‘Your Daily Life: Living Environment’
Andrew IKI (Papua New Guinea)
Introduction
It is interesting to share and know about the living environment of various countries in theworld. This brief report explains ‘My Daily Life: Living Environment’ in beautiful Papua
New Guinea (PNG). It is the largest island country in the South Pacific with an estimatedpopulation of 6.5 million people. PNG has devise cultures and the living environments fromone community to the other. This makes PNG a very unique country in the South Pacific andthe World.
Papua New Guinea has four main regions namely; the Highlands, Momase, Southern andNew Guinea Islands. I come from the Highlands Region, which is mountainous with very
fast following rivers and tick rain forests. The Highlands Region is known for huge depositsof gold, copper, oil and gas.
In some environments where customs is deeply rooted, gender is seen as major issue
affecting men, women and children. In the Highlands, women are not allowed to enter man’s
house and take part in decision making. In the Coastal areas is different, where womenmake decisions and inherit the properties as the next of kin.
Many people chose to live in different places, depending on the type of environment.
Traditionally, people use to live in houses built from bush materials and applied various
methods of gardening, hunting, fishing, cooking and family care. However, due to theWestern influences, the living environment in many communities changed as people became
used to living in semi permanent houses with the provision of government infrastructureservices in the communities.
Living in a developing country, I have experienced so many changes taking place in most of
the communities. The issue of rural-urban drift has caused a lot of young people to leave
their living environments and have migrated to the cities in search of job opportunities.
However, the living environment in the cities is not safe as more squatter-settlements arebuilt. This contributes to the increase rate of social-economic problems, such as poverty,prostitution, unemployment, crimes, HIV/AIDS and health related issues.

I am living and working in the capital city of PNG, where people from different places andcountries live and work. Like all other countries, accommodation and the living environmentis a big problem in PNG. I bought a property with two bedrooms and backyard space forplaying and gardening.
During the weekends, I enjoy a lot of time with my family and friends in that small backyard. There are not too many people and the environment I live is very quiet. For example, I
like growing a verity of beautiful flowers that keep my house looking beautiful and nice.
When I am at home, I keep myself busy gardening and cleaning the back yard. This helps
me to keep my living environment much safer and my home a beautiful place to live.
In conclusion
Papua New Guinea is the largest country in the South Pacific with diverse cultures andliving environments from one community to the other. This makes PNG a very uniquecountry in the South Pacific and the World. In the past, people lived in traditional houses
and applied various methods of gardening, hunting, fishing, cooking and family care.
However, due to Western influences, the living environment in many communities changed
as people became accustomed living in semi-permanent houses with the introduction offoreign goods and services. Thus, the issue of rural-urban drift has caused a lot of young
people to migrate to the cities in search for job opportunities. Then, this has resulted inincreased unemployment, poverty, criminal activities, prostitutions, HIV/AIDS and relatedsocial-economic problems affecting the people in most of environments in the cities. Despite
such issues, I have managed to live a very simple life and create a living environment, whichis conducive for me and my family to live a more happy and enjoyable life.