The best way to stuff a chicken? It has to be said that VSO provides additional benefits. When one is half way round the world new places become a shortish hop away. So it was with grateful ease we took advantage of being evacuated from Kundiawa in the build up to the election and took off for Sydney and Brisbane. What a contrast, everything works, everywhere is clean, everything runs to time. Australia must be one of the easiest countries for a Brit to vi...

It seems a world apart to consider another person a possession to be valued at a bartered price. But attitudes that the western world might have thought were left behind in Georgian times are alive and well in much of the world. Gender equality may for some be a matter of career equality, glass ceilings or even access to children following a messy divorce. For others it is whether one has any self determination. Where does slavery end and independence begin...

Pigs are definitely the thing in Highlands Papua New Guinea. Our walk down hill each morning is punctuated by a variety of snorts and grunts. Pigs of various sizes root around in the grass and roadside ditch each with a rope tied around a leg the other end is staked firmly in the ground. In town one frequently sees somebody walking round with a lik lik pik (baby pig) cradled in their arms like a new born baby. The lik lik pik will be for sale. A version of ...

We are volunteers so we took off on Friday to discover the iconic birds of paradise. A cruiser load of aging volunteers and one escapee Uni of Goroka ex pat heading for a lodge high up by Mount Hagen in the mountain rainforest. After 3 hours of driving we came on this traditional material lodge. A large lofty hall filled with faded settees, an enormous crude log burner with three kettles steaming and the whole place to ourselves. It was a warm welcome in all...

It was a day of firsts. For VSO it was the first time they had trained Boards of Management, the PNG equivalent to a school governing body. It was a first to partner with Simbu school inspectors in providing training. It was the first time Heather had lectured a large audience power point at the ready. It was the first time we have been caught up in a looting mob driven off by rifle shooting police. And we got home in time for a very nice tea. The day st...