LAE in a Day

Some friends and I were invited last minute to join a car of people driving to the port city of Lae to do some shopping. (It’s about a 3 hour drive each way – so they just make a full day trip out of it, leaving before 6 a.m. so you can get back before dark.) It gets kind of claustrophobic sometimes living within the fence of Ukarumpa, especially as a woman since it’s not safe for us to go most anywhere on our own, so we jumped at the chance to go. What did we do there? SHOPPED! What did we shop for, you ask? Well, my best find (and biggest purchase) was 6 huge blocks of cheese dated ‘best by: Nov/Dec 2008’. J I was SO excited to get cheese at about 1/3 of the price that you can get it here (and I have a friend with a freezer who could store it for me) so I bought a LOT. (I think once I finished shredding and bagging it, it ended up being over 100 cups!) I guess you know you’re a missionary when……the thing that excites you most on a shopping excursion is mass quantities of expired cheese….. ;) Here are some pictures of the gorgeous drive as well as the HUGE burgers that we ordered for lunch (what a treat to eat out!).