A fortnight on the road

 The last fortnight has been really hectic!

We had a week in Port Moresby delivering training at the Southern Regional Centre at Laloki and then a week at the Islands Regional Centre at Keravat on East New Britain.

Australian Volunteers requires us to stay somewhere considered 'safe' and that often means we can have a long drive between where we stay and where we work.  In Port Moresby that was a drive of 20 minutes when traffic was running well or an hour if the road was busy.  The unpredictable road conditions meant we also didn't know when our driver was likely to arrive.

We were able to use the conference room at Laloki and it worked well.  The lists of participants we had from HR were reasonably accurate so our preparations were suitable.  The sandwiches provided for lunch, made by wives of the technical staff, were delicious.

The participants were all NARI staff from the research station at Laloki and from the Chemistry Laboratory and the National Agricultural Insect Collection in Port Moresby.  The training we have been running is NARI's first foray in to "In house training".

Steve has prepared workshops on "Scientific Writing" and "Spreadsheet Basics".  Mine are "Soft Skills - Communication, Team Work, Problem Solving and Time Management" and "Leadership and Supervisory Skills".  Steve is an expert in his topics; for me it is what I have distilled from 40+ years in schools and 2 months scouring the internet!

The workshops are a mixture of lectures, group work, discussion and exercises.  I also have activities involving playing cards (Team work) and paperclips (Time management).  The activities that caused the most amusement were two communication activities.  The first involved miming a small message for example "I was walking on the road and stepped in a puddle" in the same way Chinese whispers happens.  The message is NEVER delivered correctly!  Back to Back drawing involves describing a diagram for someone to reproduce where they cannot see it and cannot ask questions.  It certainly sorts out who knows right from left!

Making a Mind Map about what "Leadership" looks like 

Participants were encouraged to help each other

The group photo at the end of the day is de rigueur.

Another activity - Back to Back Drawing

Exercise about what a good poster looks like

A very complex Mind Map

This was reminiscent of Tanzania - children with home made toys.

Then we flew to East New Britain.  We had a day being tourists before getting down to work (see previous post.)

Again we were staying quite a way from the research station - an hour's drive across the top of East New Britain from Kokopo to Keravat.  The drive was quite beautiful though the road was often terrible!  There were views at different times across to the volcanoes, over to the coast on the west and down the island.  It is certainly a stunningly beautiful place.  

A beautiful place

We started on the first day without our NARI co-presenter.  His Sunday flight from Port Moresby had been cancelled and his Monday morning replacement delayed.  So we started without him.  I was prepared for 6 NARI participants and maybe a few from the Cocoa Board.  I had an extra few booklets just in case.  In the end we had to make 20 more booklets.  I had a group of 31.  I suspect many had come for Boney's course on Statistical Analysis, Data Management and Experimental Design, and as it was being delayed until the Tuesday they thought they might as well give my course a go!  It went very well.  There was so much more energy with such a big group than the 12 I had run it for at Laloki.  Luckily I had enough coloured paperclips for the Time Management - Prioritising activity.

Frantic photocopying when 31 participants trooped in

More Mind Mapping

A finished poster

Steve and the Scientific Writing group

Another Class Photo

We were showered with gifts

This little bloke is a Tolai totem.  The Tolai is one of 5 ethnic groups in ENB.  We may not be able to bring him home - certainly feathers are a no-no with AQIS and there may also be issues with what ever his tutu is made from. 

As is usual, a lot didn't go according to plan.  Lunch did not appear when expected - the Guest House was overwhelmed by the number of people who turned up, many of them from the Cocoa Board.  Lists of names we'd been given were not even close to accurate.  We'd already decided not to take prepared certificates with us to present to participants.  They will get them later when Mail Merge has worked its magic.  The organisation of the week was able to give real life examples of failures in communication and time management and the importance of problem solving and adaptability.

We were given so many gifts to bring back to Lae!  The betel nut, lime and mustard we left for the hotel staff but we brought all the bilums, fabric and Tolai curios back with us, and some very interesting fruit, but most importantly wonderful memories, firm friendships and a real sense of satisfaction that what we were doing was worthwhile.  As always the Feedback sheets showed participants appreciated what was delivered and found it worth while.  The one criticism, apart from the usual "this needs to do for much longer time" and "We need more of this", was my failure to mention that the skills and talents we have are gifts from God.  PNG is a deeply Christian nation.  I admire the writer for her courage in mentioning this.

On the last day we had a tour of the research station.  We saw their Black Soldier Fly larvae breeding program and the Galip Nut research and processing facility.  

Wilma showing us Galip Nut products

Jacob has devised this contraption to test which leaves attract Galip Weevils

Balsa has become an important cash crop in East New Britain and we saw many plantation and quite a lot of trucks taking logs to the (Chinese owned) processing plants.  Most of the product ends up in China.

