Highs and Lows

I have just submitted my mid term review to Australian Volunteers.  It chronicles successes and progress, dead ends and frustrations.  I always see these reviews as something for my benefit - I've never really seen any indication that anyone at AVI looks at them!

They are a bit of work but they make me think about what I have really achieved and where I should be concentrating my efforts.  

I thought I would tidy up and document the folders and files I have on my work  laptop.  It amounted to a lot and showed the breadth of what I had been doing from finding innovative ways to showcase NARI research and make its findings more available, to all the policies on Child Protection, Gender Equity and Social Inclusion I have prepared.  

I updated my lists of resources destined for the on-line resource AGDEX-PNG and was surprised by how much useful stuff I'd actually found.  There's plenty of editing there too to keep me busy as web and email addresses need to be updated.  

When my supervisor read it over he noted that he could detect my frustrations with the pace of action showing through.  Yes, I do get frustrated but I accept that is not something that will change - it's a ME problem.

Last December I prepared a Soft Skills Training package applicable to all staff, centred around communication, team work and problem solving.  The institute administration is keen, indeed pushing, for it to be rolled out but something always gets in the way.  This week HR have been helping the family of a staff member whose death - shocking and unexpected - happened 2 weeks ago.  Arrangements around such things are neither quick nor easy here in PNG.  And a spate of burglaries in the compound was another headache for HR to deal with.  So that's another fortnight gone with no progress on that front through no-one's fault.

Steve's training program on the other hand is progressing well which makes me very happy.

And  there is so much joy I feel in working here.  I love the quirkiness of things like the balloons and the blessing of the new tractor.  I can't imagine PVI having a dedication service for a new piece of equipment with a blessing and prayer from the local Evangelical pastor.

I have been working on an article for the revitalised Harvest magazine.  I have had trouble getting my story - about farming Black Soldier Fly larvae - into the correct format.  It has to be informative but not tech heavy, it has to be light but still substantial.  A hard balancing act.

There has been swearing coming from the other desk in my office too, because someone couldn't get the template used to do the online publishing to work either!  Those photos just won't stay where they're put.

The photo below is one I have taken for the article.  A discarded plastic jerry can has been cut in half to use as a tray to hold the kitchen waste that the larvae grow on.  It's a perfect picture of the economic, environmental and social positives of the project.  I will put in a link to the article when it's published.

And one of the best things is the donuts for morning tea on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, though sometimes we get the deep-fried savoury donut filled with Chow Mein which is pretty special too!

Two weeks ago we finally made it into the forest on the other side of the Markham River valley.  It was a lovely day walking in the forest looking at trees and creeks and little waterfalls.  There were a few birds and  lots of butterflies for Steve to photograph.

You'll find some pictures here on Steve's blog.

Some public art!

It was a hot 4 hours walking and the coconut cooler at the end was very refreshing.

Last Sunday we went on organised walk up the hill behind our house.  It was lovely to be out and chatting with new people both expat and local.  

These two pictures are looking towards each other from either side of the Markham valley - the one on the right from last week's walk, the one on the left from the week before that.

 

And this is looking down on our compound from the hill above at the start of our climb.

 We hope we'll get more opportunities to be out and about over the next 5 months.  Jenny

All work and no play (well, very little!) ...

Last week Steve ran a Spreadsheet Basics training course - 6 hours over 2 days.  It went very well.  I was his assistant.  It's a gig I want to keep, as then I'll get to go on his (potential!) work travel trips to run the course at the other research centres.  

My training course on Soft Skills - communication, team work, problem solving and the like - for the staff is being fine tuned and hopefully it will also run with the HR team assisting.  I have the packs of cards and paper clips all ready for the activities.  And no, there will be NO trust exercises in any course I lead!  I am also working on Leadership training and getting OH&S closer to Australian standards.  The Extension Resources web site (AGDEX-PNG) might happen in time for me to present a paper about it at a Food in PNG Conference in July, or it might not!  So work goes on.

Our International Volunteers Day extravaganza made the national papers, 7 weeks after the event.  It was a nice write up if a bit belated.

