International Volunteers Day

 

The last two weeks have been busy!  Our longer than expected trip to West New Britain meant that planning for International Volunteers Day was rushed.  Invitations were supposed to have been issued before we left but that didn't happen.  There is so much stuff around protocol and the right way of doing things that I just don't get! In the end invitees only had 3 days notice!  Luckily all the other Australian Volunteers in Lae knew the event was happening and had planned to attend with representatives from their partner organisations.  Representatives from the Consulate-General Lae for the Australian High Commission had been pre-warned too so were present.  Each section at NARI HQ and the NARI Research Centre across the road sent representatives so we had a lovely crowd of around 40 and two hours to fill before lunch.  

We started right on time with a prayer.  The most senior NARI officer around at the time - the strategic advisor - welcomed everyone.  I spoke about the volunteer experience.  All the volunteers and their partners had the chance to speak, and the C-G's rep spoke too.  That was half the program! 

It's not a celebration without balloons and bunting and we had both.  The bunting was hand made.  Each participant at the event had to write something in praise of volunteering on a little coloured paper flag and they were attached to crepe paper streamers.  It did look festive!

Steve ran a 20 question multiple choice quiz.  The questions were about the Australian Volunteer Program over its 60+ year history, the special Australia - Papua New Guinea relationship and Rugby League.  Tables of 5-6 people had to come up with answers by consensus.  They were very competitive!  The winning table had 16 correct answers.  The lowest was 12 correct answers so everyone passed!

The last activity was cooperative poster making activity, again on the positives of volunteering, not just the AV program but in all spheres of life.  Groups worked hard and earned their lunch.  The buffet provided by the NARI Western Region Guest House was the best I've had in PNG!

AusVols and C-G Lae

All up it was a great event - well worth all the effort and stress that went into it.

This last week at work I have been preparing staff training materials on "soft skills" - time management, communication, problem solving & co - while Steve works on training materials for the vocational skills the scientists need.  We are both learning a lot ourselves.  Next year (next month!) it will be full steam ahead with training days hopefully all up and down the country!

Saturdays we always do the weekly shop at one of the supermarkets in town.  Mostly they have all we need though for the last two months no Saladas, no Ryvitas and no Cruskits.  They are Steve's lunch staples and he has had to manage with cream crackers which evidently just don't cut it!  Sometimes a little gem appears.  Today it was fresh mushrooms, excellent as this afternoon Steve is making pizzas for expected visitors tonight.  We'd had a discussion on potential toppings.  I still think the choice of Brussels sprouts (Arusha 2019) was inspired.

A bonus today was a Christmas market at Eriku near the supermarket for small and medium enterprise entrepreneurs to sell their wares.  It's my favourite kind of shopping.  My purchases today were (clockwise) a fan from Bougainville, a bilum from West Sepik, a small handbag from Morobe and a bilum from Manus Island.  My collection of bilums is growing.  Not sure yet how I will smuggle it all home.

Next Saturday we fly to Port Moresby then on to Brisbane on Sunday for our two week holiday on the Sunshine Coast. 

Jenny

West New Britain

We arrived home today after nearly a week in West New Britain - the first 4 days planned, the last 2 not so much!  I'll save that saga for the end of the post.

We flew from Lae to a small provincial airport, Hoskins, near Kimbe on the northern coast of West New Britain.  It's about an hour and a half by plane.  We were picked up there for the hour drive to the resort where we were staying.  The road has some Botswana level potholes - large, deep and close together! - but little traffic so mostly avoidable.

The resort was lovely.  Extensive grounds with lush gardens.  The best thing was having the freedom to just walk around.  The pool was  great and the view out to distant volcanos and small coral atolls was there even when the birds weren't.  The owner is a (mostly) retired agricultural scientist so we had lots of chats about agriculture in PNG and the oil palm industry in particular - her field of interest.  The rain season is just starting so we had some heavy rain at various times but it didn't slow us up.

