Leave it to the ants

I don't like ants. Granted there are some ants that I dislike more than others. There are the kinds that are tiny, scatter quickly but you can squish with your finger. There are those that are big and red and go nuts when a tree has been cut down. There are also the ants that are black and carry pieces of leaves twice their size and really just want to get the job done. So if you pick the leaf up they will hold on tight...because they are NOT going back to the queen ant empty handed.

When I was teaching in the states I had my students go outside and find different items in nature that we could sort and use to make a collage. One of my students had finished finding his items so decided to sit down and wait for the rest of the class. But to his surprise he sat on a red ant hill and quickly found out what they thought about that. This poor little boy ended up with welts all over his stomach and back. As I was walking him to the nurse he said, "Why did God make them?" I don' t know! I don't like ants.

During my 5 weeks of living in the village with a Papua New Guinean family, my friend and I took a walk to church. We saw that up ahead a tree hand fallen on the road. Thinking nothing of this we continued walking at our slow pace until we reached the tree. The family we were staying with were walking a good distance behind us and said that when we got close to the tree we started doing a "silly dance" and watched us run a good distance until we were far away from the tree. Their laughter quickly faded once they met the "instigators" of our dance! OH....those nasty red ants! They were vicious! One of them was so fast it bit me on the back! I will forever be cautious when I approach a fallen tree! Can you tell that I don't like ants.

Today, however, I had quite an interesting experience with ants. These ants, although fast, are not biters. When we went to do something with the circuit breaker a whole swarm of these tiny little ants can tearing out! So I called the electrician and when he came he sprayed the switches with bug killer and I wiped them all down. What a mess! Can anyone tell me why ants would want to make their home in the electrical circuits? Crazy ants. What I think is ironic is that it was really no big deal here to have ants in random places of your house. He sprayed, I wiped, he put the circuits back, and I went back to work.

Leave it to the ants.

GOING GREEN

The other day I wanted to make a dish that required canned green beans. I decided to go and buy a can instead of steaming the ones we got at market. After buying it I thought to myself, "This is crazy!" Fresh green beans are soooo much cheaper here than canned.

This got me thinking. How many green beans could I get for the same price as a can of green beans? Since we get canned and processed foods imported from America and Australia they cost more than getting the "organic" version at the market. In America it is such a big deal to buy organic but it is VERY expensive. Here in PNG people have never even heard of pestisides and everyone eats organic so they don't even think twice about it.

My roommate and I went on a mission. We bought one can of green beans for K3.90. Then we went to the Ukarumpa market which is set up outside on old wooden tables. Nationals come from all around on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to sell to the people here in Ukarumpa. They sell fresh produce, flowers and even artifacts such as wood carvings, string bilum bags, and paintings. The produce is likely picked the day before or the day of market. Walking into market you will see little piles of green beans set up nicely on tables, each with a price (often 20t). We bought K3.90 worth of fresh green beans to compare to the can. This was A LOT of green beans!

We brought them home, soaked them in bleach water to clean them, and then counted....316 green beans! HECK yeah!

I am pretty sure we will sharing with our friends!

PNG has already gone Green!