Road rules

 You can see the problem

There's no break in the median strip at our corner.  There's one about 50 metres before the turn if you're heading away from town on the Highlands Highway, the next is 1 km further on at the roundabout.  What's a driver to do?

Luckily there's a handy bus stop on the side heading back in to town so if there's no bus and no traffic you can slide through the gap in the median over into the bus stop, then it's only 20 m on the wrong side of the road to the turn.  Easy done!  And very familiar as a tactic used to turn on to the T2 - our main road in Arusha - from the bottom of our street, the grandly named goat track, Sakina Avenue.  In Tanzania the rule was supposedly you could go the wrong way on a one way street but any accident was automatically your fault!

This week we have had a break from the office for an hour or so and travelled up the Highlands Highway as far as the Department of Agriculture and Livestock's Erap Farm.  It has seen better days with more staff, more activity and more funds in the past.  It was a place where training happened decades ago and the dormitories are still there but heading towards dereliction.  What makes it interesting is that even though we've only gone half an hour up the Markham valley the climate is completely different.  It is much drier at Erap than in rainy Lae and the range of crops that can be grown is completely different.  It seems here climate change is having an affect, and the manager told us there is now more rain than in the past and taro is being grown under natural rainfall when once irrigation was needed.

Just past Erap is the beginning of the oil palm plantations - big business in PNG, on the mainland now too when once it was restricted to the islands.  It's a monoculture replacing grasslands where cattle (bulmacow in Pidgin!) had grazed since the forest was cleared post WW2.  We are rapidly getting a potted understanding of tropical agriculture.  It has been a steep learning curve starting as it did from zero.

On the subject of roads I'd say the Highlands Highway and the Glenelg are pretty similar as far as needing maintenance goes.  Potholes and broken edges abound and there are several stops and diversions for roadworks.  Between Bubia, where NARI is, and Erap two new bridges are being built.  The highway will soon be four lanes divided road all the way from town to the airport.  That will make a big difference to the trip for those lucky enough to fly.  Driving isn't as crazy as it was in Tanzania and Uganda - no goats, chickens and children to avoid, and no pikipikis and bajajis.  But there is the risk of car jacking! 

We are lucky now to be driven to and from work by NARI drivers and are learning some Pidgin from them.  The systems put in place to keep us safe work well and we are very happy.  Today, Saturday, is shopping day so we've been to town to the department store and to the supermarket and then the 9 Mile roadside market for fresh fruit and vegetables, this with the security company contracted by AVI.  We should be all set for the week ahead!

 

Making friends

The first week at a new workplace is all about making friends.  New colleagues want to know who you are and what you're doing here.  Mostly they want to know how it will affect them - will it make their lives easier or more difficult!  Ands that's everyone from the Director to the tea lady and the drivers.

We had two days of induction - hearing and then forgetting names, learning who is responsible for what and where things are kept.  The NARI HR and IT crews could not have been more helpful.  We have desks, laptops, keyboards and monitors.  We have NARI email addresses that are .gov.pg.  How official is that!  We have coffee mugs and plates for the cake and donuts that come at morning tea time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  We feel well and truly inducted!

The work canteen - NARI Coffee Shop - is a winner.  There is excellent fried rice topped with an egg for 7 Kina ($2.50) takeaway and there is also a little shop that sells essentials.

A fair amount of time is spent chatting - or 'building relationships' as we call it in the development space.  Chatting with Margaret, one of my colleagues, she told me she was from the Highlands Sepik region.  I said that a friend of my mother, a Franciscan nun named Sr Jo Scanlan, had been a teacher at the Fatima school near Lumi in the West Sepik area.  Margaret knew Shirley, another colleague, was from up that way and It turns out that Shirley's father was taught by Sister Jo.  They were so excited by the connection!  My sister is going to look for some photos of Jo to show Shirley and her dad.  Unfortunately Jo died late in 2023.  I know she would have been very pleased that I am working in PNG and that she is remembered so fondly by a student she taught over 60 years ago.

 I'm getting more of an idea of what I might usefully do and have spent some time on my assignment plan.  I need to discuss it with my colleagues next week.  More on that next time.

In another instalment of differences between Arusha and Lae, we noticed that the small public transport buses here are undecorated.  In Arusha there is no square centimetre not covered with a religious saying ( "The Piece of Jesus" for instance) or an English Premier League team motif.  We think that must be an opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur.  Here yoghurt is not available unlike Arusha where it is easily  found.  Today I bought an EasiYo kit so I will be able to make my own.  Today we were asked if we go to pray on Saturday or Sunday (Adventist or other),  in Arusha the question is Are you Christian or Muslim?   I'm sure more differences will occur to us over the next 12 months.  I have only lapsed in to Swahili a couple of times - one 'sawa' (ok) and one 'samahani' (sorry).  I'm making an effort with Tok Pisin but it feels like speaking English badly - it's not, it's a proper language with its own grammar and vocabulary - and I just feel silly.  I will have to push through that and persevere.

More soon, 

Jenny

Week 1

 

We arrived in Lae from Port Moresby on Thursday - it's a 2 hour ordeal going through security, organising luggage and waiting patiently for a 35 minute flight!  The domestic terminal in Port Moresby is far more chaotic than international but the Nadzab Airport in Lae is very relaxed.  All our luggage has safely made its way from Hamilton to our home in HBS Village - nothing lost or misplaced over 12 transfers between planes, buses and taxis.    

