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

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