  

There were always fresh flowers everywhere.  Frangipani flowers all year around and the hibiscus is beautiful.  Our bungalow had excellent views out to sea and there were always amazing butterflies to look at.

I had quality time reading and relaxing by the pool but also went snorkelling, circumnavigating an atoll about half an hour out by boat.  The fish were colourful and plentiful, also sea cucumber, sea stars and shells of all shapes and sizes.  The coral is looking a bit sad - bleached by high sea temperatures over the last few years.  My only problem was sea sickness - not on the boat getting there and back, but while snorkelling, because of the swell.  I didn't even know that was a thing.  Anyway, the fish enjoyed my beef burger and chips.

We had an early morning walk through a local village and part way up a small, dormant volcano.  We walked through cocoa orchards and past food gardens in clearings in the forest.  

There were some huge old trees and lots of interesting fungi.  There was a spot where we could see out to the bay through the trees.

 

Naturally we did lots of birding, some of it in the oil palm plantations and adjacent forest.  Steve and the guides found some of the birds he wanted.  The megapode was not at home but we saw the nest holes.  The oil palm industry is a huge employer in WNB.  We saw the nursery where new plants are grown.  The new varieties start producing fruit when they are 9 months old!  Many women are working picking up fruit that is left behind after the main harvest goes through.  These 'Lus frut Maris' are paid by the kilo for what they collect.

We had a great time but had to be back at work on Thursday so packed up to leave Wednesday morning.

Getting home was a saga taking three days instead of 90 minutes and involving lots of time in airport waiting rooms.  Wednesday we were in plenty of time for our flight with PNG Air direct back to Lae.  The check in officer asked had we checked in on line.  Yes, we had, and had electronic boarding passes to prove it.  "Good" he said, telling us the plane was full because schools were just closing for the year and there were plenty of people on the move.  We moved on to the boarding lounge and waited.  

Steve has a Flight Radar app.  We watched our plane approach and almost land, we watched it circle above us, and we watched it fly off towards Lae.  We, and a dozen other very cross passengers, headed back to the check in counter to find out what was going on.  "Weather" we were told, meant it couldn't land.  The more likely explanation was filling our seats with other passengers in Rabaul and no space for us.  We were told to come back at 9 the next morning and we'd be on the shortlist for any unfilled seats on the next day's plane.  The resort driver was still at the airport waiting to see if we'd successfully left before leaving himself.  He took us back to the resort as we did not have AVI permission to stay anywhere else. 

The next morning we were back in plenty of time - the resort got us there at 7:30 - to be told they wouldn't know until 12 noon if there were any 'no shows'.  Midday came and we were told to be patient.  One o'clock and we were told no seats.  An email had come from PNG Air to say we'd been booked on to the next available flight - on Sunday Nov 30!  Not OK!

We'd had a discussion with the Air Nuigini check in officer about flying home via Port Moresby.  Tickets and seats were available she said.  We booked our flights and also booked a night at the Sanctuary Hotel in PM because the return meant an overnight there and an early start on Friday morning.  We were upgraded to waiting in the business lounge which meant a cup of coffee and a sachet of Scotch Finger biscuits.  

Boarding time came, and went.  No plane.  Our friend who sold us the tickets said yes, yes, it's coming; until eventually, no, it's been cancelled!  Steve unbooked the Sanctuary Hotel and I sought permission from AVI to stay at the grandly named Hoskins Airport Resort which is not very grand, certainly not a resort and its greatest crime - Dry! - so no beer or wine to drown our sorrows.  Still, it was fine for just the one night and we were back at the airport at 5 am this morning.  The security team were so used to us that they didn't bother screening our luggage any more - a manual job of poking around in the bags as no X-ray.  The plane in from Port Moresby was late - naturally! - but it was still a relief when it landed.  

Of course we missed our connection to Lae.  We were told at Hoskins that they would email and phone ahead to explain our troubles and I don't know if that happened but at Port Moresby airport a "Protocol Officer" found us as we neared the Customer Service desk (which was mobbed!) and said he would get a woman named Ronny to sort us out.  And she did!  She produced new boarding passes, found our luggage, took us to the front of the queue at check in and made sure we got through into the departure lounge.

