Off to the Shops…

In Telefomin we have around 9 “stores” and a vegetable market. When they are fully stocked you can get a fair range of goods, but nothing like Asda, Coles or Sobeys, they usually don’t have more than a few shelves, like in the picture. The food includes packets of crackers, tinned fish & meat, rice, flour, vegetable oil, instant noodles, sugar, salt, 3-in-1 coffee sachets, chewing gum (only 1 variety), some sell coca cola, but most don’t have fridges. Then lots of practical items like batteries, matches, bush knives, cooking pots in a variety of sizes, clothes (usually 2nd hand) and a few random other items. Imagine a dry-goods store in pioneer days, but everything in tins or plastic wrappers, are you get pretty close…

This is Rhona & Martin, friends of ours. Rhona attends the Church Ladies’ Fellowship and Martin drives the Ambulance. As we know them, we try to shop in their store when we need some of the local items. However, we are very blessed in being able to do our grocery shopping in the towns and fly in our food, so we are not restricted to the local diet. As I (Shiv) love to bake, this is a HUGE blessing for me!

You can see that Rhona & Martin sell a few unusual items (compared to the other Trade Stores, they sell nappies, garlic and brown onions, but they items quickly sell out.