Chris and Yvonne in Port Moresby

the law to the rescue

2010-06-03T15:40:00.001-07:00

There once was a man, outside Pot Mosbi, who had a boat which he kept tied up in what he thought was a safe location. To further ensure its safety he paid a guard to watch it. One night the guard fell asleep, as guards are want to do on a long, hot, boring nights (which is to say most nights). Some rascals happened by and stole the boat, taking it to a neighbouring island, apparently in order to get their hands on the outboard motor. The rightful owner of the boat, who was understandably vexed by this turn of events castigated the guard roundly and enthusiastically, and then reported the matter to the police.

In the course of the afore mentioned castigation the former owner of the boat used that four letter expletive much beloved of modest-talent Hollywood directors. The F-word as it is coyly referred to by those who think there maybe someone nearby who is less worldly and more easily offended than themselves.

The police attended promptly and arrested the owner for swearing at the guard. Although a modest ‘bail’ payment secured his release a court case is pending.

The theft remains an unsolved and possibly uninvestigated crime.

A new Library for Buk Bilong Pikinini

2010-05-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

Goroka is a town in the highlands of PNG, far from the metropolitan madness of Port Moresby. On Wednesday 19 May 2010 the 6^th Buk bilong Pikinini Library (and the first of its kind in the Papua New Guinean highlands) opened its doors in this beautiful town. Transforming the area sponsored by Steamship Trading Limited and located in the Bird of Paradise Hotel, took some effort.

After 1½ days intensive work, the space went from bare walled and concrete floored into another fully fledged Buk bilong Pikinini library. Volunteers from Port Moresby, including Yvonne, had travelled up to the highlands the previous day, courtesy of Air Niugini.

Steamships Trading had transported a container up to Goroka that contained all the items necessary to set up the library. Some of which include books, bookcases, craft materials, tables, chairs and sundry items required to run and maintain a library.

After interviewing a number of candidates for positions of head teacher/librarian, assistant teacher/librarian and guard/maintenance/crowd control, three Papua New Guinean men were chosen for the jobs. It is the first time Buk bilong Pikinini has employed an all male staff and they are excited at the prospect of having strong male leaders to assist the children.

The library opened from 1.00pm until 3.00pm for its first day and they were overwhelmed with the attendance of over 65 pikinini’s who turned up to read, play with educational games and puzzles and generally enjoy a resource desperately needed by the children of Goroka. Subsequent reports have been received of 200 kids in one day! Popular and needed!

The Goroka library will be open Monday to Friday from 8.00am until 4.00pm. The library is free and children are welcome to come along and join in on the games and reading. Numerous people checked if attendance was really free during the setup visit. It is not everday that the people of PNG get something for free!

Buk bilong Pikinini wishes to extend their deepest thanks to Steamships Trading, the Bird of Paradise hotel, Air Nuigini, madNESS Photography and all the lovely people of Goroka for their amazing welcome and fine hospitality.

On line banking update

2010-05-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

One of the earlier entries went on at some length about the travails of setting up online banking. After 5 months I finally got access to one of my accounts. The other is still missing in action and I have been asked to fill out another application form. Not sure if it is the 3^rd or 4^th!

Housing Problems

2010-05-13T04:30:00.001-07:00

By popular demand I am attempting to combat my natural laziness and resume updates to our blog… after a considerable break.

Housing Problems

Reported in the newspaper this week are problems that our trusty boys-in-blue are facing in Lae, the second city of PNG.

When the local health authority recently declared the housing that 100 Lae police officers and their families occupy as ‘unfit for habitation’ they gave them a deadline to vacate. As the deadline approaches the officers announced to the press that they had moved into home made tents but have left their families in the condemned houses. The paper offers no explanation as to why the families have been left behind.

The officers took Friday off from official duties to cut bamboo with which to construct their new tented accommodation. The officers now plan to move their families back to their traditional homes, stay on in the tents, but not to work on police business until the government addresses their housing concerns.

By strange coincidence the local health authorities here in Port Moresby recently condemned the office building that I work in. The air conditioning had not worked for some months and the carpets, long overdue a clean, had taken on the appearance of a school science project. We were instructed that the building was not fit for habitation. The imaginative solution (apart from cleaning the carpets) was to get all staff to work just halftime, either mornings or afternoons. This apparently assuaged the health authorities and allowed at least the semblance of work-as-normal to continue.

The carpets were cleaned the next weekend and the condemnation lifted. It took about a week to get in contact with all the staff and get them to come back to work fulltime. The air conditioning was also fixed. It lasted about a month and has now broken again. Oh well, at least the weather is cooling down a bit now that the trade winds are picking up.

All in a days diving

2009-12-19T17:32:00.000-08:00

I went diving on Saturday. The diving was great, but that is not what I am here to tell you about.

We meet at the (relatively) swanky Airways hotel at an ungodly quarter to seven on Saturday morning. At least I did, the other divers were all varying degrees of late and rolled up over the next half hour. Good job we got up early eh! Anyway eventually we were all ready for the off.

One of the divers had a motorbike, very unusual for Port Moresby where they are anything but a favoured form of transportation. Anyway he said he was going to meet us at the boat and duly set off, flying through the car park like he was being chased by a mad bull on Red Bull. Shortly after this we finally all piled into the minibus and off we set for Bootless Bay about 20 minutes away (usually).

Just outside the main town and on the road we were taking is the somewhat notorious settlement known as Six Mile. Plenty of places here are known by the number of miles they rest from the centre of town, hence there are residential areas at two mile and four mile, the airport is at 7 mile and a small town come settlement at 6 mile (there is a new Buk Bilong Pikinini library there two).

As we left the confines of 6 mile we found one reason that bikes are not a favoured means of getting about, our bikie friend was at the side of the road with a puncture. There was much talk of raskols putting things in the road to puncture tyres so that they could relieve drivers of their 'surplus' Kina. Happily no raskols appeared. The guy had taken the precaution of travelling as far as he could on the flat tyre just in case.

Protocol and common sense say that you don't leave someone alone at the roadside so we all hung about for 10 minutes until one of his wantoks turned up in a Ute and took away the newly inoperative bike. (For you Poms a Ute is a small pickup truck and bikies are bikers).

Off we set again, 5 minutes up the road was a police roadblock masquerading under the somewhat euphemistic name of a 'road safety check'. These are very common at present with Christmas just around the corner. Our driver had left his licence in the other van so a finger wagging and a K20 fine were in order (christmas is coming and those celebratory comestibles don't buy themselves you know). After a bit of form filling and of course a bit of paying up, we were on our way yet again.

Nothing stopped us this time and in 10 minutes were on the dive boat and underway.

Two or three minutes offshore everything suddenly when quite as the morning's third hiatus got into gear; the boat's engine spluttered to a disappointing and disquieting stop. We drifted in silence staring alternatively at each other and at our resent point of departure just a short drift away (maybe).

We were still within easy sight of the wharf and with the first dive site 30 minutes or so in front of us. As we drifted in the current 'in front' gradually became 'behind' and the crew thought it prudent to throw out the anchor. The boss went below to the engine room and after a few minutes of restrained clanking, emerged and restarted the engine. Someone had switched to the second fuel tank but left the shut-off valve on the new tank living up to its name, which is to say Shut! Progress under such circumstances was always going to be limited we were sagely and entirely believably advised.

So, three incidents under our belts and its not yet 9. Off we go … for a day of incident free diving at the outer reef (basically the northern extension of the Great Barrier Reef).

One the way home there was a loud splash as the owner and boss of the organisation fell overboard! More calamities? No. They were running a 'Rescue Divers' course that day and this man overboard drill was just a practice part of that course.

Christmas Competition

2009-12-17T23:55:00.000-08:00

B-Mobile one of the mobile phone providers are running a competition with prizes that I doubt you'd be able to win where you live! If you get the answers then in the words of the radio advertisement you “win a live pig for Christmas, Win a live pig for New Years”.