Another 3 hours of waiting, hearing 4 flights cancelled and 2 delayed, and our boarding call finally came, over a half hour late but so welcome!  We finally arrived back at Lae airport about 2:30 and were home by half past 3.  Next job is explaining it all to the travel insurance company.  I was totally exhausted  but a swim and a beer at the bar have sparked me up and I am enjoying a magnificent sunset.

We have a busy few weeks ahead.  Will tell you all about our International Volunteers Day event in my next post.

Leave a comment if you can , or email me.  We love to hear from friends and family. Jenny

3 month mark

 

And just like that it is November!

As I said last blog, we don't often get out of the office.  The week before last, the Australian High Commission Consul-General for Lae invited us to go with him to the handover of school furniture, water tanks and a rain collecting structure at a government primary school a few kilometres further down the road from us.  Just a short ceremony and lots of fun.

We were part of the official party so we were 'marched in' by the elementary school (preschool) children. Most of the primary school's children had the day off because the rooms were needed for the Grade 8 exams that were being held on the day.

The head of the elementary school, the head of the primary school and all the parent committee were there as well as representatives from the Province and the District who were partners along with the Australian government in the funding of the project.  Here we all are in front of an Australian High Commission gazebo which was welcome shade!  The leis presented to the official party were frangipani and smelled wonderful.

Ribbons were cut, plaques presented, photos taken and short speeches made.  The school previously had just one small tank.  Now they have four 9,000L tanks and a building with guttering which will be the catchment.  Rain here is plentiful so the tanks should stay full and provide the children with clean drinking water.

Most of the time I am sitting at my desk looking at a computer screen, looking for useful documents and writing training manuals, podcast scripts and long lists of things to do.  The current list is of people to be invited to our International Volunteers Day event on December 5 and their proper titles and email addresses.  Protocol is so important!  

It can be quite tedious but I often find things that amuse me.  Two examples follow.  I don't remember the source of the first but the second was from a style guide for writing journal articles in the South Pacific. 

Some days the most exciting thing that happens is lunch!

The pattern of the week includes the Saturday afternoon job of finishing off the bananas bought the Saturday before (and now quite ripe!) in a cake - this weeks is banana, carrot, ginger and sugar fruit ( a close relative of passionfruit)

Last weekend we finally made it to the Lae Main Market.  We find it easiest to get our fruit and veg at the local market so hadn't bothered with Main Market despite everyone telling us how much better and cheaper and fresher the produce there is.   Steve took this picture of me doing some Christmas shopping - who needs a bilum?

And lastly, I have a new hobby!  Today we went in to the Lae equivalent of Officeworks.  I was looking to see what bunting and balloons they have.  In our budget for the International Volunteers Day event at NARI in December there is a line for decorations and I was looking at the options.  What I found was oil pastels and an art diary.  Can you spot the African Jacana?  I like putting birds in my pictures.  The little watercolour from a few weeks ago has a Palm Cockatoo.

Three weeks until we go to New Britain for an extra long weekend.  No blog until then, unless something exciting happens!  Jenny

Unwanted excitement

 

We had our first earthquake here in the first month.  We were sitting on the couch.  We felt the shudder.  It didn't last long.  Nothing moved much.  Our driver said it was a medium one when we asked him about it the next day.  Easy peasy! Earthquakes are no problem!  It was 5.1 on the Richter scale so small and fairly typical of what we could expect.

Then came Tuesday last week.  We were just in bed and not yet asleep.  The bed began to shake, the window started rattling and then it felt like we were being picked up and shaken violently.  The whole event was probably less than a minute but it was so intense.  Bottles fell over and things fell off shelves.  The fridge and stove both moved, doors swung on their hinges and drawers opened.  It was quite scary.  We were lying in bed through the worst of it debating whether we should run outside, or maybe climb under the bed, and then it was all over.  The adrenaline hit meant it was awhile before I got to sleep.

