In this part of the world they call it a Jumble sale but the idea is the same – get rid of your unwanted stuff and make a little money on the side. Periodically we have to do a house cleaning here in Madang. Somehow over time “stuff” happens. When the storage bins are full to overflowing, we go through it all, mark prices, and have a sale.
This week we had more than a little stuff. One of our teams had left PNG for good and we had to dispose of all of their household goods, books, clothes, etc. In addition there was the normal accumulation of items that just seems to occur.
At 8:00 AM on Saturday 21 November all of our staff came to the office and began carrying box after box of sale items out to an area we had enclosed with ropes and fuel drums. Somehow, even though we had not advertised, the community had learned of the sale and by 9:00 there were about 100 people waiting outside the enclosure to get in. It seems like there is a set of unwritten rules for a jumble sale here. Everyone waited patiently to get in, but the minute we said OK there was a mad rush. The shoppers had earmarked the items they wanted and the race was on. In seconds the ropes had broken and the enclosure was no more.
But no one fought, no one argued, and no one tried to steal anything. The later seems kind of strange since petty theft if rife in PNG. But it must be one of those unwritten rules – you don’t steal at a jumble sale. Within a few minutes all the choice items were gone and during the remainder of the sale people came and went and poked through the remaining boxes.
By 11 AM the sale was over. I am guessing that at least 80% of the stuff was sold – most for prices of between 10 and 20 cents. The proceeds of the sale were put into our scripture publication fund to help cover the costs of printing Bible portions in the languages where PBT works.
I think eveyone had a good time; the town folks got some amazingly good deals on items that we simply wanted to get rid of; and we made a few hundred kina for the publications fund. It was a successful sale – with a distinctly PNG flavour.
With those prices it’s no wonder you shifted 80%
We had a yard sale when we left Wewak back in ’84 and Moresby in ’95, and were happy with the way it went. There were people at the gate at 7:00 am.
Understandably Nationals expect that Expat stuff will be worth getting- we usually can afford better quality, import it with us, and look after it better than they can in the village. It’s a win-win.