This a great prize, pigs are very valuable and popular eating too.

It’s that simple.

2009-12-16T17:46:00.000-08:00

One of the banks in PNG recently ran a radio commercial for their new online banking service, which replaces their old online banking service (and requires an entirely new, slow application process in which you give them all the information about you that they already have because of the old service).

The advertisement focussed on how easy it is to set up an account – just six easy steps. That’s right ONLY six and they are all easy. I may not remember every detail of every step, but this is the gist:

1 – go online and download an application form,

2 – complete the form and take it into your local branch,

3 – sit with the customer service agent whilst they complete the registration online from the information in the form,

4 – wait two days for the processing (yeah right, my application has already been several weeks, but then again they did lose the first form so I had to start from scratch),

5 – receive your login details in the mail,

6 – call the customer services line to get your temporary password, then you can log on, change the passwod and finally use the service.

That’s it, just visit a website, fill a form, visit a bank, … wait … , receive a letter, call a phone number and visit a website.

It’s that simple!

No Sitting. We mean it!

2009-12-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

There are a number of low retaining walls outside my office. They are the type designed to contain flower beds or some nice shrubs. In our case they hold back a few rusty old street lights (which some workers were 'felling' the other day) and some bare earth.

In Port Moresby there are always a lot of people hanging about, as a lot of them have nothing else to do and hanging about fills in the time. One former favourite spot for hanging about aimlessly was outside our office on these conveniently seat-height retaining walls. Of course there are notices saying don't hang about, or sell things or generally be here, but these are duly and completely ignored.

A few weeks back the security guards hit on a good way of improving compliance with the no loitering instructions. They got some old sump oil out of the generator (or someone's car) and poured it liberally all over the prospective seats. Problem solved. No one sits there any more and all it takes to maintain is an occasional dousing with old oil.

It looks so attractive too, don't you think?

So then I ...

2009-12-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

It all started yesterday. I went to the bank to by some foreign exchange for our Christmas holiday to Singapore and Malaysia. But the customer service agent informed me, in the commonly used PNG whisper (most people are modest and speak somewhere between very quietly and half a notch above silent) that they don’t sell those currencies. No problem I thought (no really), I’ll just check up on the progress of my application for the new online banking service. The new service replaces a current service that we use, but requires a new form to be completed with all the same information that was provided for the old service. The agent whispered his apologies and sent an email off to the department responsible to find out the cause of the delay.

So then I went to Telikom PNG to pay for a year’s subscription to wireless internet, without which I am limited to 28kb dial-up in the office (remember that?). Sadly the pricing has not been finalised yet so I was unsuccessful, they are not selling it yet. The service was launched in June 09 for a monthly fee, but the monthly fee has never been charged. The other day, without any notice, it all stopped working because they have decided to put it on pre-paid or an annual no-limits account. Or so I was told by a friend who had spend half a day in Telikom’s office finding out. Well, the annual option is not available yet so now the only choice is pre-paid on a Kina by Kina basis!

So then I went back to the office and shortly after got a call to say that the online banking application had been lost and could I please go back to the branch and fill in another form (with the same details that they already have on my ‘old’ online service and my two current accounts).
So then I tried to do some work.. but that’s another story involving broken air-conditioning and an afternoon of driving back and forth across town. This is not a blog about work.
So the next day I went back to Telikom to buy the pre-paid card. Sorry the cash desk is closed but you can buy them across the road at the B-Mobile store.

So then I went to B-Mobile and they said. We don’t sell them, we only sell our own products (sounds reasonable, but why do Telikom think different?). You can buy Riat Pre-Paid at Stop and Shop (the nearby supermarket), off I set to Stop and Shop which had the A/C broken down and should have been called stop and sweat.

So then I asked for 50 Kina Rait pre-paid. The guy went out the back to find the cards and came back announcing that they didn’t have any, sorry. I was about to leave, well you would wouldn’t you, when another sales clerk offered two 20’s and a 10 – inconvenient, but acceptable. I’ll take it!

So then they spent 5 minutes locating the cards and ringing up the sale. Success, I had finally achieved something.

So then I went to the Bank, remember the Bank, duplicator of information? Whilst waiting to fill the form, which was to be done with the agent and in front of the computer into which he typed all the information as I filled the form, I read the pre-paid card only to find out that they had given me B-Mobile instead of Rait (Telikom brand name). By this time I was already late for a meeting with a few worthies at the Department of Finance, but I had to go back to Stop and Sweat whilst the people that sold me the wrong cards were still there or I would never see my money again as I had no receipt.

So then I went to Stop and Sweat. They smiled in recognition at my approach and said You asked for Rait pre-paid, Sorry, we gave you the wrong thing.

So then I spent the next 10 minutes stopped and sweating whilst they located the correct place on the till roll, the manager and a couple of other unidentified staff to observe whilst my 50 Kina was refunded. The rest of the growing queue looked on in patient, long suffering silence; not new to any of them I’m sure. Eventually, once I had lost about half a kilo in body weight from the sweating (though the stopping was no extra effort I admit) my money was returned and I started again. This time I did end up with pre-paid, though for some reason only K40 in the form of two K20 cards.

So then I returned to the office and set about following the instruction on the pre-paid card. Call 1255 and follow the prompts. Ok here we go. 1255. It is blocked from our internal phones. I can’t call it from the mobile because it is a competitors service. The final option I can currently think of is the phone at home. Well, the phone at home you may recall, only worked for a week and two calls before failing. After nearly 2 months it was fixed; however it only lasted a couple of weeks before failing again at which point we gave up with it.
So then I went back to dial-up where for the moment I remain!

This, just for context, accompanies another, parallel and in many ways similar chain of near-misses that together constitute my working life …

A few days at the end of the earth

2009-12-04T19:24:00.000-08:00

We have just enjoyed a few days in Alotau which is the nearest thing to a large town that there is on the eastern tip of PNG. It is unreasonably attractive. More like a series of Pacific Island post card settings than a real place. As with everything in PNG, every picture does not tell the story.

We had a uneventful flight up in a little dash-8 turboprop with Airlines PNG the second airline of the country, most recently famous for crashing on the way back from Kokoda (not their fault). Domestic travel differs from international and the check-in was a inexplicably long process in a baking, uncooled room with what seemed like half the population of Port Moresby. Everyone was friendly and chatty and eventually we repaired to departure lounge with one printed boarding pass and one hand written one (computer error apparently).

On arriving in Alotau we found a tiny airport building in which to claim our bags straight from the baggage handler's cart. It was hot and humid as we bumped through the ubiquitous pot-holes into town accompanied by the driver's apologies and modest indifference from the other road users.

We checked into the Alotau international hotel a comfortable if rather characterless place down by the water. After lunch we ventured down the road to local travel agents to see what there was to see (it took about 7 minutes to walk around the commercial centre of the town so that was clearly not going to be a major part of the entertainment).

We had, it transpired arrived too late for the half day local tour the nice lady in the hermetically sealed and uncooled office informed us. They needed to advice (ask) the locals before dropping by with a load of tourists, even if the load was only two. Sunday we were informed there were to be no tours as there was going to be a cruise ship in the harbour and it would keep them all busy all day! Humm.

We booked a day trip down to the eastern most point of the island and returned to the hotel. It started to rain and kept it up all night. At breakfast the next day as we prepared ourselves for the day of travelling needed to do justice to the beautiful country the inevitable message came in. The rain had caused the road to become impassable. No tour! As there are a lot of rivers and only a very few bridges, most crossings being fords, this was not that surprising. At this point it appeared that our entire weekend away would be spent looking out of a window at rain – something we do a bit in Port Moresby anyway.

Later in the morning we managed to persuade the hotel to lend us a driver (and the hotel manager's personal car). He took us on a very detailed tour of the town for about 40 minutes. We passed and commented on every place of business, residence, school and public building. He even knew the names of the residents of many of the bigger houses, what they did and how long they had been in the town. (He as was no a guide, just the driver.)

