The importance of men

It has been a busy and interesting week. I presented to the Health Sciences faculty on my project and sat in on the whole of their faculty meeting. It was fascinating to watch the similar dynamics played out as at committee meetings back in Australia. I was a little surprised but pleased to see there was complete gender balance among the 20 or so people, and it was very much a local affair, with only a sprinkling of westerners and Indians among the mainly PNG nationals. I can honestly say though that I have never before attended a meeting which started with an appeal to the Lord to guide our discussions.

My Tokpisin skills are coming on slightly which is handy as all netball business, including trivial items like who plays in which position, tactics and game times is conducted in the language. I have found myself on a few occasions being able to follow the gist of a story even without quite knowing how. Saturday will be a test of my tropical conditioning though, as we have decided to squeeze two games in that afternoon.

I am already full of anticipation at my trip to Port Moresby in a few weeks as I will be staying at a hotel that has beds with actual mattresses... I attach here the evidence for the prosecution, showing my current mattress only slightly thicker than the length of a standard AA battery. I decided tonight to stop being such a big wuss about it though after talking to one of my teammates who has had 'malaria and the flu' this week but still came out to train!

An interesting aspect of the security situation here is the added value it gives to men. I suppose this is a reminder of how things used to be in most countries in the not too distant past. One night we were splitting people between two cars, both driven by women to get home after dark, and instead of allocating bodies to vehicles based on their destination, we had to ensure there was a man in each car and visible in the front seat. The idea being to make yourselves as small a target as possible. Some of the Western men here love it... one of them in particular has found a purpose in life! ;-)