Many also trucks on the road

 We feel we've had a successful fortnight with the NARI staff and hope the program will continue with NARI staff doing the facilitating.  We have spotted a few likely candidates.  All the training materials will remain with NARI HR Department.

We still hope we will get to the NARI Regional Centres in the highlands - Aiyura and Tambul - but that will depend on AVI and DFAT approval.

Back to work tomorrow - I have an official report to write on the last 2 weeks - and we have the Agricultural Innovation Show at NARI on Tuesday which could be my next blog post.

Jenny  

Being tourists in Rabaul 3rd May 2026

We haven't had much opportunity to be tourists in our 9 months in PNG.  But today in Rabaul we had that chance.  We did a tour with a local company, Rabaul Scenic Tours, of the war history and vulcanology of this corner of New Britain.

We started at the Bitapaka War Cemetery near Kokopo.  It is close to where Australian soldiers were killed in WW1 when they were capturing a German wireless station.  Streets in Kokopo are named after these 6 soldiers.

Many Australian servicemen were killed or died of various diseases in East New Britain in WWII.  Many Burmese  and Indians also died here.  They were prisoners of war brought here by the Japanese and made to work in inhumane conditions.  The Indians who died are buried in the Rabaul war cemetery at Bitapaka near Kokopo.  There are long lists of Australian men who died but their remains were not recovered.  And many graves of Australian men buried as "Known to God".   Like the war cemetery in Lae it is beautifully and respectfully kept by locals for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Lists of the missing

Memorial to the first six killed in WWI - there's a Moffat, maybe Steve's relative?

Hundreds of these

The Burmese are remembered because of the road they built for the Japanese.  It is renowned locally for its many twists and turns, dips and rises and for how well made it was, no doubt due to Japanese engineering. The Burmese are also remembered here for the children they left behind – they ‘integrated’ well into the local community.

We went to the Kokopo War Museum.  Prior to the volcanic eruption of 1994, when it was fairly clear what could happen and its ramifications, most of the "stuff" from the war museum in Rabaul was moved to this new location in Kokopo.  Most of the relics were Japanese - Zero planes, tanks, motor bikes and artillery pieces.  The road roller was an interesting piece of equipment.  The motor bikes are based on Harley Davidson designs – there was a Harley Davidson factory in Tokyo before the war.

Aeroplane engine

Japanese tank

Road making equipment - maybe used on Burma Road

Japanese artillery

Rabaul town had warning that a volcanic eruption was imminent and was prepared to evacuate so no lives were lost other than from asthmatic attacks due to dust and ash in the air.  The town itself was almost completely destroyed by the shower of ash and the earthquakes.  Now what had been a thriving CBD is covered in lush vegetation.  The roads have washed clean back to the original bitumen and drive ways, steps and some foundations are still visible, but almost every building succumbed to the deluge of ash.  Surviving were the Rabaul Hotel, parts of the New Guinea Club and the port called Simpson Harbour.

Steps of the cinema.  Containers are a later addition.

This is what the old town looks like now.

The volcano called Mt Tarvurvur looks like it could erupt again at any minute – it has a very 'raw' look.  The hot springs near the base are boiling but no smell of sulphur dioxide which is unusual.  Locals were boiling eggs in the water.

Proof we were there

Boiling water shouldn't be wasted!

We went to see what was left of the New Guinea Club – a colonial era place where expats would have relaxed, played snooker and drank beer.  The main club room is all that remains.  It had been the home of the War Museum befor the move to Kokopo and some relics still remain.  It is also the site of Yamamoto bunker where Japanese war commander Admiral Yamamoto did some of the planning for his New Guinea campaign.  There is a map of the sea and islands around ENB drawn on the ceiling but the windows where he would have been looking out are now covered to protect it from weather and vandals.

The bunker ceiling

The bunker is under here

The New Guinea Club

Rabaul, and the rest of PNG for that matter has a strong interest in vulcanology.  We’ve never before lived in such an earthquake prone place!  PNG’s vulcanological observatory in on a hill overlooking Simpson Harbour.  The views from the top of the hill were spectacular.  Unfortunately the observatory is closed for renovations so we couldn’t see it.

The view down to Simpson Harbour and Mt Tavurvur beyond

Our final destination on the tour was the Karavia Barge Tunnel.  The Japanese had built, with slave labour, a rail track from the beach to a cave that they further tunnelled to extract minerals, possibly limestone.  The tunnel goes several hundred metres into the mountain and contains the remains of five barges parked nose to tail on the track.  The barges could be filled with rocks in the tunnel then pushed down the track directly into the sea where they could be towed to wherever the rock was needed.  Quite ingenious.  