Alotua is a beautiful place and in a considerable contrast to Moresby there was not a single bit of rubbish on the ground, no streaks of buai stain, nothing! Apparently the locals' natural habit of keeping the place clean is supported by a system of on-the-spot fines!

On returning to the hotel there was good news. We had secured a place on a local dive boat going out for a day in the islands on Sunday (despite the presence of 9,000 cruse passengers!)

We had an excellent sunday with Darrel from Explore PNG (highly recommended – contact him through the International Hotel) I even had a short dive and some excellent snorkelling over the coral which is only a few meters from the ridiculously attractive and unvisited beach. The island was about an hour and a half from the town in a fast boat, so this is a reasonably inaccessible place. We saw only one other boat the whole day with a handful of divers on board (apart from the few local fisherman that is). Oh yes, we were the only two people on the boat out of Alotau, though we did meet up with a few others that had spent the night on an island and returned with us at the end of the day at the beach to define days at the beach. Eat your heart out Sydney, Bondi seems like the centre of a Cairo by comparison. (Sandy yes, but hot and crowded too).

The evenings were a little slow in Alotau. Of the four places we knew of to eat two were closed when we tried to eat in them! At the weekend the hotel had a driver that took us about, but in the week the driver was not available and the taxis had all stopped with the departure of the sun. It was eat in the hotel most of the time.

Check out the pictures in Picasa (soon).

Welcome home, would you like a dead cockroach with that?

2009-11-05T14:28:00.001-08:00

Last week we enjoyed a brief sojourn in Sydney. We flew back on Air Nuigini as we usually do. An excellent airline with friendly service, reasonable meals and a comfortable thump on landing that confirms arrival for even those lacking most of the normal human senses.

The day was to be an accretion of PNG-esk events that welcomed us home in due style.

Qantas, on behalf of Air Nuigini, and in fine PNG style, checked nearly all the small number of passengers into first six rows of economy. This is the same area of the plane that Air Nuigini cabin crew enjoy storing the spare blankets and lifejackets in the overhead lockers. Result – a three quarters empty 'plane and still nowhere to put your bag! To help the situation along the helpful crew would not let us move until after take off (after we had already had to solve the storage problem of course).

The flight continued with few interruptions and even a reasonable meal.

Next to the airport in Port Moresby is the appropriately named Airways Hotel. A reasonably nice place that charges like a wounded bull and, you may recall, likes to mess up coffee orders and burn cheese filled croissants. But that's another story.

The hotel restaurant offers nice views over the airport. It is just far enough away that you get a great view but not so close that your aural health is put at risk. However, it is certainly close enough that you are never supposed to see it from the air. You are supposed to be down there adjacent, at ground level and enjoying the Air Nuigini bump.

So when I, relaxing in my seat, casually observed that there was a hotel down there, and that, oh it has something written on the roof. Airways Hotel. I recognise that name. But … we should be down there. Ground-bound and awaiting the delights of immigration queues and the filling of pointless forms.

We began to ascend. Slowly but surely up rather than down. One by one the sensation registered with passengers and quizzical looks shot around the cabin.

And after an uncomfortable few minutes, "Ladies and gentlemen. There was a dog on the runway so we had a miss approach. We'll head back over Waigani and come in again!"

Following an uneventful time in the Airport we drove home (thanks to Obi for making sure the car was in the car park) and entered the house to dust, a dead cockroach and the backup generator belting out smoke, noise and volts in equal measure.

After a few hours the generator took on a new role. It stopped creating power and started to create a 'fearful racket' in its place. I went out to speak to the gateman John who was, he told me, going to call control who would in turn call the landlord – but they didn't have the landlords number. So could I call the landlord? This I did, several times for reasons I needn't go into, and then I let John speak to him as his primary skill is in cashing large cheques rather than communicating in English. So, twenty minutes later he turned up with a Ute-full of guys and fixed the noise. Simple and it only took an hour or so.

Ah, but its great to be home.

A puppet show ...

2009-10-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Charity that Yvonne volunteers at recently held a puppet show for kids. As you can see they all got very excited and had a great time....

This is the metropolis of Port Moresby ...

2009-10-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

Most of you reading this probably have an idea in your minds about the size of Port Moresby. Not a small place you are probably thinking. Remember, its the capital city. This where the government is and the big shops and the business head quarters. Must be huge eh? At least it must be quite big?

Here's a map. This is the whole town, right out to the airport! (the airport is a 15/20 minute drive from right down in Town were we live.)

I know that it's not a great map. But you get the idea .. this is a small place.

The reason that it's all spread out by the way is that there are some serious hills around here. Moresby is more like of a series of villages connected by a couple of two lane highways than an actual town.

Would you like that wrapped?

2009-10-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

When you go to the shop in Port Moresby they just love to put everything in a plastic bag for you, a habit until recently, common across much of the world. The green revolution has been slow coming to PNG, so it's good old fashion non-degradable plastic bags in good number. You can buy the green reusable bags so beloved of Sydney shoppers – but if you try to actually reuse them you are greeted with bemused looks or even smothered titters.

'Tittering' by the way is a big part of PNG culture. Our office frequently resounds with spontaneous peals of titters, except on Mondays when everyone is in morning for the passing of the weekend. There is one girl who actually laughs in the approved kids-comic fashion – she actually goes “Te He, Te He, Te He” - loudly and frequently. But I digress...

Not everything you buy is suitable for the plastic bag treatment without further preparation. Items such as pre-packed meat, bottles of wine and other assorted but unrelated items are carefully wrapped in old newspapers, in the style of a 1970's chip-shop, before being swathed in non-degradable plastic. There is no clear way to identify which items warrant this treatment that I can detect; although wine is ALWAYS wrapped in newspaper (at SVS anyway).

Having loose paper wrapped around your wine bottle gives a much improved chance of the thing slipping out of you hand and smashing on the floor; so the extra effort certainly does offer identifiable (dis)benefits.

A friend of ours recently purchased his weekly copy of the weekend Sydney Morning Herald. Being the environmentally aware type that he is, he turned down the ubiquitous plastic bag – so the girl wrapped it. You guessed it, in old newspaper!

Nicked Nickers

2009-10-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

An underwear thief is at work in Papua New Guinea. Women travelling with the national carrier Air Niugini are reporting that baggage handlers are nicking their knickers.

One tourist in PNG said her bag was broken into but the only things missing were g-strings and lace briefs. "I could not believe it. I was shocked, it's just too creepy," she said."I have travelled all around the world and this is the first time something like this has happened," she said.

Another woman visiting Lae, on PNG's northwest coast, reported her pink panties had vanished. "What makes it weirder is that I had much more valuable items to steal than my underpants," she said.

Air Niugini officials said they would get to the bottom of the issue!

A tiny bit of history

2009-09-23T20:52:00.001-07:00

People probably first came to New Guinea from Southeast Asia via Indonesia about 50,000 years ago. These people were hunter-gatherers with agriculture only introduced much later.

Although New Guinea was visited by both Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 16th century there was no permanent European presence until 1884, when, in the presumptuous way that European nations have, Germany declared a protectorate over the northern coast. Britain, not wishing to be outdone, did the same in the south.

In 1906 Britain transferred its usurped authority over New Guinea to a newly independent Australia.

Obviously with this European mix the country was bound to be dragged into World War I, when Australian troops forced the Germans out of the North. After the war Australia retained control under a League of Nations mandate.

Then in the second world war New Guinea got involved once again as it was invaded by the Japanese heading for Australia. After being retaken by the Australians in 1945, it became a United Nations trusteeship, administered by Australia.

Australia granted limited home rule in 1951 with autonomy in internal affairs coming nine years later. But is was not until 1973 that Papua New Guinea became self-governing. In September 1975 the state finally became independent.

