A Swiss Tea Store in TPNG

We arrive at Barlow’s Flat. It’s a two bedroom flat, Carriers are renting for their unmarried workforce. It’s small, has two bedrooms and a common room which also has a bed, shower and WC, no cooking facilities. I get one bedroom, Willie lives in the other. I unpack my suitcase and find lots of Swiss Tea bags in the cupboard. All sorts of tea, including lots of herbal teas. 'Who owns these I ask?' 'I do' he answers, don’t worry you can have them if you like''.

A tea store in my cupboard

'Tell me about it', I say. 'Well', he explains, 'When I came to New Guinea, my mother (in Switzerland) wanted to know what I drink in this heat. I was too scared to tell her beer, so I said tea. So now she sends me tea every few weeks'.

The RSL club on Ela Beach is a great place. It’s situated right on the beach under lots of coconut trees and has a beer garden right under the trees. All patrons are white and we join the fellows we had met earlier at the Gateway Hotel. It seems drinking beer is the major past time in the Territory, but then again, it is very hot and humid.

By dinner time, we go back to the flat, have a shower and walk to the Watkins Mess across the narrow street from the flat. Willie explains that we eat all our meals there except during the week. Big Bev, the cook makes us sandwiches to take to work, but he adds that when we’re working in town, they usually go to the pub for a counter lunch. I’m going to like it up here.

     After dinner, we sit on the bed, and have a yarn about life in Papua New Guinea. I see a stuffed turtle under Willie’s bed poking it’s nose out and ask him where he got it. Oh, he says, When Urs Deutsch came up here, we went up to the Rona Pub for a drink, where a Native sold these things, we both bought one for ten bucks. So far for Urs walking through the jungle and shooting his turtle. I feel sorry for him, he keeps having his lies exposed.