Busy bee!

It has been some time since my last post… a result of either being busy or a lack of internet access when not. In the interim, I have been stung by a swarm of killer bees, moved house, had two separate visits from JCU colleagues, spent a few days in the capital, Port Moresby, and attended a cultural show so I am not short on material!


First the bee swarm! Ok, so I only copped 6 stings, and maybe they weren’t killers…. But they were nasty and made me a bit sick… A group of us hiked to Nobnob, setting out from the local village of Benik with some local friends and guides along the track through thick bush. Sam, the owner of much of the land led the way, slashing through obstacles with his big bush knife. In most cases this was exactly what was required but at one point he inadvertently sliced open the home of a bunch of bush bees who were none too happy and proceeded to make their displeasure known to those of us within reach. My language was a bit fruity for a while but I decided I had to at least pretend to be a brave wee soldier when the wee kid with us stopped crying about her stings… but it was a beautiful hike and a wonderful day out, topped off by Sam shinning up a coconut tree at the end to cut down some for us to drink, then casually catching some freshwater crabs for tea!

Last weekend saw me move out of my on-campus accommodations and into hotels while my boss was visiting and I was back as a JCU staff member, which was easy to fall back into, but a little strange to have the two worlds collide. It also showed me that I have clearly moved into ‘PNG time!’
The trip to POM was interesting - after a disturbed night of Lariam-induced insomnia, nightmares, and general bee-bite malaise, it was off at 5.30 am to the airport for the short shuttle flight which should have seen us land at Moresby and have time for a freshen up before our first meeting in town at 11 am. Nobody told Air Niugini that was our plan Our plane was there and was in working order but it had to make an unscheduled side trip to Wewak first before coming back to pick us up. Checking in was interesting as a blackout meant the only light available was from the headlights of a car strategically placed next to the check in counters where we received our handwritten boarding passes. The lack of fans and AC wasn’t too bad until the sun came up when it started getting hot. There was a lounge to wait in but coffee was out of course as there was no power. So it was about 6 hours into the day before we got our first coffee and any food other than a biscuit! After 2 months in Madang, POM was a revelation… it felt like the big city, and I felt like a country hick in my crumpled clothes and toting my billum (which I have since found out I should not have worn in POM as potential thieves can see through the weave to your contents and be tempted.

The time in POM was great, and I enjoyed the luxuries on offer there, such as coffee that didn’t come from a plunger, cheese, a hot stone massage (seriously, it was great!) and drinkable red wine by the glass, not to mention a mattress in my bed a good ten times thicker than I had become accustomed to. The level of unease about crime was considerably higher there than Madang though, and in just 4 days there I encountered one person who had just been held up, and heard of two people working for an AusAID managing contractor I visited who had been car-jacked that day. A staff member of that firm picked me up the next day and had to radio in his whereabouts to their security firm on leaving and arriving at every destination, and even my driver, Yoba could not get home to his settlement safely after around 9 pm. When I came back to Madang it felt like my ‘liklik home’ but also like a breath of fresh air as the sense of surrounding menace dropped dramatically. It must have a psychological impact on people to live with that level of tension constantly, like being in a war zone.

Divine Word University was also host to a wonderful event a few days ago, a cultural show where the students and staff showcased their costumes, songs and dance from their local areas all over PNG. The results were incredible!