Retail Thrapy – Stylus Lae lah

Requiring some clothes for next weekend’s coffee ball up in Goroka – I hit the streets of Lae in search of a few necessities. Little things like dress shoes and such.

Armed with a PNG eftpos card, K30 cash and the Anglican Bus – I made a beeline to Eriku’s Andersons, and wandered every shop on the strip up to Value City (for those who know Lae at all). Seems most of the trade shops down there are run by Philippino’s/Malaysians, but hard to tell. They were certainly all doing a cracking business on a Sat. morning.

As with all good shopping, I came back with only a little to do with the original purpose – but very happy. Picked up a nice Guitar for K80 (I’m trying to make my way through that black book properly now Jen); nabbed a new clock for the wall for K9 (it works even); bought some more short-socks for squash (back to most nights now, getting a fitness bug again); bought a whole Red Emporor Fish for K6 (yum – lunch later today); a shockingly gold tie for dressups next week; and best of all I got a selection of books from a second-hand clothes store for K15.

For K15, found-: The God of Small things; Africa - on a shoestring (6th ed, not too bad); Australian short-short stories collection; Bridget Joneses Diary; another Cookbook (tho realised nau that it’s a microwave cookbook – urgh); Spadework (I keep hearing about Timothy Findley – is he actually that good?); and a Tim Winton (The Riders). The Tim Winton book was K1.50. Bargains! So now I am officially 10 books behind PNG ppls – if you need a decent book, come see the (small, but growing) shelf of Nath.

*cough* of course, buy enough bargains and you’ll not eat out of the house for a week or two, but that’s cool. My fingertips are already feeling blistered from the nasty steel strings of the guitar, and Jane came around for a quiet night last night keep’in costs down (ta for dinner Jane!).

6 MONTHS of NATH BILONG PNG – Oh My…

[Sunset late-dusk - coast of PNG]
Has it been 6 months? This week it felt like 3 years, but sometimes it feels like life is (often in a series of clichés) flying on by.

6 months. Well. I don’t think I’ll “reflect” too much on the 6 months – at least not this week! It’s been kinda weird having the blog on for that long. You look back over all the posts (first time I’ve tried this sort of thing) and realise you build up quite a little story-book of things. But then it also misses more than it “gets” for what’s going on. Hehe – some people have said to me (3 or 4 of the ‘cool internet ones’)-: “you’ve got a BLOG!?!? Hahahahah”, but then every now and then someone says they check it now and then for a story… hence I keep on putting crap up here. But more and more it’s something a lot of the other volunteers I get on with(almost all?!?) do up here regularly. The other day when I said I was feeling crappy I had x2 emails and a phone call from within PNG. And that was by the end of the morning!

6 months of Anglicans. 6 months of being in charge (urgh – anyone wanna be my boss?). 6 months of gin. 6 months of the Yoti. 6 months of Maundu & SimonMikael (night & day security). 6 months of potholes. 6 months of thirty-four keys to locks. 6 months of meeting new people. 6 months of attempting lik lik tok pisin. 6 months of cooking for myself (well – trying). 6 months of TOO MUCH FREAK’IN WORK. 6 months of scammers & dirty-old-men. 6 months of my mostly cool little team in the ANO. 6 months of newness/adventure. 6 months of making occasional excellent, excellent new friends. 6 months of PNG.

Well – to finish this one I’m going to steal words again from a friend in Goroka, (I hope you don’t mind extra publishing Robyn!). Because I like them, and because it captured something I was thinking this week. The original post is linked here (worth a read in it’s own right), but here’s the words from a small part of it:

I pause before I pick up my book again. I wish I could gain the objectivity and insight of the anthropologist, and write a witty and yet insightful novel about experiences in today’s PNG. But a logical narrative thread eludes me. More and more, this is just life: some things are understood, some are not. What I learn does not add up; it just contributes to this vary varied thing I am living. And in this sense, all anthropology and ethnography is as if a novel; artifice trying for more coherence than the unfashionable real provides.

Goroka-style ANZAC day (Guest Linked Entry - Jason Kovacs)

Hehehe... i just finished reading a good mate's description of the ANZAC morning in Goroka.

Here it is linked - click here.

It's well worth a read - a little about some local "friendly" (not!) missionaries and some Goroka land-scaping. Make sure you get through it up to breakfast of the same day!

Sunrise on a new day...ANZAC Day

This morning was originally going to be a 5am start. Still having sleep problems a bit, so after passing out around 2am, I was woken by a knock at the door at 4:45am. +Joe had forgotten to pick up the carton of wine he was taking back to the bush – and all downstairs was alarmed/locked up still. You can’t miss opportunities to get things out to locations, so – in a towel and t-shirt – (looking the goods), I stumbled down to sort that out.