Sex Cult Boss Hunt

2009-09-22T02:43:00.000-07:00

2009-08-31T04:34:00.000-07:00

Now I've seen a lot of live music in my time, but this is a first for me. On Saturday morning we went to a local market. Not the regular food and stolen items market that the local frequent in large numbers, but an 'arts and crafts' market that is held here on Ela Beach once a month for the tourists, ex-pats and richer locals.

The crowd is kept 'select' by the imposition of a 1 Kina entrance charge.

They have a respectable range of carvings, paintings and such like. The prices are high, but it's interesting to have a look once in a while.

There is always some form of entertainment and this week was no exception.

It is hard to see clearly in this picture but these guys are playing music. The instruments are varying lengths of plastic piping strapped together. They are played by being vigourously whacked with old thongs (flip-flops in the UK).

It make a surprisingly good sound although they only seemed to know one tune which was enthusiastically reprised repeatedly for the girls to dance to. As you can see it was entertainment for the whole family.

Two Cups of Coffee Please

2009-08-30T01:14:00.001-07:00

The other morning we decided to have breakfast with a couple of
friends in a local hotel. The service there is usually attentive and
the food not bad (the steaks are excellent actually).
At about eight-thirty on Saturday morning we arrived. Sure enough the
greeting was warm and friendly. A PNG handshake and a familiar
'welcome back'. A PNG handshake is unlike the anglo-saxon firm and
purposeful handshake. It is more of an incidental hand clasp. Most
often little more than the fingers and thumbs are involved and it can
be sustained for quite a while, during quite lengthy conversations in
fact.
We arrived ahead of our friends and had to chase away several
enthusiastic wait staff! Everything was looking good for another good-
service experience. With the arrival of our friends the erstwhile
ubiquitous waiters evaporated into the cool Moresby morning. (Actually
there was a half a football team of them over by the bar, but none in
our immediate vicinity and certainly none looking our way in that
special way that waiters worldwide have whenever you actually want
something).
Eventually we coaxed one of the suddenly shy waiters over to the table
and ordered a variety of traditional breakfast fare. Amongst the order
was "a plunger of coffee for two please".
Half an hour later very little had happened, apart from someone
sitting down at an adjacent table and starting to drink his coffee!
Our food and drinks started to appear bit by bit, though the cutlery
had to be raided from a nearby table. Still no plunger of coffee.
After a couple more enquiries, a tea pot arrived! The tea pot arrived
full of coffee, with an lid two sizes too small and an apology that
they didn't have any plungers. Shortly after this a coffee cup
arrived, and then a little later again another somewhat smaller cup
arrived.
None of the above a very surprising or earth-shattering. A 50 minute
wait for a coffee is not really depravation. But it is a nice example
of how problems are treated here in PNGee.
There was a problem – no plungers. Rather than try to solve the
problem which would not have been all that hard. Instead the problem
was simply ignored in the hope, or even expectation, that it would go
away. Only when it did not go away, in this case instead it got worse
because we complained a couple of times. Only then was it addressed.

All in a day's work

2009-08-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

You may recall that several months ago we had a telephone installed at home. It was mentioned in the blog because it only worked for a few days and then stopped completely. Apart from test calls we got exactly one international call and one local call before it passed on.

Anyway, a week ago I got a call at work from a polite and quietly spoken gentleman at Telikom PNG who asked if my residential line was working. Although I had all but forgotten that we even had one, I was able to advise him that, no, in fact it was not working.

“Is there someone there?, I'll come around and take a look”.

Sometime later in the day he turned up and Yvonne let him in. He headed for the phone, but before getting there the local paper on the sofa took his interest and he bent over and started to scan the headlines. A few minutes later Yvonne asked “what about the phone?”

“Oh, it's fixed. If you have a mobile you can test it?”

Whilst Yvonne tested the phone – which worked fine – the technician installed himself on the sofa and really got stuck into the reading. Some 10 minutes later he was still there and looking like he was about the ask for lunch.

Not really being sure how to get rid of him Yvonne said “You can take that paper if you like”, “Oh thanks. There's some very interesting news in it!” And off he went with our, up until that point, unread paper.

We have a phone, for now. There is a shortage of phone lines up here in Town so they get shared on a complaint-restore basis. This is a system where when a new customer is connected they get given the line of another customer who then complains that their service has suddenly stopped and is given the line of, you guessed it, another customer. Along it goes with the most recent complainant getting service restored (eventually). Telikom of course would deny this, but it is accepted by people living around here that this is what happens.

It's crime Jim, but not as we know it!

2009-07-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

In the paper this week was a little story about a woman waiting to catch a PMV (local bus like a matatu or dollar-dollar). It helps also to know that the local currency is the Kina which is divided into 100 Toea (pronounced toyah like the annoying singer with the lithp).

Anyway, the woman was waiting for a PMV and spat out a mouthful of Buai juice onto the pavement. A man came up to her and told her that she had broken a law by spitting and she had to pay an on-the-spot fine of 50 Kina. She responded that she did not have 50 Kina, so the thoughtful law enforcer suggested that 30 Kina would do just fine. Again, no luck, she just didn't have that kind of money.

There followed a negotiation whereby it eventuated that the buai spitting offender only had K1.50 about her person, so the man took K1 for the fine and left, apparently satisfied with the arrangement.

The man returned a few minutes later and asked the lady if she had enough for her bus fare. When she admitted that she did not, the man gave her back 50 Toea and made a break for the boarder with his net haul of 50 Toea.

An amusing story for the newspaper, but it says a lot about the state of PNG. The fella was obviously a reluctant robber and even though he must have needed the money, he didn't want to leave his victim in a difficult position, just a bit poorer. Not all PNG raskols are so thoughtful of course.

more on life in the land of the unexpected

2009-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

We have been in Port Moresby for four months and I have to say that it has been very interesting.

You all have heard of Rodney. Now that the poor chap has left the building for good because Chris stuffed the hole where he used to come from with newspaper and the Pest Control guys paid us a visit, for a few days when we woke up in the morning and walked to the sitting room and kitchen we had all sorts of insects from nasty looking bugs to tiny spiders. There is a big number of Geikos that inhabits the house but they are ok.
Now is the mould that has been attacking our clothes, shoes and belts. It's supposed to be dry season but it has been quite damp for the past few weeks.

Apart from doing charity work my days are spent waiting for traders or the house meri to show up.
Our landline has been installed after two months of harassing the telephone company but we still can't get calls from Brazil!!! I found out today that to access the voicemail you need to dial a number that is incorrectly printed in the phone book. And you need a password that nobody has bothered to tell us what it is.
The cost of international calls are quite high so we will stick to email or Skype.

We have a hausmeri, (maid), that helps us with the cleaning once a week for half a day. We don't need one but it's a job for a local. Most people here have a tough life but I feel for the women. Apart from taking care of all the house chores and pikininis, they also sell veggies from their garden or bilums (bags) that they make themselves, or clean houses to complement the small income.
What amazes me is that they always have a smile on their faces. Same goes for the pikininis at the hospital or clinic, even feeling so sick when they look at you a big smile comes from their tiny faces.
There is also a queue of people that ask to wash the car for a bit of change and me and Chris rarely say no.

The other day I saw some kids breaking and carrying stones under the hot sun. They should be in school but schools have been closing down due to lack of money to maintain the building or pay the teachers. For a few exceptions I have not seen any kids playing with toys. They spend a lot of time seating around and their pastime is to wave to you and say hello.
On a brighter note some of them have fun placing soft drink cans or beer cans in the middle of the road so when you drive by you smash it for them.

Telephones

2009-07-07T21:58:00.001-07:00

We have telephones in Papua New Guinea and, quite often, but by no means always, they can be used to talk to people in another location. On other occasions they have the sole function of annoying the hell out of you. They are generally slightly better at the later.

We've had a phone installed at home. It took just under 3 months to be installed, which is not too bad. The worst case I have heard of was 18 months! In the end Yvonne called or I went into the office just about every day until they tired of us and installed the thing. For about 3 weeks before D-Day someone phoned up each Friday and said that they would be around to install the phone later, or maybe tomorrow!

