Madang, New Guinea;
1969

My first impression of New Guinea, formed over 25 years ago, was of flies: flies in my eyes, nose, ears, food; flies covering stinking yaws. Great areas of New Guinea still remain isolated & comfortless. But most of the country today has changed so radically that comfort is accepted, even expected.

The Australian National University built transit houses for scientists throughout the Territory, most in towns, some in villages. On the outside, ANU village houses are largely indistinguishable from local houses, but inside, walls are white, showers hot, ice cubes clear.

In publications by anthropologists who stayed in these houses, I found no hint that nearby towns stocked dinner candles, Danish cheeses, German wines, though there were faint suggestions of ordeals suffered in the cause of science.

But even in cosmopolitan Madang there can be problems: the Post Courier (October 30, 1969) reports: "CAT ENDED UP IN COOKING POT: A New Guinean has been ordered to pay $5 compensation for eating an anthropologist's cat."