Marilyn and Kavieng

This is Marilyn waiting at the pmv (public motor vehicle) stop in Kavieng. It was quite safe and the people were very friendly. For less than forty cents you can catch a van and ride to Marilyn's stop. When I went alone, ladies asked me what my stop was and made sure that the driver stopped for me.

This is the store across the street from the bus stop. It is where I was standing to take Marilyn's picture in the above shot. It is quite a good store. Several different kinds of cheese, all the basics and even a refrigerated cabinet for Cadbury chocolate bars. This is my view of Marilyn's home and literacy center as I walked from the bus stop. Hers is the building on the right and to the left in the picture is a church. Marilyn's building has a classroom for literacy on the far left, an office in the middle and her one bedroom flat on the right. This picture was taken from the other side as I walked back from the beach. Here is the church with Marilyn's classroom, office and flat next door.

Her building is on a campus of the United Church. From the road this is looking toward the ocean at a classroom. It is so warm year round here that the classroom is made of cinder block, but has no windows. The walls go only half way up and then it is left open to catch the breeze for cooling. There are wide overhangs on all sides to protect from rain. If you look in the picture above, you will see that the church also only has half walls and is open above them. This is typical along the coast where it stays so warm.

Marilyn took lots of books with her to New Ireland. She had shelves built in her office and has them all carefully organized. Marilyn has told the people that when she is home the office door will be open and that means that they are welcome to come read. There are no libraries that I could find and very few bookstores, so it was quite a service to let people come read. I am trying to find a way to send more books out to Marilyn. When I came back from the beach these young men were all in the office quietly reading. They were delighted to have their picture taken.

This final picture I took from the office looking into Marilyn's flat as she was working on her computer. In all my pictures of Marilyn you might have noticed that she is wearing a meri blouse. This is what all the women wear. I also wore mine when on New Ireland. The people would always comment as we walked along the streets or they saw us in the stores, that we were wearing meri blouses. It was a way to honor them and their culture. Also a very comfortable way to dress!