We are settling in to our accommodation.  It is mostly for workers in the mining industry and a lot is short stay studio apartments.  We have one of the two bedroom apartments in a triplex.  It is two storey though we probably won't use the storeroom and office downstairs.  It has a large television connected to a cable network and we have so many channels to choose from including the ABC.  Channel 7 allows the ABC to show (low res)  AFL football matches so we have watched Essendon lose and maybe today we'll see Melbourne win.

The HBS Village has a pool, gym and mess/wet bar where beer is relatively cheap.  We haven't eaten there yet.  I have swum - had the pool to myself - but the bikes and treadmill at the gym can wait until we work out our routine. 

We are lucky to have such comfortable accommodation. We have air-conditioning and fans, reliable electricity, a large refrigerator and 3 toilets!  We also have a 'hausmeri' who comes daily to do our washing and clean our house.  The garden is alive with wildlife and some comes inside. 

We have been stocking the fridge and pantry with food - we hope to shop just weekly in town for meat and fish and use the local market at 9 Mile for fruit and veg.  Here is a pic of today's haul.

There are of course things we cannot get.  Yoghurt is unobtainable - I might yet make my own - and we're sorry we didn't get Vegemite in Port Moresby where it was abundant (see below) as there is none here.  Twisties - cheese flavour - are available in Lae you'll be relieved to know.

We had a visit to the Consulate-General's office in Lae and the C-G told us there are around 1000 Australians living in Lae.  So far we haven't spotted any others. They must keep a low profile, or they hang out in places we haven't been, like the members only Lae Yacht Club.  We did see an old white bloke with a MAGA cap at the Lae Golf Club - surely not Australian!

I've been thinking about the similarities and differences between Arusha and Lae.  The roads are just as bad in both cities but here in Lae there are no motor bikes or bajajis.  Vehicles are old and battered, public transport buses are not overcrowded and traffic is not as chaotic.  There are no traffic police making things worse!  In Arusha town there are plenty of tourists, here tourism isn't really a thing so 'wazungu' will be workers.  

We had a quick visit to the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) Head Office on Friday but will have a proper Induction starting Monday including meeting the Director General, being issued with stationery and getting a NARI email address.  We are the first Australian Volunteers with NARI and the expectations are high.  All a bit daunting!

Next week's report will be all about NARI.  I need to go and barrack as my dream of seeing Melbourne win is not going well. 

We begin

 Our feet are now on the ground in Papua New Guinea though so far only in Port Moresby.  We will have three days of orientation, safety and health briefings and cultural awareness training here before we fly to Lae on Thursday.  We are both well and happy.

Papua New Guinea is a complex nation.  There are 1000 tribes and 800 languages.  Lae and Port Moresby are melting pots, in part because of urban drift, and people from many tribes hang out together.  Traditional enmities bubble away and new ones form so violence is ever present.  Bystanders can be hurt in the ruckus that ensues.  'Raskols' have been a problem in PNG for many decades.  Unemployment and urban poverty have made this worse and there are 'no go' areas in PoM and Lae for Australian Volunteers (and sensible others!)  We will be carrying trackers with emergency buttons to use if we feel in danger.  Hopefully they will not be needed.  Already I am the trouble maker - the phone SIM I was issued with turned out to be a dud and it has taken a bit of mucking around to ascertain it wasn't me or my phone that was the problem.  Then my emergency button activated itself while sitting on the desk and caused a bit of confusion.  Hopefully all just teething problems and it will be smooth sailing here on in.

In the briefings a great deal of time has been spent talking about the challenges faced by women in PNG.  Gender based violence is ingrained in the culture.  The 'Bride Price' system means men feel they own their wives and can treat them as they see fit.  Daughters are sold into marriage often at too young an age.  Accusation of sorcery is just another form of misogyny used by men to keep powerful women in what they see as their place in subordinate roles.  Abuse of children and other vulnerable people is also an issue.  There are many other issues holding back development too.  Hopefully we can have some small impact in strengthening capacity in agriculture.

We visited The Australian High Commission and met the officer who oversees the AusVols program in PNG.  We are paid for by DFAT after all!  The High Commission values the program and helps where it can.  We are lucky to have a Consul in Lae so will have High Commission help close at hand.

The Airways Hotel where we are being put up by AVI is very grand.  There is a wall of photos showing dignitaries who have stayed here and it includes royalty - Princess Anne - and several Australian Prime Ministers.  Mama Samia, now President of Tanzania, stayed here when she was Vice President.  I have enjoyed my pre breakfast swims in the pool and the food has been excellent.  We are quite spoilt!

We have been taken to one of the large shopping malls in Port Moresby which had a very wide range of products for sale.  I was very relieved to see that Twisties are available here - these packets were for sale in the pharmacy which is fitting given their mental health benefits.  The slogan on the packet in pidgin says 'Life is happy together with Twisties' and I couldn't agree more though I wasn't so sure about the Cherry Tomato and BBQ Curry flavoured Twisties available in one of the other stores.  We will have some Tok Pisin (Pidgin) lessons during these few days of briefings and will have a tutor in Lae to help us improve.  It seems that even in our work place Tok Pisin will be the common language and it will certainly be in the markets.

One last photo - as we flew over the Great Dividing Range near Armidale and Glen Innes there was so much snow on the ground.  The pilot said he'd never seen so much in all his years flying that route.

I appreciate comments - let me know what you want to hear about.  More soon, Jenny