You know you are in PNG when . . .

. . . you are neither surprised nor alarmed by "randomly" burning hillsides. Here is the view from my porch last weekend.

As one of my friends from California recently said, "If I was at home right now, I would so be calling the fire department." It is very common in PNG to clear an area of land for a garden by simply lighting a fire and letting it go. These fires are rarely attended, but it is so moist here that they never get out of control. Well, OK, I guess one should never say never, because maybe it happened one time a hundred years ago or something. I have never heard of one getting out of control. I have been told that these fires can also be useful for getting rid of tall grass that raskols (Tok Pisin for "criminal") could hide in, or for chasing out animals during a hunt.

Here, let me play you a video of the fire across from my house, so you can hear it crackle!