It All Began with Coffee.

The special coffee Harish gave me is almost gone. I could be sad, but my dresser top still has plenty of other kinds of coffee sitting on it left for me to drink, including Blue Mountain and Eight O'Clock French Vanilla flavored coffee.

Something I've learned is that getting the perfect shot takes time. You have to be willing to spend time taking in your surroundings and focus on what's going on. When you're photographing people, if you blend in and act invisible they'll accept your presence and feel comfortable and if you stay long enough they might just ignore the camera. I learned this before, but it's being reinforced in Photojournalism class.

I miss PNG Kina so much. Large, heavy coins and plastic-y notes, and every one of them displaying the beautiful Bird of Paradise, Papua New Guinea's national bird. I remember rising bright and early at 6 in the morning and walking to the market place of Ukarumpa to buy home grown vegetables and fruits for my four sweet little guinea pigs. 

Romeo, one of "the four's" pups

Sometimes, on a cool June day I'd wake up to a blanket of fog covering everything until the glorious sun would burst through, strong and furious. After getting my coin purse and bilum from my closet, and grabbing a couple of plastic bags from the laundry room cupboard, I'd set out on the rocky dirt roads to the market, a short distance away. Upon my arrival, I would glance around from table to table and watch the Papua New Guinean vendors talk among themselves in the trade language, and as I did, a strange peacefulness would come over me. "Emi hamas?" I'd say as I pointed to a heaping pile of orange carrots, and the vendor would reply, "Emi Wan Kina." Holding out my plastic bag gingerly, I would allow the vendor to carefully drop the carrots in the bag before thanking her and carrying on to find a pile of green beans. Those were the days.