Once it was installed we were able to listen to dial tone – that was the only function available to begin with. Telikom PNG only sell a pre-paid service to domestic customers these days, presumably because so many people didn't pay their bills. Anyway, we bought the pre-paid card to enable access to some of the more exciting functions, like calls!

The overseas calls are so expensive that the card we bought would last less than 5 minutes to the UK or Brazil; skype still seems a more attractive option. Not much benefit there. But not to worry, at least this way we can receive calls from overseas. The only problem was that whenever anyone tried to call they could not get through.

Imagine our amazement when the phone rang one evening and there it was out first international call sounding just perfect. Was this the beginning of a new age of international communications. Well...

Obviously exhausted by its international efforts the phone line went dead the next morning and has been dead ever since. We've reported it of course, but you know how it is.

I have a phone at work too. I have to use it for dial-up to get my emails (remember that, if you don't remember it you missed out. It was the first round of internet email and internet access where you plumbed the computer into a telephone and in return got painfully slow downloads and big phone bills).

When using the phone at work I get one of three outcome, in approximately equal proportions. 1) an announcement that the line has been cut off for non-payment of bill (believable but not true), 2) an announcement that the number I am calling is not available from this service (believable and, at that point in time apparently true), or once in while 3) a modem at the other end hooting and tooting back to enable the 26kbps connection (unbelievable but true).

Then there are mobiles. As long as you didn't buy one from Telikom PNG they behave a lot like mobiles elsewhere – you punch in some numbers and some says “hello” - you know the rest...

Buk bilong Pikinini

2009-06-23T03:13:00.000-07:00

Yvonne has been helping out an independent charity called "Buk bilong Pikinini" ( Books for children). The charity was founded by Anne-Sophie, wife of the Australian High Comissioner. The organization has grown in these past two years from a comittee of 2 to 10 people.

PNG is facing a literary crisis – with only 37% of the population being able to read and write. When PNG gained its independence from Australia in 1975 there were 32 public libraries in Port Moresby alone – now there are none – school libraries are existent but terribly outdated. There is only one book shop in the capital which is out of reach to most people. Hence the majority of PNG children have grown up without having access to books.

The purpose of Buk bilong Pikinini is to focus on early learning as a key to literacy through the creation of small libraries in children’s hospitals, orphanages, clinics and other places of need. Three libraries have been established in Port Moresby and hopefully a further five over the course of this year. So far, the books used in these libraries have come from private individuals’ collections. However Yvonne and her colleagues are now contacting publishers to seek their assistance.

The libraries could not exist without the book collectors, donors an sponsors. Financial support is received from corporate companies and individuals.

There is also a subsidiary called "Kaikai bilong Pikinini" (Food for children). This was created to assist children at the Port Moresby General Hospital. All donations go to support the needs of the children in HIV/AIDS ward at the hospital. The nutritional education component of Kaikai bilong Pikinini is run through the Buk bilong Pikinini library at the General hospital. Children receive fresh fruit and vegetables on regular basis. Powdered milk is delivered upon request.

Just another day in Port Moresby

2009-06-04T03:40:00.001-07:00

Just another day, but actually this one started yesterday. The car you see, its being playing up. Well more playing dead. When you turn the key its been making a kind of weak splutter and then the next time you try it starts. Nothing serious, but definitely getting worse. I reported it the office and they arranged to come around today and swap it out for a 'new' one whilst the problem is looked at.

This morning dawned and of I went to work, via the Holiday Inn in Gordons where Yvonne was attending a couple of meetings. The first major appointment of the day was our 'big' monthly management meeting, the IT Steering Committee. After about 10 minutes of hanging about in the meeting room it became apparent that a quorum was not to be forthcoming. No meeting! We all trooped back to our desks despondent ;-)

After lunch, noodle soup and tempura at the local Japanese, the guy from the office turned up with the replacement car, with the news that I will be getting a new car tomorrow (humm?). Today's 'new' car is a beat up old Toyota of some type, but the radio worked so I was able to hear about the demise of General Motors on the BBC.

After work, at about 5, I headed out to the other side of Port Moresby to pick up Yvonne from a friend's house. I took a wrong turn near my destination and ended up driving around a couple of dodgy looking unsealed roads. Typically there were fires everywhere and people just hanging about. That is how most of the Port Moresby's roads are. There are always open fires and never a shortage of people just a-passing the time (because they have nothing else to do. Only a very small percentage of the population are actually employed.)

I eventually located the road I was supposed to be on, at the end of a side road which I duly turned down. Unhappily there was a river, well a healthy flood anyway, at the end of the road so I couldn't actually get out to the road I wanted. No problem, I just turned about, ignored the helpful locals trying to direct me in the wrong direction and continued to my destination.

When the car was delivered at lunchtime it had, according to the dial anyway, about a quarter of a tank of petrol. When we left to come home the dial was showing EMPTY and the light light that annoys you into stopping for petrol was flashing. As I has just 'traded in' a full tank this was even more annoying than the blinking light.

No drama, we drove home through the gathering dusk and drifting smoke of the evening's cooking fires, weaving in and out of the traffic and generally having a good old indicatorless time.

The entry to our home has a large metal gate which is opened by the gate man using a TV-style remote control. Well normally that is. When we got home tonight we found the gate locked shut and a strangely large number of people milling about trying to get it to open (no idea where they all came from, or why really). Anyway, they couldn't get it to open. So we had to park outside blocking the entrance.

We came in and cooked dinner whilst discussing the failure of the telephone company to install the phone 3 weeks after calling to say that they would be along “this afternoon” and the failure of the pest control people to turn up to attend to Rodney and friends (appointment yesterday!). The maid didn't show up for the last 2 weeks either, but then we really employ her to give her an income rather than for the actually cleaning, so that was not too serious.

Finally one of the guys knocked on the door to say that they had opened the gate and could I now move the car please. The gate, by the way is not fixed, they plan to wait for the last car to come in and then tie the gate shut. Very PNG, don't you think.

There you go, just another day in the land of the unexpected.

More Radio News

2009-05-30T18:43:00.003-07:00

It was reported on the radio news the other day that the shortage of teachers at one university has led to an alarming increase in the number of unqualified engineers graduating from the university!

Prison Break out!

2009-05-30T18:43:00.001-07:00

It rained the other day. Yes, I know that it is taim bilong san, but no one told the ren and it came anyway. The rain here is heavy and makes you pretty wet, pretty quickly. Naturally the guards at the local Prison like other sensible folk wanted to stay dry, so they headed inside out of the rain. The inmates on the other hand appear less concerned about the risk of a good soaking. A bunch of them stayed out in the rain and, whilst temporarily unobserved, 'let themselves out' of detention.

Reportedly it took three hours for the authorities to realise that there had been a breakout. Presumably this was about the length of time that it took for the rain to stop, but this is supposition.

It is still not clear that anyone knows exactly who has escaped as the database that records inmates details has not been updated for a while (three years according to one reasonably reliable source).

The tale of the absconders no longer features in the papers, and one theory is that as no-one really knows who is gone it maybe best to let the story fade from view. Of course it maybe just that there is more exciting news about...

Rodney

2009-05-30T18:42:00.003-07:00

We are not alone. It's true we have taken in a lodger.

Not a long term lodger we hope. Rodney the rodent moved in a few days back and has been riffling through and writing off, our dry goods ever since. He also shredded one of my favourite shirts. There were many shirts to chose from but one in particular got the treatment and everything else was ignored. Now we have to lock the laundry away upstairs with us overnight. Rodney cannot make through the door at the top of the stairs.

Obviously Rodney's presence is not something that we are not all that pleased about. We put out some poison for him, which he seemed to enjoy as he took it away and came right on back the next day for some more!