But I digress.

5am start – 5:30 service at the Lae War Memorial for ANZAC day. I’m not a regular yearly memorial service person – but the lest we forget ode, and the simplicity of a dawn service was moving… to say the least. It was down at a large park, which had a large memorial. Maybe 160 people or so – with elements of the PNGDF there in the uniforms/etc.

Partly insomnia, partly a hoooge week of stuff, but the sun came up to an immaculate (and large) memorial. It was very, very moving – and had lots of quiet time. Another close friend here in Lae had his father pass away overseas very recently (and all too quick for him to get back to the other side of the world for the funeral) – and he said over brekky that he used the time for a bit of personal reflection time. Well, I’m in a different league of “stuff to ponder” at the moment, but otherwise ‘Ditto’. I’m amazed still sometimes how much those reflection/think’in times (of course, I might call it prayer) can help…

The free buffet breakfast at the Yoti straight afterwards with everyone helped lots too. Mmm… bacon & egg goodness. All I needed was hollandaise & real coffee *sigh*. It was one of those clear, clear mornings where you could see from the yoti the mountains fading back across the Huon gulf. Kicking myself for not having taken a camera to the whole morning. I’ll blame that on the total darkness when I awoke.

PS – HAPPY BITHDAY JULES!!! Great to talk to you today... love ya lots.

PPS - [“+” is the shorthand in Anglican-ism for bishop...]

Storm clouds gather…

Well. Apparently ‘they’ say that tricky stuff comes in 3’s… then why have I run out of fingers to count them on at the moment!?!?

Staffing probs, health (thankfully nothing too bad), interviewing, public speaking, training, o/s reporting, flying, security, sleep… and all of them have had a ‘tricky’ bit to them - - or have a particularly tricky bit coming up in the next few days.

That’s not even close to the half of it! All adds up to signing-out from time for this blog again... hopefully back again after a bit.

Nath

Madang – Is – Beautiful

Just spent the Easter weekend in Madang with some cool other AVI’s (same one’s from Goroka). Had a blast, snorkelled off a tiny deserted island, fished, chased dolphins & whales, hung out, talked cr*p, and generally got a “reset” from the usual Lae run of things.

Madang is something else. It’s beautiful enough to be a tourist Mecca – but is still a relatively relaxed little town with a few resorts kinda-places and good 2nd hand clothes shopping.

Excellent weekend in Madangerz – good work Goroka crew.

Photo's to come... once I dig through the large, large pile on the desk.

Just another week…(Public Hospitals, Marketing, Training, Send-off’s, Volunteers & Evictions)

Mmmm, just another week. Be warned - this entry is a bit of a diary…

Friday night was shaping up to be a few quiet beers at the yoti & dinner – however the security guard came around 5:30pm with the message that one of Peter’s (a staff member) kids had hurt himself. So I headed over to have a look. Turns out that Peter Junior (5yrs old) has done a right job on himself falling out of a coconut tree. He was one or two metres up (not far, but far enough when you’re 5) and gashed his face on the way back down on some sharp bark which points exactly the wrong direction for a falling 5 year old. Blood going everywhere, though bandage pressed, and mum (Etta) looking slightly distressed. Peter (Snr) was already away in Goroka for the weekend. The gash ran from about a centimetre below Peter Jnr’s right eye (thank god), covering a decent portion, quite deep without any skin there, of his cheek. So it’s back to the house where I quickly grab the latex gloves n bandage-y things those travel doctors foist upon you, get the keys for the Van and off we go to Angau Public Hospital (Lae’s public hospital with an Emergency department).

The hospital is… terrible. I wasn’t expecting Royal Melb or RDHM or St. V’s – sure. Sometimes it doesn’t matter about your expectations, there’s just the reaction when you’re there. But perhaps I was thinking there wouldn’t be quite as much blood on the floor here and there… or quite as many of the ‘beds’ out of make-shift stuff down the hall-ways… or the smell. I paid for the K10 entry fee, and we (half the family has come – 6 of us all up), join the line we’re pointed towards.

An hour and a half later of waiting and observing the over-demand/under-supply that exists, a security guard and nurse guide everyone in that line back we’re in to the front of the hospital where there’s a room labelled “Triage” (but still no-one there). So we’re back to square 1. Many of the people in the line (it’s 7pm or so now) are in various states of dis-repair. The 5yr old is still standing up after 1.5 hours. I wouldn’t sit on this floor either.

