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