I was able to find his point of ingress, it is in the laundry behind a pipe. Since stuffing it with a rolled up newspaper we have not seen any evidence of further visits, but the landlord is getting 'the guy' to come tomorrow and resolve the problem permanently. Hopefully we will be permanently back to a lodger-free zone before long.

Taim bilong san

2009-05-30T18:42:00.001-07:00

It's official, the wet season is over and the taim bilong san is here; the wet is taim bilong ren. The weather is cooler, especially at nights. The san is still pretty damn hot if you stand about in it, but in the shade it can be almost cool (well relatively anyway). Most of the time we don't even have the fans on.

In fact it should probably be called time belong wind 'cos tis the season of the trade winds. Today, Sunday, is very quite with hardly enough wind to move the curtains. But the last week it has been blowing like a bandit the whole time. We live perched on top of a hill looking out over the sea and facing directly into the in-coming gales. The wind is so strong that windows, walls and anything not actually part of the earth bangs, bumps and rattles about. It has been so noisy that we've hardly had a decent night's sleep the whole week.

State of Play

2009-05-30T18:41:00.001-07:00

Port Moresby is turning blue and maroon. The streets are full of kids selling flags and more and more cars are getting new decorations. Those east coast Aussies reading this will know what this is all about. It is the annual state of origin football (rugby) battle between New South Wales (blues) and Queensland (maroons). In Australia it is a fairly big deal, you'd certainly be hard pushed not to be aware of it. But here is is massive. It is the biggest sporting event of the year. There will lots of noisy drinking, yelling at tv screens and public disorder.

Stop Press – Compensation update

2009-05-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

I have just heard that now that the traditional landowners whose hill has been plundered for the Port Moresby land reclamation project have worked out what the stone from their (former) hill is being used for they want to re-open compensation discussion! Obviously the new land, constituted as it is from 'their' hill is their land. Compensation is due. Obviously anyone who has the money to reclaim land also has money for compensation claims, it all makes perfect sense, no really.

Land, development and compensation

2009-05-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

From our window you can see lots and lots of 'empty' space, unused land. Acres of it. When you drive around Port Moresby you generally see more trees than buildings. It is the very definition of low density, at least in the bits that are developed at all are. In short it appears ripe for development and indeed there is a bit of construction under way.

Beyond Moresby PNG is a pretty big place but has only 6 million or so people. Even though it is a very mountainous place there is plenty of space for those 6 million.

In Fairfax Harbour they are reclaiming land! They are systematically pulling down a nearby hill and using it to fill the harbour in, in order to have something to build on.

Humm, expensive land reclamation in a place with enough empty space to relocate London. What you may wonder is afoot in the land of the unexpected? The issue concerns the complexities of land ownership in PNG. Traditionally land is owned not by individuals but by the community. Therefore to get agreement for development, and of course suitable compensation, you need to get a whole lot of people to agree.

Once you have solved problem number one and got a large number of loosely affiliated people to agree and come up with a suitable “compensation package”, along comes problem number two. Land ownership is not very accurately recorded, if at all. Traditional ownership is awash with disputes, conflicting claims and unresolved issues aplenty.

So, having negotiated for years and parted with millions you may have a group of 'land owners' turn up on your doorstep the next day claiming that you have negotiated with the wrong people. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start compensatin' all over again.

Papua New Guineans are an unexpectedly litigious lot. Apparently because many people here will go to great lengths to avoid difficult face-to-face interactions (or arguments are we sometimes call them) there is a willingness to let the law courts loose on all manner of disputes. A real dispute over millions of Kina could go for years!

By now you can probably see how this set of circumstances may limit development!

So finally let's have a word on compensation. Compensation is an art form here – rule one is go for compensation for everything and go after the people with money not the people how may actually be culpable. This is a very practical approach and overcomes the inconvenient situation where no-one is culpable. Recently a major road in the highlands was washed away in a storm. The locals refused to allow the government to fix the road until the proper compensation had been agreed. (stopped with guns, spears and bush knifes by the way, none of you Gandi nonsense here!)

The other day there was even a story that the traditional owners of the airport were planning to close down operations in pursuit of a better (and subsequent) compensation deal.

Lukim yu.

(good-bye, look-you)

Bus Problem?

2009-05-04T03:37:00.000-07:00

There have been complaints in the local paper that some buses are not following the correct routes thus leaving some potential passengers standing at the roadside with no transportation. But don't worry the Port Moresby traffic police have the answer. They stopped one of the offending busses and forced the driver to disgorge his load of passengers and give them back their fares. The only problem was that they were halfway along the main freeway (well only freeway) into town when they were stopped. So, the passengers where left standing at the roadside with no transportation. Problem solved!

Weather Patterns

2009-05-04T03:36:00.000-07:00

It's May already and the wet season is supposed to be well behind us. As you will recall from last week's instalment the seasons are not ticking over in the approved fashion. The rain that knocked out our power last was the biggest single downpour of the year, taking out half of one of the local roads when a rather poorly constructed retaining wall washed away. However, the new season must be just around the corner. I am sitting here on Monday evening with the balcony door open just a few inches and still all the papers are flying around the room. I'm almost cold.

The dry season which is about on us is also the windy season. The trade winds kick in and really cool the place down. At least that is what half the people I have asked have told me. The other half assure me that it is about to get hotter. So I, and by extension, you, are none the wiser. What is widely agreed is that in the dry there is a lot of dust and all the vegetation turns brown and desperate. Port Moresby is in a rain shadow and dries out considerably.

The rain

2009-04-27T04:14:00.000-07:00

Like all the ex-pat housing in Port Moresby our place has a backup generator. This is needed because the power here is rather flaky, it goes out out several times a week. Sometimes it goes out several times a day. One thing that you can count on, in the same way you can expect a long queue in the bank and holes in the road, is that every time there is a big rain storm the power is pretty much sure to go out.

Friday last week it started to cloud over at about midday. The whole afternoon it got progressively greyer and greyer until it had that heavy storm-in-the-wings look by about ten to five; ah the weekend's just about to start!

Port Moresby is in the tropics as you'll know. Rain in the tropics is not the wimpy drizzle of London, it is not even the heavy storms of Sydney. Rain here is generally DOWNPOUR. Presumably this is where the expression 'tropical downpour' came from. When it rains, it really rains and there is nearly always some flooding.

I arrived home at about 5 and the first, fat, soaking drops splattered me as I dashed from the car to the front door. By the time I'd changed from my work clothes it was pouring down and it looked settled in. The usually beautiful view was replaced by a sheet of white.

Predictably the power blinked out after a short while. The generator came on, noisy but effective and the power returned. The lights came back, the fans sped up again. God, as they say, was in his heaven and all was well. Except that a few minutes later the power went out again. This was a new, unexpected and unwelcome development. The generator was still going; it makes plenty of noise and with the windows always open we know when it is working. But it was dark and it stayed dark.

I grabbed the brolly and went out to ask the gateman what had happened. There had been a loud bang apparently and the whole place had gone dark. Oh well, we were off to our favourite Italian restaurant any way so not to worry. (Actually the only Italian restaurant, but 'our favourite' sounds so much better, don't you agree?)

Three or so hours later we returned from dinner. The place was still in darkness, the rain was still pouring and there was clearly no chance of anyone even looking at the problem. Luckily the rain meant that it was cool. We had to sleep with the windows open, but it was fine. Even a little cool. The biggest problem was that Port Moresby is a noisy place by night, especially weekend nights, so we had a very long and disturbed night.

The next day there was still no power, but there was also no rain. So at least they could work on the problem. As everything is electric we could not even have a cup of coffee at home so we packed off to a local coffee shop for breakfast. It was not a very hot day and the lack of fans was not that bad, though it got a little sticky in the afternoon. They eventually got the power going at about four. Apparently the rain had got into the wiring and shorted the lot out. Hence the bang.