I give a K10 phone card to the eldest of the brothers there, and we go hunting for a public phone – so they can call me again when they’re done and I’ll come get them later. Find phone on other side of grounds, doesn’t work. So I lean heavily on a person in an admin room exacting promises that they’ll let this guy call from their phone (with phone card, still wont cost them anything) when they’re done so I can pick them up. Ok. Back to the other side of the hospital again. Check on little kid & mum again. Little 5yr old still standing up. Bleeding stopped fully a while ago, still holding the big wad of tissues to his face. No triage person has yet seen anyone.

Off home. A fellow volunteer gives me a call and says “feel like a few quiet one’s at your place?” – happy days…

Later on in the evening (somewhere around midnight) I’m doing usual coffee/biscuits for security, and one of the younger of Peter Jnr’s brothers is hanging around and says “Yumi go bai hausik” and points at the van. Well. Can’t argue with that. No call back yet to the house, but off we go to check on the family.

By midnight down there Peter Jnr has had some sort of shots (antibiotics I assume?) and has now been waiting (standing) around 6+ hours. Now they’re waiting for the sewing and the dressing. The hospital has deteriorated further into Fri night (not unlike Melb in some respects). There’s now shots being given in the hallways by a few doctor like looking people, and there’s now people lying on stretchers in the original room we were lining up in (ie – more crowded than before). In the next 35 mins or so of waiting, I hear two separate wailings (can’t think of another word) of family members – where upon the little 7yr old (I brought him with me) tugs my sleeve and translates the pisin from the nearby other room that “him bai dyim nau”.

I’m not sure- but perhaps with the only white guy at the hospital for the whole night – but after a while Peter Jnr is then taken into the waiting mini-surgery room and sewn up/dressed. 9 stitches later.

Overall – the kid did get seen, and did get treated. But still an experience.

Getting up to do your marketing for the week at 7:30am on a Sat. after a 2am sleep time was a little tricky. Managed that once out in the sun after a necessary, medicinal, double-strength coffee. K25 for more vegies than I could carry.

Went back to bed for a power-nap of about an hour till 9:30am. Then up, shower and back downstairs to the office for the inaugural ANO Saturday training session. Had these informally and in pieces over the past 3 months, however this was the first time we’d marked off a time out of hours and said “we’ll learn THAT today”. I kinda ‘waited & hinted’ for the training to be ‘asked for’ (rather than making it a mandatory all-staff session) – which seems to have paid off a bit too. Today was Excel 201 – borders, i-f statements, absolute values, graphs & pivot tables. I made up the materials on the run with exercises & examples, and 3 hours later we were still going strong, though I was starting to wilt a little. Fun, fun, fun.

Saturday afternoon was a lovely lunch with J&A & family, and then dinner with some people from ADRA (Adventist Development Relief Agency) – vegetarian and ‘dry’, of course. Adra has it’s development work game together in many respects here in PNG – as much as you can anyways. I learnt lots more about Sanitarium (sp?) - - did you know that Mr Kellog(s) was also an Adventist?? - - and had a good natter about work’in in PNG.

Sunday morning was sllllleeping in. Sunday afternoon – working n squash. Gay’s baby has scabies (again) – which has been happening on and off for months now. Sunday night was out to the Lae Inter to say “seeya!” to J&A --- off to Melbourne to be married. My wedding present at the moment is to look after the cat & security guard most nights! It was also the first time we got all the AVI’s together (in one room) since Jeremy (inspiration for me trying this blog thing out) headed out of PNG. Goodly catch-up with all the Vols. There's something about catching up with all the vols - - though the closest friends are amongst the ex-pats (the best expat friends are alllll ex-volunteers) - there's extra common ground with the vols.

Monday morning staff meeting & work as usual. Squash at night. Tuesday court case, and tonight just played my first competition squash game (Wins = 1, Losses = 0). Thursday morning off to Hagen! Catchya next week…

More fast facts – PNG

I’m plagiarising again here – but was reading through my Lonely Planet ready for some travel and visitors coming up here. Travvvveellll – hurrah!

This was in the margin of the first few pages:

PNGPopulation: 5.7 million
GDP: US$3.6Billion
GDP Growth: 2.3%
Inflation: 7.5%
Languages spoken: 867
Language spoken per adult: 3
Land border with Indonesia: 820km
Parliamentary political parties: 18
Indigenous counting systems: More than 50
Number of airports: 559

It’s the same Lonely Planet which covers the Solomon Islands. Apparently the CIA phrase for government in the Solomons is: “Parliamentary democracy tending towards anarchy”.

I’m off to Mt. Hagen later this week with work – which I’m looking forward to greatly. Unfortunately John & Della aren’t going to be in town at the time, but should be good. Next-: Kimbe for the New Guinea Islands diocese – covering all those islands off north of mainland PNG. Coming up after that will be Dogura! (bonus points if ANY Aussie knows where that is in PNG).