Barges remain in the tunnel

Five in here, parked nose to tail

The tour finished with lunch at the Gazelle International Hotel.  It was a wonderful experience - we learned so much!  We had a great day and highly recommend Rabaul Scenic Tours.  Our guide was knowledgeable and interesting and greatly added to our understanding of the history of Rabaul.

I’m adding a few pictures taken from our hotel, the Rapopo Plantation Resort - also highly recommended – and Kokopo provincial market.

Night sky, looking toward Rabaul town

Our hotel

I love a market!

Kokopo Provincial Market

The next post will be about the work we have been doing – the real reason we are here.  

Jenny

April

It has been a while!   It is not that nothing has been happening but there are so many things that I cannot say.  Work has not been going according to plan - not my plan anyway.

Someone asked the other day what I miss about Arusha in Tanzania.  I miss the freedom we had there to travel and see the landscapes and wildlife of course but more than anything I miss the people -  the people I worked with, the people who sold me my fresh orange juice and knew to expect me with my own bottles to fill, Brian the "Bombers" fan at the Arusha Main Market.  I miss the quirkiness of life in Arusha.

It will be the same when we leave PNG in a couple of months time.  The people I work with are wonderful.  Gian is the hardest working and most reliable employee I know at NARI.  She is invariably smiling and cheery.  She is welcome in our office always - not just when she arrives with the donuts and calls out "Tea time".  The guards at the front door know to expect us every morning at 7:30 and go to look for a driver for us when we're ready to leave in the afternoon.  Anna in reception is so open and honest, she is encouraging about my (limited!) efforts at Tok Pisin and unusually is honest when I ask how she is - she tells me when there are problems in the family or with work or with health.  I guess she has come to trust me.  The scientists and other professionals we work with are also just lovely people.  If progress is not happening it is the bureaucratic system that is letting them down designed to thwart rather than enable.

I will also miss the lush vegetation (though I won't miss the rain!).  There are epiphytic orchids on the trees just outside the front door at work, and the view from our office window across the soccer field where we see school children practicing and, during the soccer season the Admiralty Islands Football Club (or the Manus Boys, as we know them).

We know from experience that volunteer placements change and morph over time.  That is expected.  I came here expecting to find NARI employed trainers who trained extension workers using documents they had prepared, the so called Training of Trainer manuals.  I discovered fairly quickly that that was not the case.  That any 'training' was infrequent, ad hoc and not 'core responsibility' and that manuals that had been prepared were mostly growing old and dusty on library shelves or as digital documents in shared work drives.  I updated some of these documents, tidied  up the language and found up-to-date references for them.  I have submitted them to the publications committee and await an outcome.  I'm not over enthusiastic anyway as the ToT model has been discredited in some development work circles.

In the meantime I have changed tack.  I have teamed up with the HR team to prepare and run workshops on Soft Skills - communication, teamwork, problem solving and time management - and on Leadership.  This has been an interesting experience and I have to say outside my comfort zone.  It also takes participants outside their comfort zone - they eye the scissors, glue and coloured markers warily, and the boxes of coloured paperclips.  Still and all I think it has been worthwhile - feedback sheets have been encouraging - and we hope to take the training to some of the other NARI  Regional Centres.

These pics are from a Leadership Workshop on Friday.

Of course all travel has to be approved, and again we have been thwarted - by Cyclone Maila and a typhoon to the north that have caused a range of problems in New Britain and Milne Bay provinces.  Also disagreements between the government, the army and the police caused transport and movement issues in Port Moresby last week so it would have been a no go area for us as well.  We hope we will get to Port Moresby and to Keravat on East New Britain in the next few weeks.  I am also looking forward to a dawn ANZAC service at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Lae Botanical Gardens next Saturday.  I have 10 uncles who served in this part of the world during WWII so I expect it will be very moving

We were able to get some travel in over Easter.  We had two nights in Port Moresby and managed a list to Varirata National Park, and then two days on Loloata Resort Island - not a natural habitat for Steve.  I did some snorkelling over a very degraded reef where I could see glimpses of what it must once have been.  It was a bit sad really though the fish and other sea creatures were lovely.

The view over the Kokoda Track towards the Owen Stanley Ranges.

We saw the national bird emblem of PNG - the Kumul, or Raggiana Bird of Paradise - displaying which was a great privilege but dipped on any cassowary.

Varirata NP overlooks Port Moresby.

Mangroves around Loloata Island did hold some birds for Steve.

Last Saturday we had dinner with an uni mate from nearly 50 years ago!  Mark is in PNG at the moment filming a documentary for a charity that works with disadvantaged people in the highlands of PNG.  It was lovely to see him and talk about his travel - we're very jealous! - and perspectives on life here in PNG compared with Tanzania and Uganda.

More pictures soon of training, maybe of ANZAC Day and hopefully of Kokopo and Rabaul.

Thanks for making it the end, Jenny xx