The other Moresby effect of the rain is that huge holes appear in the roads to complement the ones that are already there. At the end of our road, Portlock Street, there is a tight hairpin / switch-back bend. Just on the bend is a ditch. Traditionally ditches run along the side of roads. Nothing so boring for this ditch, it extends across the road. Every time it rains it gets a little deeper. A day or two after the rains they come and fill it in and then next time it rains the filling all washes out! At present it is more that a foot deep in the middle and you have to cross right over to the 'wrong' side when going down in order not to wreck that bottom of the car.

How's the rain in your town?

AIDS and kai kai buai

2009-04-22T03:40:00.001-07:00

Well, yesterday I was lucky enough to go to an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop in the Holiday Inn. As a part of the programme I work on we all have to have AIDS related activities on our work plans. As many of us, me included, are pretty ignorant about the subject, training is the order of the day.

We had a generally fun, if somewhat surreal time playing with Kondoms and wooden 'teaching aids'; realia is the offical jargon I believe. Although maybe not, the term means “items from everyday life used as teaching aids” - I'm not at all sure where these 'items' would fit into everyday life, even in the land of the unexpected as people here seem to be fond of calling the place.

We also learnt a few interesting facts. All AIDS and TB drugs in PNG are free (once officially diagnosed that is). Unfortunately they get stolen and then sold, even though it illegal to sell HIV drugs (of course the stealing is also frowned upon). According to the course leader it is illegal not to breast feed babies in PNG. Sounds strange, but I'm getting used to strange.

TB is still a major problem here, probably not helped by the delightful habit of kai kai buai (chewing betel nut) which you may recall leads the chewer to spit huge, bright red globs of sputum everywhere (I do mean huge, river like, and I do mean everywhere, there are even a few 'hot spots' in the office!)

Some local governments are having a crackdown on kai kai buai. One of the most ridiculous, though entertaining, recent events in the battle is the cutting down of trees that provide shade for the poor baui vendors (poor in every sense of the word). Just outside my office they cut down a very large, old and previously attractive tree. The operation was not well planned. It took out a long stretch of very new and expensive looking metal fencing. Much of the tree and the buggerup fence are still there several weeks later.

So, back to the Kondoms. Having been through a lengthy workshop on the correct use of the mouses' sleeping bag we are supposed to return to our places of work and 'spread the word'. I cannot help thinking that this plan has not been thought through quite fully. Apart from the fact that the room was full of deeply embarrassed, semi-traumatised folk, many of whom will probably never mention the work condom again, it is easy to imagine the streams of respectable government employees in this conservatively christian country beating a path to the HR director's door to complain of inappropriateness in the workplace .

Another rather bizarre feature was a short presentation given by a local man entirely in Tok Pisin. Needless to say at least half the room didn't understand much of it at all. In the great cause of political correctness we all paid close attention, applauded loudly and went away bemused. A bit like listening to a politician's after dinner speech only without the suppressed belches and table banging.

Ho hum; another day another Kina.

Wantoks - what I know, or think I know so far.., about the Wantok system

2009-04-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

Traditional PNG life is based on the extended family or clan. They shared a language, hence wantok – one talk. Your wantok's are important to you. They have an obligation to help you (and you they). For example a spare room in your house would be expected to be available for wantoks to live in. (I understand that a spare room in Port Moresby these days is a very rare thing as the astronomical rents have made it very hard for people to find a home which has driven up the number of settlement dwellers ie makeshift homes like the favelas in Brazil. More of this another time perhaps).

The wantok system is described by many as the curse of the nation. One outcome is that people give jobs to their wantoks instead of to people that can actually do the job. It is not unusual to hear the explanation “wantok appointment” given as a reason for incompetence. Certainly in politics and business the down sides are quite obvious. Others point out that it is a great social support mechanism with a centuries old pedigree and ensures that all members of the group are fed and cared for.

One thing is for sure, it is a very powerful influence in PNG society. Going against anyone for any reason means going against all their wantoks! Similarly a request for help from one of your wantoks means not only going against thousands of years of culture, but also displeasing at a stroke everyone that is important to your daily life! It is easy to see how this type of pressure would be hard to ignore.

In the news

2009-04-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

We heard a new article on the radio the other morning. It said that the number of Asian businessmen doing business in PNG was so high that “the government says it had lost count”. Very PNG.

Australia's Bow Wave.

2009-04-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

PNG was described by Tim Flannery as “Australia's bow wave”. He was talking in terms of plate tectonics (don't we all from time-to-time?). As Australia has drifted northwards the islands of New Guinea have been forced up in front of it. PNG is certainly very mountainous which supports the mental image, if nothing else. PNG is so mountainous in fact, that most the main cites are not joined to one another by roads. You have to fly (or walk).

This mountainous geography is why there are so many languages. People traditionally lived in small, isolated groups and did not have much contact with the rest of the world. They developed their own language and customs. The number of languages still in use today is different in every account you read, but it appears to be somewhere in the 700-900 range!

Most of the well educated people that I meet at work speak two or three languages. Tok Pisin (pidgin), there own language and then English. This is one driver behind the adoption of Tok Pisin (literally talk pidgin) as a lingua franca. With all those languages washing about some way of shared communication is clearly essential.

The mainland of Papua New Guinea occupies half of a large island to the north of Australia (for my non Aussie readers) the other half of which is Indonesian Irian Jaya, with presumably another range of languages.

Port Moresby is over on the right hand side on the south coast (there's a circle round it on the attached map.)

rain

2009-04-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

the rain it raineth on the just

and also on the unjust fella

but chiefly on the just because

the unjust hath the just's umbrella

(Lord Justice Bowen)

A day in Loloata

2009-04-15T04:45:00.000-07:00

More tails of PNG life. On Easter Monday we visited THE local tourist destination, a small island a few kilometres away call Loloata. We arranged to be picked up from the Crowne Plaza in Town, which is only a few minutes from home. As dependable Brits we turned up nice and early for the 8 AM pick up. We finally got going at about 20 past and headed for the Airways hotel which is a rather posh hotel come ex-pat village overlooking the airport.

There is rather a novel approach to this hotel for those wishing to avoid the undesirable suburb of “6 Mile”. You head to the airport and turn into the International Terminal parking lot. Instead of parking you simply drive right on out the other side, through an area of aviation-oriented industrial buildings and round a large roundabout with a fuel dump in the middle (safety is a watchword here in PNG). Eventually you come to a PMV stop opposite a field, turning left will take you into the oasis that is Airways.

The suburb named 6 Mile may have struck you as unusual. In Port Moresby half the suburbs are named after popular numbers. 2 Mile is the nearest suburb to Town to use this naming system. 6 Mile is further out, as mentioned, it is near the airport, beyond that is 9 Mile and; well you probably get the idea. None of them appear to be very desirable locations, perhaps that is why they don't get a proper name.

Anyway, having arrived safe and sound, if a little late at Airways we picked up a small ex-pat family. At last we were off to Loloata. At this point the driver announced that he had left some people at Crowne Plaza and so we set of back across pretty much all of Port Moresby to collect the missing couple. On investigation, it turned out that everyone had been given different times to be at the hotel for pick up. So, after an hour we were 100 meters from home!

After a pleasantly uneventful ride out of town and a short boat crossing, we arrived at the small, relaxed resort. The day was spent swimming in warm, tropical waters, eating a large buffet lunch and climbing a hill in 35 degree heat. A couple of snaps are attached. (If you are reading this Kevin it reminded me of that small island that we went to off the coast of Zanzibar in order to get sunburnt and massively delayed on the trip back to Dar es Salaam)

Cassowaries and mosquitoes

2009-04-11T23:32:00.001-07:00

The weather is hotting up a bit now as the rains appear to be over. It has only rained once in the last fortnight. Soon the trade winds are due to start which should curb the temperatures a little. In the meantime we are making full use of the fans and open windows and still refraining from Air Conditioning, which is a last resort. Next week is the start of the sail racing season with a big sail past at the Yacht Club on Sunday morning. So far I have only been on Wednesday evening sails (which is primarily drinking whilst on a boat) but I hope to get a few sails on Sunday's over the coming weeks.

