Asde yu bin baim wanem kain kaikai long maket?

Roughly translated, "What kind of food did you buy at the market yesterday?"

I've collected a handful of books and we're trying to learn Tok Pigin which is the local trade language in Papua New Guinea. We elected to skip the Pacific Orientation Course which is where missionaries typically go for 6-12 weeks  before coming to Ukarumpa. Since we were only committing to 1 year, it's considered optional and we decided to come directly here and begin serving straight away.

However, the disadvantage of doing that is not getting a handle on the local language. So, it's up to us to learn as much as we can on our own.

But getting back to the market… besides feeling completely out of place and like everybody was looking at us, we found some really great food and other items there. We got; potatoes, bananas, lettuce, strawberries, a bilum (a shoulder bag), and some necklaces for the girls to send home to friends.

Our first view of the Market

It felt kind of silly using the little tok pisin we know to ask what something was called, only to have them tell us the English word :). So now I'm not sure if they use the same word, or if they just were telling us what we would call it!

The artifacts section

 There are also several cultural things you need to be aware of. For example, you should never step "over" someone's food, especially if you're a woman. They consider the food contaminated if that happens. Also, they stack all their food so that the nicest is on top and the rotten stuff is underneath and hidden. So it's considered rude to touch it and move it around to see what they've tried to hide. And if you don't have exact change, you shouldn't just let them keep the change, because then you've made them indebted to you, and you don't want to do that unless you have a relationship with them.

There is a professional security force called "Guard Dog" and you'll see the guards on patrol all around Ukarumpa

Anyway, we managed to survive, but it was admittedly a bit uncomfortable. I look forward to when we can visit the market and we don't think anything more of it than going to the grocery store back home.