It is a pleasure to introduce you to Chelsea from Multicultural Kid Blogs, who is running a series of posts introducing the country of Papua New Guinea to children in celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Introducing Papua New Guinea to Children
Papua New Guinea is a country perhaps few people have heard about or studied. I will admit that I never even knew about it until I found out my husband grew up there!
In this post I will give a brief introduction to the country including: location, population, natural resources, animals, transportation, money, and traditional dress.
Papua New Guinea is located north of Australia and shares a border with Indonesia. The population is generally recorded around 7 million.
Papua New Guinea is typically known for its gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, and oil. For this reason it has been described as “a mountain of gold floating in an ocean of oil.” As for products a typical shopper might buy abroad, Papua New Guinean coffee is definitely rising in popularity. One kind in particular is known as “Blue Mountain” and is delicious.
Some of the animals unique to Papua New Guinea are: the “cuscus” (the possum-like animal pictured below), a small species of Kangaroo which lives in trees, many birds including Cassowaries and Birds of Paradise, and many types of dangerous snakes. PNG is also home to the largest butterfly in the world, the Queen Alexandra’s birdwing butterfly!
As for transportation, mostly people walk. In the major cities there are a growing number of cars, plus public transport in the form of “PMVs” (kind of like a van-style bus, which stands for Public Motor Vehicle) or taxis.
The money is called the “Kina” and is currently exchanged at approximately 1 Kina for every $US 0.44. The coins are toea (pronounced “toi-ya”).
Nowadays people in the big cities of PNG often wear second hand clothing shipped over from Australia and, if they choose to wear shoes, “jandals” (ie flip flops) are the typical footwear. Women often don a “meri blouse” which is a flowing style dress with puffy short sleeves. Traditional dress includes elaborate head dresses with feathers, jewelry made out of shell and plants, and body paint. The children below were dressed up for a public holiday.
I hope you had fun learning a bit about the country of Papua New Guinea!
To check out the other posts which will give you some more background about the Papua New Guinea (including pictures of children!), go to this page to find the series.
|Chelsea is the mother of two boys ages 2 and 4. She is passionate about the education of children, specifically supporting mothers and teachers with materials that can will empower children become change agents in the world. She has several blogs, her newest being www.momentsaday.com.|
Papua New Guinea through Kids Yoga
Five Kids Yoga Poses in Five Minutes for Papua New Guinea
Tree Kangaroo – Chair Pose
Cuscus – Cat’s Pose
Bird of Paradise – Pigeon Pose
New Guinea Brown Boa – Cobra Pose
Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing Butterfly – Butterfly Pose (Cobbler’s Pose)
For images and descriptions of these yoga poses, see the List of Kids Yoga Poses.
Hope you enjoyed your trip to Papua New Guinea. Thank you so much to Chelsea for her inspiring introduction to this unique country.
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