Last Sunday we went to the Botanical Gardens. Remarkably well maintained gardens just on the edge of the town, although as you may have noticed from the photos Port Moresby is full of green. It is really a collection of loosely connected villages with steep undeveloped hills dividing them up. 'Town', the bit that we live in is separated from most of the rest of POM by a large hill which has had a modern 4 lane highway carved through the middle of it. Town is on the end of a peninsula which juts out into the coral sea.

Anyway, the botanic gardens house a large collection of caged Cassowaries, one of which is shown here. The are large and can be aggressive, we were quite glad of the fence when we meet the largest 'wild' male bird; he made it very clear that he was the boss (wound up just a little by one of the local security guards who followed us around as there seemed to be very little else for them to do – and no other visitors to look after). The garden also had a glass enclosure with two very large pythons. When we passed there was also a surprised looking chicken wandering around the enclosure – he was not there when we came back five minutes later! All this for the princely sum of four Kina, less than $2 or GBP1. Oh yes and the mosquitoes were also world class too, one of them managing to bit me on the eyelid!

2009-04-11T23:29:00.001-07:00

We took a trip out of the city on Good Friday, visiting one of the local stilt villages and the parliament building (which you can only get into on weekdays). This settlement gives a great view back onto Port Moresby and allows me to provide an update for the rather outdated picture that the blog started with. We then went out of town up the mountains for a walk in the bush. We meet a local family out for swim in the river. They enthusiastically insisted that we 'take snap', the resultant snap you will see attached.

2009-04-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

Public transport here in Port Moresby (POM) is provided by PMVs, public motor vehicles (or that maybe passenger motor vehicles, who knows?) These are basically mini vans; usually very beat-up with bits falling off and black smoke belching from the exhaust, and sometime other places. One was seen the other evening 'crabbing' along the road because the steering and/or suspension no longer allowed it to travel in a straight line.

Safety is very important to the POM police. You can get a fine if you are not displaying a current safety sticker which proves how seriously they take it. The state of the car or bus in not important however, just the appearance of the Safety Sticker!

Anyway, after work on Thursday evening we went for a drink in the Pondo Bar, an attachment to the Crown Plaza Hotel, which is mostly full of enthusiastic local drinkers. Outside were gathered a large number of people sitting about and not showing any signs of going anywhere. Eventually a PMV turned up. There was a major scrum to get in. One guy strolled slowly to the back of the bus, handed his bag in through the window, took off his shoes and handed them in as well and then climbed in through the back window. At the same time another passenger was climbing in through the front window. A couple of minutes later they were loaded and off – no one seemed to mind (or even notice) the unusual entrances.

2009-04-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Prisons and punctures

2009-04-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had some friends over for a few drinks. One of them told us about the guy that he buys his paper from each morning at the roadside. For the last couple of weeks he has not been there. On his return our friend asked where he had been.

His answer was that he his mother had died, but that his brother is currently in prison. In order that his brother could attend to the funeral requirements, which are quite long and involved here in PNG, he had been to prison for a couple of weeks in return for which his brother was allowed out!

Apocryphal? Maybe. But who cares it is a great story and by PNG standards does not sound that far fetched.

A recent newspaper story held that a man was found breaking INTO prison, having broken out earlier only get some smokes! Could be the case, prison offers shelter from the very heavy rains and a reliable source of food. Food and accommodation are by no means easy to be sure of for many PNG nationals. Even the people that I work with have serious accommodation problems because the rents have increased so astronomically in recent years.

By one estimate I heard from a work colleague whose family is now forced to share a house with his brother's family, an increase of 300% in two years! As we are paying over AUD$1,500 A WEEK for our place that is not hard to believe. It is not wonder that people on local wages, far less than use, are having problems. There is a lot of building underway, so hopefully the situation will ease next year.

Anyway, our house guest of yesterday was rather late arriving as on his way home from work he plunged into a (new) pothole on the Puraporena Highway. The Purporena is the largest and fasted road in POM and possibly in the country. Portholes have a way of appearing overnight, especially after heavy rain. They are not the only holes in that road, you also have to watch out for the drains as well, as most of the grates that cover them have been pinched, my guess is that they make ideal grates over the fire to cook on. (Cooking on open fires is still common I am told.)

The hole was so deep that he smashed the wheel rim and destroyed the tyre. He limped off to a safe stopping place and set about changing the tyre. Within seconds a number of locals had turned up to advise him “em buggerup”, which is Tok Pisin for It's broken. They proceeded to take over the wheel change operation. Out of nowhere appeared some tools and a lot of interested and helpful people.

Unhappily the spare tyre was attached to the boot with a cross-threaded and subsequently rusted nut. It was not going to budge, so he had to call another friend to deliver a spare tyre.

We'll be watching for that pothole when we back from the Shady Rest Hotel after dinner this evening.

Driving

2009-03-31T03:20:00.000-07:00

Driving here is great. Most people mosey along in a haphazard but amiable way. Lane discipline is notable only by its absence, but this does not seem to be a major problem. Indicating is optional and sometimes totally misleading – generally best ignored in fact. The only people that I have had a problem with so far have been other ex-pats, some of whom do not seem to have adopted all the local ways. I, on the other hand, have abandoned signalling and constantly stray from lane to lane in order to make the most of the local conditions and avoid the large and frequent potholes that appear in the road every time it rains, which at the moment is most of the time. (especially weekends or if I plan to go sailing). There is the occasional idiot that shoots through the traffic at breakneck speed cutting everyone up, but the everyone that they cut up simply ignore them and get on with turning without signalling or stopping mid-lane for a chat. What could be better?

Port Moresby

2009-03-31T03:19:00.001-07:00

Port Moresby is a small place. The centre of town can be walked though on 5-10 minutes, depending on the number of knot's of locals you have to negotiate on the way. There are a number of modern looking buildings around the centre of town including the one that I work in (which on closer inspection is far from modern inside) Only one or two of the buildings that I have visited are modern on the inside. That said the office has all the conveniences you could ask for – running water (mostly in the sinks, but last week down the stairs), electricity, a (frequently used) back up generator, air conditioning and lifts that play soothing music to you on your journey. There was even a cafe on the 11th floor, but unfortunately this is now a large empty space with no A/C and a missing window. We had a meeting there the other day. Someone brought a fan up from the office so, between that and the missing window the temperature was quick comfortable.

betel nut

2009-03-31T03:17:00.000-07:00

Life is settling down now in Port Moresby (POM). I work in a modern (looking) building in the centre of town on Champion's Parade. Despite being an official building (the Internal Revenue Commission no less), the front of the building is always busy with beetlenut sellers clustered around the “no betel nut sellers” sign selling betel nut. The chewing of betel nut is very popular. The white nut is taken from the husk and chewed with a mouthful of lime. The chemical reaction between the two ingredients turns the chewer's saliva bright red and increases it dramatically with the consequence that the chewer will periodically spit out a huge stream of bright red goock. It's a delightful habit. Apparently there is a mildly narcotic effect to be had for all this unpleasantness – and of course it is cheap.

2009-02-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

On Monday 16 February we'll be headed out to Port Moresby to start our adventure. The first week will be induction for Chris; and for Yvonne, starting to find an apartment for us to live in so we can avoid the hideous hotel rates.

Port Moresby is a fairly modern city which, as you can see from the picture, is built along side Fairfax Harbour.

The city of some 280,000 people is the administrative and business centre of the country. Port Moresby is small place so there should be no traffic jams or lengthy car journeys.

The climate is tropical, with distinct wet and dry seasons. Temperatures are generally around 30ºC from Nov-April with high humidity. The frequent light sea breezes which are common in the wet season help make it a bit more comfortable on the coast. During May-October the days are cooler and less humid as the climate is influenced by the cooling SE ‘trade winds'