There was some 'play'.  Last weekend we attended an Australia Day BBQ put on by the Consulate-General Lae.  It's not a day I would normally celebrate but it was nice to get out and chat to new people.  There was a big mix of locals and foreigners there.  I chatted with a lovely young German chap about his travels in PNG and ours in Germany. (Liz, Sophie and I had 4 weeks there 10 year ago!)  I talked with a young Australian mother from Queensland who has just come to Lae with her husband and three young children.  He will be working at the international school. I think they are so brave - it will be an adventure!  We heard from a group of locals who are about to head to Australia as part of the PALM scheme - Pacific Australia Labour Mobility.  They are very excited to have the opportunity but I think are also very brave!  The tour guide who was organising today's birding was there.  We checked all was going to plan.  Yes!  Just awaiting our confirmation of permission.

And now, today.

February has started with the same frustrations that always dog volunteers.  We're in countries where things just don't work!  But then the voice of reason whispers, that's why we are here!

Friday after work we always head up to the 'mess'.  This is the bar and dining room where the residents of HBS village - mostly men, either single or here without their partners - have their meals.  Not a lot of drinking seems to happen and it's never 'rowdy'.  There are a few Aussies and a Kiwi we often see there and have a chat with.  But usually we sit there, debriefing on the week and contemplating the forest that we just can't get in to!

This weekend, after several months of negotiation, we thought we finally had the birding nut cracked!  The tour guide and assistants were organised, permission sought and gained, transport booked, lunch (and satellite phone, emergency beacon and personal tracker) packed.  

This morning early we were at the HBS gate waiting for a 6:30 am pick up.  6:40 came and no car.  Steve rang to find what's happening.  "We're waiting in Eriku (half an hour away) came the response."  Eriku is where the other AusVols live.  Steve -"We're at HBS 11 mile!"  "On our way" says transport/security.  7:15 and still no car.  Steve rang the tour company to say we'll be late.  The transport company are not answering their phone or responding to texts about whereabouts of the car.  Steve has steam coming out his ears and swearing is happening.

I ring the transport company.  "We booked a car for 6:30.  It isn't here" I calmly say.  "It has a slow leak in the tyre" comes the response. "I've dispatched a ute to replace it".  ""Will the ute take 4 passengers" I ask.  "No. it's single cab."  "Well that's not ok.  We are 4".  "It's all that's available".  "Then we will have to cancel".  "So you don't want to be picked up now?"  "No, I want to be picked up an hour ago, in a car that takes 5 people" I don't say. "No, cancel the pick up" I say, and that's the end of the conversation.  Steve texts the tour company and we come back inside to sulk!

I hate being made to feel unreasonable (the transport company) or unreliable (the tour company) but that was the position we were put in.  There's no alternative for transport and there's no spontaneity - everything we do has to be approved before hand.

This is not a one off.  Something always comes up to put a spanner in the birding works.  The restrictions on what we can do, where we can go and what transport we can use are onerous.  We knew they would be before we agreed to come.  But living it is hard!  It may be a good thing that my passport is in Port Moresby for a new visa and Steve's replacement passport has not arrived from Canberra yet or I could be  tempted to book a ticket home!

I have found the last fortnight difficult.  Our daughter Liz in Hobart has had major surgery and we were not there for her.  Our son David was doing the negotiations on buying a flat and we were not there to look at it.  A good friend in Hamilton has died and we are not there for the communal grieving.  Fire and weather conditions in Victoria have been trying and we were not there.  We know all this, and all the similar scenarios, can happen, but it's hard.

In 2014-5 I had 12 months without Steve in Arusha volunteering at the Umoja Centre.  I enjoyed the year of independence.  I don't think I'd do it now.  The world seems a darker and more dangerous place (Thank you Donald J Trump!) and I don't think I am as resilient.  Though if Tony Abbott was ever PM again I might find the courage!

Facebook is always reminding me of where I was and what I was doing 3, 10 or 15 years ago, and it seems that late January is the time to run training.  Here are two pictures to finish up this self-indulgent post.  One from Katoke Teachers College in Tanzania in 2011 and one from Katuuso Primary School Uganda in 2017.

DIY Snakes and Ladders Game - what are the positives
and negatives in how we teach.

More positives and negatives - teaching about
integers using bottle caps

Feedback always welcome, Jenny xx