I haven't posted a blog for a few days. This delay is the happy result of my actually having had something to do over the weekend. I left campus on Saturday at 9 am and didn't return till almost midnight –success!!! I was picked up by some of the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) staff and we went to the market in town. People come down to sell their fresh fruit and veggies, billums (woven bags that everyone uses, I am now the proud owner of a pink and purple one), dresses, t-shirts, and carved artefacts. There were some amazing warrior headdresses which I am going to have to buy as souvenirs before I leave. Most of the sellers come down from Goroka or other parts of the Highlands – the area with the worst reputation for violence, so you have to be on alert there but they have a brilliant selection, and of course it is all locally grown and organic so very tasty, and the carrots really look like carrots! It's not that cheap and you have to buy or bring your own bags, but all up it's pretty damn good.
As we picked up a few people en route to the markets (friends of Sarah's, not hitchhikers!) there wasn't enough room for us all inside so I was out perched on the back of the ute, hanging on for grim life over the potholes, smiling at how so many guys wonder around town wearing Obama t-shirts, and generally enjoying the sense of freedom. I was even happy to hang around in the hardware store for half an hour while somebody had keys cut… and to wait outside in the boiling heat while some of the others went into the supermarket. Just being off campus was a real thrill!
That would have been enough on its own, but my fantastic day was not yet over as I got a lift to the Lodge for an excellent massage by a lady called Beni, then we headed to the Resort for a lounge in the pool with a beer as the sun set over the bay. Aaah! We couldn't stay too long however, as we had to walk back to Sarah's before dark, even though it was less than 100 m and there were 6 of us.
Dinner was out on the deck in what could easily have been a house in Townsville with its tropical backyard. Great food that we all chipped in and helped prepare … though some more than others …;) and a little bit of wine and beer, but not that much… it's expensive here and you also have to keep your wits about you. A bottle of pretty average imported Australian wine that would cost about $10-15 in the bottle shop at home is $35 here. This trip will be good for my liver! I have also heard a nasty rumour that a ban on alcohol sales will come into effect later this week – indefinitely!!! It is an attempt to crack down on crime but appears doomed from the outset, as all it will do is drive people to the bootleggers in the settlements who make pure alcohol rather than the average strength beer people might otherwise drink. Genius! I am wondering whether there is some kind of universal conspiracy against me as this also happened when I was a student in Russia in '88 and Gorbachev introduced his prohibition a couple of weeks after I arrived. Aaah well, I will cross that bridge when I come to it…!
The dinner crowd on Saturday was a mixture of PNG newbies like me and a few old hands, but no locals. Chance rather than design, but I think the locals v ex-pat split is still quite common socially. One person had a theory that visitors who stay more than 3 years never leave and that after 3 years you are irredeemably crazy but no longer know it. People started chipping in with stories that made me remember what it was about PNG that initially drew me to the place. It really is somewhere that extraordinary things happen. Sarah told how on one occasion a few years ago a second security guard was posted outside her house on top of the usual one as a result of a spike in crime rates. One was from the town however and one from the country so they didn't take to each other, and eventually they got into a full on punch-up over each other's biscuits. When they weren't fighting, the guard from the country could be found in her back yard lighting fires and singing to himself.
Sarah also took a call saying that the ceiling of the labour ward at the local hospital had just fallen in, and had landed on one woman in the midst of labour. She and the baby are ok apparently, but they closed the whole ward. On a previous occasion, thieves stole a solar panel from the same hospital so the management simply closed it until the panel was returned. They just shut the whole hospital for days. It is a different way of thinking.
On Sunday morning I got up bright and early to join 5 of the others to kayak out to one of the islands in the bay. Robinson Crusoe, eat your heart out! It was stunning – crystal blue, still waters with coconuts bobbing along. The bay is dotted with dozens of islands and I kept going a little off course, ('Head for the one with the palm tree sticking up!' Errr….) but we all made it, including surviving the mini surf waves that came out of nowhere and soaked us. Apparently it could have been from a mini earthquake, but the good news is that little quakes happen here practically every day , making a large scale one less likely! On arrival, we snorkelled and I walked round the island which took less than a minute. We only saw one other boat the whole time, and that had the Dean of the Health Sciences Faculty on it!
Today (Monday) has been a great day too – I started my proper work program (though apparently it was the Show Holiday in Townsville – I should have had a lie in!) and it has been great. I am starting to see how both my projects can take shape, and people are incredibly open and constructive here so far. One faculty is even going to bring in all the Heads of Department so I can present to them. I also started to get some of the interesting inside information about what's really happening at the uni!
So all up, a very productive day, especially as it included getting my toilet, my fridge and my coffee plunger fixed! I am trying not to get too excited in case it doesn't come off but Chris, the guy who fixed my fridge (and sold me the fish) is going to Port Moresby tomorrow for 10 days and suggested I could use his car while he's gone. Whoohoo!!!! Thing is, it's not actually his car so I have to ask the President's permission. I am still waiting on an answer… fingers crossed – that would mean ten days of freedom!!!! J
Cross your fingers for me!
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