Sunday, October 25, 2009

Emailing: WWII 009.jpg, WWII 012.jpg, WWII 013.jpg, WWII 016.jpg, WWII 020.jpg, WWII 022.jpg, WWII 024.jpg, WWII 028.jpg, WWII 032.jpg

There are several WWII war planes and machine guns in the Madang area.
Today we ventured out to find a Japanese war plane that isn't far from town.
We found it with only a little difficulty. You just have to ask the right
person. We stopped to ask a few people on the road and some people we asked
just gave us a blank look. You're looking for what?! In the end we had
four tour guides from a village that was very close to the plane. I have to
admit I was a little nervous just because you never know who you can trust.
Turns out our guides were very trustworthy and we even made a few new
friends. We even got one guys cell phone number because he wants to take
Andrew and Caleb (when he comes to visit) around in the bush to see more
WWII stuff like tanks and jeeps and who knows what else! Seriously, you
take Snax Beef anywhere in this country and you'll make new friends
instantly. The plane was at the end of a longish, muddy bush road. It is
an area where there is an old airstrip from the war. We even identified two
bomb marks - there were two perfectly round ponds on the side of the road
that we are almost certain were made from bombs. The plane was much bigger
than we were expecting. Our 'guide' told us that the plane was perfectly
intact until 2007 when some locals decided to cut it apart to get scrap
metal. After looking at the plane we decided to check out one more spot
where there were some old machine guns. Here we had quite the following of
pikinini (children). I couldn't stop laughing as they trailed behind our
truck - almost running faster than we were driving. Our outing was fun AND
educational.

Photo 1: Bill and Snax Beef with two of our tour guides (the 3rd one stayed
with the truck to guard it and I don't know where the 4th one went to).
Photo 2: The tail laying on the ground.....scrap metal is invaluable. :)
Photo 3: The view from the front of the plane
Photo 4: You can still make out the red circle from the Japanese flag
Photo 5: Bill trying out all the levers
Photo 6: Snax Beef getting a lift from the tour guide. It was pretty muddy.
Photo 7: See all the pikinini?
Photo 8: Checking out the machine gun
Photo 9: A propeller with a message - literal translation: Jesus got up
again

3 posts in a one night - whoa!

1 comment:

Karla said...

What do snax beef taste like?? I need a comparison so I can imagine their flavah.