A Dry Hagen… x2

Mt Hagen is PNG’s 3rd largest city. The road from Lae (coastal up north in the middle where I am) to Hagen (centre of the mountains bit) was closed for a week or so due to land-slips recently. So they were without fuel there for a little bit – and a few other exported produce things weren’t making it through.

Hagen is also a "dry" alcohol town. A friend who’s been living up there for the past 2 and a half years put it "that alcohol and the sometimes belligerent attitude in the highlands" don’t tend to mix well. I don't know how accurate that generalisation is... That said, apparently there's plenty of homebrews' or smoker of what is apparently top quality marijuana (PNG Gold or something). There’s also the “Hagen Club” – priv. club full of expats and/or better off nationals. I imagine it’s a bit like the yacht club here in Lae – if smaller.

But the latest news was that for the last three days of this week (just finished), the town has also been without running water anywhere! A group of locals up the road decided that they weren’t getting enough for their land rentals (and a few other askims) and took over the pumping station – switching things off for a while – holding the whole town to ransom. Heh… somehow that appeals to my sense of humor – but it also meant that schools were all closed (none of the toilets worked), and everyone went without showers for a few days...

Dry, dry Hagen. But just now back to normal running water is back. I haven't yet read how many 000's of Kina they paid to the poeple who had occupied the pumping station thingy. Did anyone get that in the paper?