The End of an Era: 8 Skills I Never Expected to Learn

When you move to a different country and culture, it’s not surprising that you need to learn new skills in order to thrive. So, for the next stage of the countdown, here are some skills that I’ve learned in the past 15 years since moving to Papua New Guinea:

1. Bleaching vegetables without destroying my clothes.

Bleach is much more significant in my life here in the tropics than ever in England. And the bottles even have our name on them! When I first arrived and lived in a remote village, it was the fundamental resource for a healthy life, whether cleaning cuts, washing dishes, or disinfecting food. As a result, all my clothes gradually (or not so gradually…) acquired a delightful pink-spotted effect from bleach water splashes. These days, in a less hostile environment, we use it less, but still need it for the vegetables.

I buy vegetables at the 6.30am market, then we soak everything in water with a dash of bleach to kill any bugs. The key thing I’ve learned is to put the carrots in very carefully: I’ve ruined many T-shirts by too much enthusiasm when adding the heavier veggies. But, now, I can boast three years without damaging a single piece of clothing with bleach! (In reality, this is only partly because my skill has improved, and mostly because now I normally let someone else bleach the vegetables…)

 

2. “The Hammer”

I never really enjoyed sports growing up, so I’m amazed that the highlights of my week are now playing Floorball (indoor hockey) and Ultimate Frisbee, and working out at the gym. It’s a testimony to the supportive community here, who have welcomed me into these team sports – and encouraged my ability to run and defend, if not to throw long or get the ball in the net too often. So, what’s “the hammer”? It’s a throw only the ‘good’ ultimate players can make, where the disc is sent high into the air above the opponents’ heads, and then floats gently upside down into the hands of your team-mate. And I’ve made at least a few successfully!

 

3. Eating in silence

Different cultures tolerate different lengths of silence in conversation, before starting to feel uneasy. In my home culture, mealtimes were certainly a time for talking, and getting a word in edgeways was difficult. However, most of the Papua New Guineans I work with tend to eat in silence: ‘you have only one mouth’, as one saying goes, so either eat or talk, not both. I remember the first time I shared a meal in our training centre dining hall, and realising half way through that the other hundred people in the room were completely silent, while I carried on chatting away to the uncomfortable person next to me. More recently, it was me being uncomfortable, biting my tongue and not speaking during the mealtimes. Now, however, it’s something I’m happy with, and even enjoy, being in someone’s presence and eating together, but not constantly feeling the need to come up with something to say.

 

4. Playing and singing (at the same time)

I’ve been accompanying worship since I was 13, for the first ten years primarily on the clarinet or flute. When I got to PNG, I quickly realised that it was difficult to lead a group of instrumentalists and singers with something in your mouth! So I’ve been working on piano skills for the past few years – playing and attempting to sing at the same time – which feels like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. It’s still rather rough round the edges, and there’d better be a good drummer, guitarist and vocalist to cover my mistakes – but I think it’s making progress!

 

5. Making tortillas and crumpets

I’m not heading for Great British Bake Off success any time soon, but the limited range of bread products in the stores here has led me to experiment with other options. Both tortillas and crumpets are pretty time-consuming, but also rather fun to make as a family (even introducing them to my mum), and great-tasting when eaten fresh!

 

6. Tropical gardening

The lack of spring was very unnerving when we moved to Papua New Guinea: the flush of life and colour after the bleakness of winter is so much a part of life in temperate climates, that moving to a country with near-constant day length, temperature and rainfall was very disorienting. It’s as if time never progresses. Learning how to make an attractive garden in this climate has been challenging, where year-round growth takes nutrients up out of the ground and punishing rainstorms leach them away, and there are no garden centres to buy your choice of plants. So, I’ve learned a lot about propagating different types of plants from cuttings; mulching the soil so the tropical sun doesn’t cook it and kill new roots; finding moss and aerial plants to help attach epiphytic orchids to the trees; and balancing the correct plants to the boggy ground or sun-baked dry spots. But now I realise I can’t remember at all how to deal with autumn or winter in England!

 

7. Avoiding sunburn

Brits are not renowned for their ability to avoid turning bright red at the slightest glimpse of sunshine, and I was certainly no exception. Here, however, we are only a couple of degrees south of the equator and over 5000 feet above sea level. This means the UV rays can fry your skin in just a few minutes, even on an overcast day. These are the most dangerous – it feels like a nice not-too-hot day for working in the garden, when you forget the barely-veiled sun and its invisible rays, and end up in red agony before you know it. So, the key things I’ve learned: never go out without a hat, preferably an Australian one with a nice wide brim; don’t hang around outside between 10.00 and 3.00 for more than a couple of minutes; and carry an umbrella for sun protection.

 

8. Inefficient lingering

My natural tendency before coming to PNG was certainly towards hard-working efficiency – to get projects done quickly and thoroughly, and on my own. This inevitably created some conflicts when moving to the supremely relational cultures of Melanesia. It helped when I developed Repetitive Strain Injury in 2007 and could no longer work for more than thirty minutes at a time on the computer, and when our organisation somewhat officially endorsed the value of ‘inefficient lingering’ in 2008 – the value that comes from talking and networking, and longer-than-strictly-necessary coffee breaks. Perhaps it renders me a little less employable in the British workplace, but it has certainly been a transformation to learn how to work here in collaboration with others, lingering to talk and understand, and let the task take care of itself on a bit of a slower timescale.

These are just a few of the skills I’ve learned. Stepping out of my home culture was certainly an opportunity for growth, sometimes in unexpected directions! If you found this interesting, think about what you have learned in the last fifteen years too.

Coming next, 7 languages it’s been a privilege to study.