Permanent Residents of Paradise

We have been reading a blog written by a long-term expatriate in Papua New Guinea. The blog is called Madang-ples bilong Mi, which translated means Madang-my place. Jan, the author of the blog lives with his wife on the edge of Madang Harbour. He has a dive boat and dives every weekend. His job is to maintain the computer network for the Pioneer Bible Translators who as the name suggests, translate the Bible into local languages. They both consider themselves to be Permanent Residents of Paradise and intend to spend the rest of their lives there. Jan's blog is here.

Madang is certainly a wonderful place...I taught there in 1964. Madang along with almost every other major centre in Papua New Guinea, unfortunately does not have the hospital facilities that the average country town in Australia has. Expatriates with serious medical problems usually fly south to Cairns or Brisbane to get treatment and Cairns is where Jan and Eunie are now seeking answers to what could be a major problem. Eunie's biopsies are not back yet and if the results are bad they may have to leave 'paradise' to seek proper treatment unavailable in PNG.

Over the last ten years or so we have thought of making a Sea Change or even a Tree Change and spending our 'golden years' down the south of our state. It is well that we didn't make that change as Joan needs to be close to major medical facilities and specialists for her ongoing battle with advanced cancer.

Yesterday we sold one of our cars, the Daewoo Nubira. We accepted $4,500 from a chap who I believe was born in the country formerly known as Yugoslavia. He was a pleasant big man. The car was for daughter No. 3 and man, did he give it a going over. He eventually decided to buy and pulled out a cheque book, but got quite insulted when I said I would accept a Bank Cheque or cash only. Being Saturday he couldn't get a Bank Cheque so had to go borrow cash from friends or family. So with a bone-crushing type handshake our Slobodan Molosevic lookalike put daughter behind the wheel and they drove away leaving us with just one more car to dispose of.