The quake measured 6.7 on the Richter Magnitude Scale so was quite a big one, in the 'strong' category - no-one at work had felt one that big before in Lae.  In the event the house was undamaged, and we were only shaken up.  I wouldn't want to be in a moving car if it happened again, or walking, but if that's the worst we can expect we'll survive.  There was no damage reported in town.

It has made me conscious though of every shudder.  There have been a few after shocks, but sometimes it's just the neighbours downstairs jumping around.  I've become a bit paranoid but I think that will ease.

One dismal thing about the earthquake that was discovered a few days later is that it damaged the overflow pipes from the swimming pool and now the pool is closed for the foreseeable future - not high on the priority list for fixing it seems.  Sad, as now I'll have to use the gym for exercise instead - the exercise bike has a very uncomfortable seat!  The pic is from a few weeks ago when I was swimming every day.

We don't get out of the office often but this week we wangled an invite to go with some visiting CSIRO soil scientists and the review team from ACIAR on a day trip up the Markham Valley.  It was a bit 'last minute' and permission from AVI was only granted the day before - we breathed a sigh of relief.  One of the CSIRO team was able to point out the discontinuity in tectonic plates where a slippage of around 8 cm had resulted in last week's earthquake.  We could see the line through the rock strata in the side of the Markham River valley (in the pic below).

We had a lovely day out networking with stakeholders in various agricultural industries.  The last thing on the agenda was a meeting with the farmers at Oriori village near Mutzing, held under a huge old mango tree.  Lydia, one of the spokespeople was quite inspiring.  She spoke only in Tok Pisin but we could understand her clearly and she was so passionate.  In the pic below she is sitting on the rug, in front of the wheelbarrow.  The village had provided fresh fruit to have with our lunch - watermelon, pineapple, cucumber and sugar fruit.  And the wheelbarrow had arrived full of coconuts.  We were each handed one with the top cut off to drink the very refreshing juice inside.

It was a picture postcard village.  The residents made us very welcome.

Next week it'll be back to 8 - 5 in the office.  I'm hoping for some progress on my project at a meeting scheduled for Monday and there's always plenty to do.  

I'll report back in a fortnight, Jenny.

Labu Beach

Here are some pictures from our expedition to Labu Beach last weekend.

On Sunday we travelled from Lae Yacht Club to Labu Lake which is behind a strip of beach on the other side of the Markham River from Lae town.  We travelled in a 'banana boat' with another AusVol and two of her mates, the tour operator and her daughter and three crew.  It was a 15 minute trip and we'd gone from busy Lae wharf to a freshwater lake where the only signs of humanity were some derelict pontoons from a WW2 Australian naval base.  This is Labu Lake fed by several rivers and creeks flowing in from mountain ranges all around.  It is placid and the water is cool and clear.  It is fringed by mangroves, palms and thick tropical vegetation.  We travelled up several of the creeks to get a good look at the vegetation, unfortunately the birds were all hiding. 

Emma from Lae About Tours, Steve and me standing on the sandy floor of the lake.  There are  shell fish living in the sand that are harvested by the locals as well as fish in the lake caught in nets.

Local boats taken out on the lake for fishing and also to get to gardens in the bush away from the coastal village.  There are sago palms both local species and other more productive types the villagers have planted.  Sago processing requires quite a bit of fresh water and is done close to where the palm was growing.  There are tracks through the bush to get to the sago.

This is the village school.  It goes to Grade 8.  The children don't see many whitefellas so wanted to get a close look.

A drum to summon villagers to meetings or to warn of danger.  There are 5 churches along this small stretch of beach - one Lutheran, one Baptist and three evangelicals.  PNG is an exclusively Christian country.  The cemetery was all crosses.

A beautiful beach for a swim.  Clear water as warm as a bath, shady trees and a cool breeze.

 Then home to contemplate going back to work on Monday!