Arrival & Orientation in Port Moresby. Sunday. Sometime in the Afternoon.

Usual Customs/lines/immigration fun and games. Met by a couple of other Australian Volunteers – Rick Steele, Director of Anglicare for PNG, and Marian – working with the Ministry for Community Development. Very, very nice of them to truck to the Airport on our arrival – considering the van for the Comfort Inn was there anyways etc. Very nice. Anyhoo’s – off to a mid-range Inn. The Lonely planet describes the place as “the rooms are uninspiring” – which is usually code for “watch out”. However this place was fantastic really. The rooms were certainly bare – but the place was great. Green as you like throughout the compound, secure (as with all places in Moresby I saw which weren’t a village), small pool, meals provided each day… friendly staff who were happy to help us with our pidgin… So – next time you’re in Moresby - stop off at the Comfort Inn – pick up and drop off from the airport and all.

The next 5 days, with us 4 volunteers and 4 vols from JICA (Japanese equivalent of AVI) was with the National Volunteer Service. This included daily lessons in pidgin (half of each day) – and lots of extras. Traditional (well, for one region) learning of cooking on the first day (I am now looking forward to the market and buying fresh fish and cooking. Sure I’ve said this sometime before in my past, but we’ll see in Lae.) Involved heating up the rocks for about 20 minutes and cooking big pots with the hot rocks.

The for the rest of the week – (each of these is a story) National Cultural Commissions, parliament house, National Museum, Botanical Gardens, Anglicare-STOP AIDS program, visits to the market, Ombudsman Commission, University PNG (where they’d organized all the deans to line up and meet us, then, as usual, we were horrifically late and they all went to their next meetings ). So it was pretty good, if alllll on Islander/PNG time and organization. James, our Pidgin teacher, was particularly good value, and was full of stories. So… I’m starting to get the rudimentary bits of Tok Pisin. My longest sentences to date involve me walking down to a beach and catching fish in a canoe – but it’s sure to improve in Lae.

We met a number of fascinating ex-pats at the Comfort Inn. One German anthropologist couple had just spent (in x2 separate villages) 1 year living up in the Sepik region. Full immersion to learn the family trees, way of life, music, cultural norms etc. The lady loved the bettlenut, the guy told me where to get Benson & Hedges Lights in Boroko-Moresby down the street.

There were new stories every day in Moresby – some of them I’ve scrawled into another journal and/or written by hand to certain peoples – so I wont double up too much. I tried Bui (Bettlenut), bought a sim-card, met and then got a lift to the nearest ATM (10 min drive) from the PNG National Head of the ANZ bank (thanks Margaret :->) outside a burnt-down building in Boroko – port Moresby. Finally, after getting sick, re-packing, and watching us kick the Irish in the international rules, I didn’t get charged for overweight baggage on the way to Lae. Happy Nathan.