Then and....Now!

We have just returned from a week in Port Moresby. Many of you know that I am still involved with the work of Bible Society in Papua New Guinea on a voluntary basis. On this occasion, our younger set of twins thought it would be a good opportunity to tag along and for the first time, since leaving PNG in 1972, return to their origins and to a people among whom they were born. I was delighted that they wished to do this and there was no way that Carol would stay behind. They had an absolute ball!!

We just had a few days and there were so many experiences that it will take a few blog chapters to cover the trip. This blog is about 'Then and....now!' I thought it would be rather different to show a comparison of photographs of Port Moresby and us around 1970 and Port Moresby as it was last week.

The idea came to me when we were having a drink in the hotel and were served a very yummy smoked salmon mini aperitif by Emmanuel who told us that he came from the area around Laiagam in the Highlands. His face lit up when I mentioned that I had driven through Laiagam in 1965. At that time there had not been a conventional sedan on this so called road. It was more a muddy track. I told him that along the side of the road there was a local lady (could even have been his grandmother), who had just caught a couple of rats and was ready to cook them for her family to eat. NOW....from fried rat to smoked salmon lightly fried is quite a contrast, don't you think?

So here goes with how Tim & Heather were in 1970 - Tim is driving!.......then how they viewed things in 2006Port Moresby in 1970.....Here is the comparison last week! Note how the city changed. There was just one multi-storey building with a lift in 1970. Today, it is quite different. Here is another....Looking from the opposite direction from our hotel window:In 1970 a policeman would be on point duty here on the corner of Musgrave Street & Douglas StreetToday, this is replaced with this view, including new buildings:Revisiting the home in Chinsurah Street where they lived as babies was a rather special experience:But oh, how things have changed. Rather than one of the more peaceful and well kept streets, it is now quite the opposite:Mabata Street was the other street where we lived and where we thought there might be a glimmer of memory. But that was not to be. Here is the house we lived in before returning to Oz in 1972. Note the verandah; Tim climbed over the balustrade and fell some 2.5 meters and survived! Praise God!Here is the same house - well, what you can see of it, today. It looks much worse than Chinsurah Street, but actually wasn't. The two coconut palms on either side of the drive were planted by us:The Baptist Church where Tim & Heather were dedicated to the Lord is much the same, though there are some changes (note the blonde (wig!) in a mini skirt - yes, that is Carol!):Here it is today:Music in churches has changed everywhere, including Papua New Guinea. Where once I played the organ:- there is now a band, wonderfully led and inspirational:From Pastor Keith Redman in 1970to Pastor Ron de Gray Birch, with a somewhat different looking podium:A visit to Bomana War Cemetery will be covered in a later blog, but I just wanted to show Carol in 1970and compare this to how she looks in 2006 at the same place. Certainly the skirt length is noticeably different!For many reasons, we enjoyed revisiting the start of the Kokoda Track (more in a later blog) and we couldn't resist a photo take at McDonald's Corner. Here Brenda dealt with Mark in 1970:Heather tried to deal with Tim, but it wasn't quite the same!Back in Port Moresby, a Fairfax Harbour cruise noted the changed appearance of the old BPs Passenger Liner Macdhui, bombed by the Japanese in 1942:Here it is today:

Wait for the next chapter of this special visit!