The CC Conversation

I have never wanted to be an ex-pat, and I didn't want to come to PNG to hang out with other westerners. So how has it transpired that after just 2 weeks I am spending my weekends with a bunch of Aussies and assorted Europeans and North Americans? Partly it is the whole notion of visitors v locals which I think holds true everywhere, that it is easier to make friends with other people who don't have long established networks, and of course language and cultural closeness helps! Partly as well it comes down to recreation choices and affordability – the international visitors here are often young(ish), professional, relatively cashed-up, and keen to go scuba-diving and kayaking, and eat dinner at the Resort or the Club and have a drink, whereas (from my admittedly still very limited experience!) the locals in the better paid jobs are more likely to be slightly older, perhaps with children and spend their free time in more family-oriented pursuits or further study. Many of the ex-pats I have met speak Pidgin and have obviously integrated well in many aspects into the local community, are well known and well liked, but there still seems to be relatively little socialising together.

I must point out that the ex-pat group I have weaselled my way into are lovely, interesting people who have very kindly picked me up and dropped me places, advised me on how to minimise risk, and generally been amazingly helpful, and without whom I would be blubbering like a maniac into my soup right now, so this wee whinge is more a reflection of my unrealistic expectations of how much integration I could really achieve in such a short space of time, particularly not knowing the language or the culture! And I am quite simply grateful for any opportunity to get out of the house!!

My weekend was going fantastically: on Friday after work I made it down to the gym at the Lodge, then met a couple of people for dinner, then a house party on campus. Saturday was shaping up to be even better: a trip to the market and a potholed, fantastically bouncy 4-wheel drive up to the coastal resort of Jais Aben just north of Madang where we had lunch on a beautiful terrace over an inlet then just stepped off the terrace and into the sea to cool down and swim while families jumped off overhanging trees into the water. Dinner and Trivial Pursuit at somebody's house, then more in the same vein on Sunday.

The joke goes that all ex-pats here must have the Crime and Cost Conversation (CCC) each time they meet. The cost of a beer at the Lodge went up from K6 to K8 overnight ($3-$4 roughly), pure coincidence I'm sure that it happened the day the ban on alcohol take away sales came into force…. ! And as for crime… well, it does seem to come up in conversation depressingly regularly, not that that's really surprising… I came awake in the wee hours of Friday to the sound of a couple of gunshots. They weren't on campus which is very safe, but probably came from the settlement next door. Everyone just takes it in their stride and it is not worth remarking on. I got a lift the other day from someone and had to remove two bush knives (machetes) from the front seat before I could sit down!

The harder side of life here raised its head though on Saturday afternoon as three of us were driving along the beach road from town back to the uni. Ok, Mum – this is the bit where you want to stop reading till my next post! As we passed the golf club we heard screams, and looking back we saw a young, blonde woman come running from the beach onto the road. By the time we chucked a u-turn and got back to her, she had stopped screaming but was in the middle of the road, clearly in shock and telling a man in a car that she had been attacked and robbed by 3 guys who had run off with her camera, credit cards, phone and wallet. She was bleeding from where they had pushed her down onto the rocks, and later a haematoma developed where one of the men had pressed a weapon to her neck. The guy listening to her story, and the group of women standing by the roadside were all saying, 'Sorry, sorry,' a common response I have heard from every Papua New Guinean I have mentioned it to, and which I take to be embarrassment and regret that a visitor to their country has been treated so badly. Nobody stepped in to help however. People seem reluctant or scared to get involved. The woman's name was Kadi, she was a backpacker from Estonia travelling around PNG on her own. We scooped her up into the car, and after taking more experienced local advice we decided against taking her to the police as that was likely to be counter-productive, and in any case, the only chance of retrieving stolen goods comes from offering a small ransom for their return. We took her to someone's house where Nicolas who had been driving patched her up (handy that he's a doctor!), and she got on the internet and the phone to cancel her cards, etc. Very luckily for her, she still had the number of one contact in Lae, who she rang and he arranged for one of his company's helicopters to pick her up and take her there the next morning. Well, doesn't that happen to everyone!!! J

It was an awful experience for Kadi, who had only been in PNG for 4 days, and Madang for one, and possibly she had not had the right advice about what was safe and what wasn't, but for whatever reasons she was doing all the things practically guaranteed to get her into trouble – walking on her own in an area known for crime (though nobody had told her that), carrying a large and very expensive camera in full view, a top of the range mobile with all her contacts, cards and cash, and wearing pretty skimpy clothes which in this conservative country mark you very clearly as having just arrived. What happened could have been a lot worse. I am torn because I believe that everyone should have the right to walk freely and not get mugged, however in a country as poor as this it really is asking for bother to indulge in open displays of wealth. A man at the market had actually pointed out to her earlier in the day that some guys were watching her movements, but she hadn't taken the warning seriously enough. Basically, she didn't understand that there is an element in society here looking for any opportunity that presents itself, and she was ripe for the picking. I fully intend to do all I can not to make myself into an opportunity (alright Mum, you can open your eyes now but make sure you read that last sentence!)

Oh and I have realised my mistake about snacks!!! The lady in the coffee shop must have thought I was asking about 'Snax', the popular savoury biscuit. I knew there had to be a reason!!

This post is a few days later than planned because of the happy circumstance that I was out 4 nights in a row, and the minor inconvenience of not having an internet connection for the last 2 days. I had no water yesterday either but that didn't affect my blogging, just my personal hygiene!!