Madang is in Papua New Guinea , a bird-shaped island in the Pacific Ocean. Now it is an independent country, but, in 1970-72, when I had visited Papua New Guinea it was an Australian Trust Territory. The island is politically divided into two halves- one half is Papua New Guinea ? and the other half is West Irian or Irian Jaya, a province of Indonesia. The people in the two halves have similar physical features, but speak different tongues, and do not understand each other. The Papuans speak Pidgeon English, and the Irianese speak their tribal tongues over and above Bahasa Indonesia.
Port Morseby is the capital of Papua New Guinea. A coastal town, it is hot and humid. The towns like Leh, Madang and Goroka are beautiful, having a cool climate. We visited Madang once in 1971, on our way to Australia on Rest and Recuperation Leave as per the UNESCO Staff Rules. Again in 1972, my wife had sustained burns and was flown from Jaya Pura, West Irian, where we were living to Madang for treatment. She lived in the Cristian Hospital, very well managed by the Australians, and I lived in a Motel at Madang named Smugglers’ Inn . Excellent food at the Motel. I used to go to the Hospital after breakfast and return in the evening to the Motel.
Madang has a good market and a good Book Shop named Christian Book Shop. We used to spend quite some time at the Book Shop. During our first trip in 1971, we had gone to Goroka, where UNESCO has a Teacher Training Centre. Just a few kilometers from the Centre is a Papuan settlement.
We also visited the Summer Institute of Linguistics at Ukarumpa . At the SIL, they are
doing research on unwritten languages and preparing Orthographies.
If you want to know more about Papua New Guinea , read the famous book ’Gardens of War - Life and Death in The New Guinea Stone Age’ by Robert Gardener and Karl. G. Heider. The introduction to the book has been written by the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead. The film named ’Heaven Above and Mud Below’ speaks a lot about the life and culture of Papuans.