I was fortunate enough to work in the highlands of PNG. It is without a doubt the most fascinating place I have been on all the seven continents.
I wish I could go back there and a whole bunch of other places!
I worked at the Grasberg mine on a three-month project. It is a beautiful place (well, not the mine so much...). The local people were pretty cool. The locals that I worked with at the mine were hard workers.
The mine had taken over the main village and made another village for them with half-way modern buildings, etc. They used the modern school, but I heard a lot of them ended up building and living in their traditional huts again!
We worked on the far outskirts of the mine - it snowed on us three times. One time, while snowing, a family of locals came walking down the trail dressed in shorts, t-shirts, the wife in a skirt. All barefoot. Each carrying a small net bag.
Our local helper spoke with them for a bit. I asked him how far was the next village in the direction that they had come (up and over the pass at 15,000 feet where we were at.) It was almost 20 miles!