the staff morning teas, with the students. I am finding my rhythm and working out how I can be myself in this context, and the response I am drawing from people around me is easier and even friendlier as a result. I have had a few comments from people that they like the fact I carry a billum now rather than a handbag: I suppose that is a pretty universal human response no matter where you are… everyone likes to see their own behaviour reflected back at them as a mark of respect and of validation of their own culture.

Another sign of my feeling more at home here is that I am having to think harder to find content for this blog, as things which would have struck me as noteworthy just a week ago are slowly becoming the norm. I am sure someone somewhere has done a study on this, but I definitely feel as if I am moving through this transition in clear weekly stages, starting with the first week of disorientation, then the second week of struggle and resistance, followed by this last week's acceptance. Who knows what next week will hold!

Lukim you!