HOLIDAYS!

3rd October 2009

We're certainly taking every opportunity to explore this part of the world while we have the chance and we enjoyed our stay in Alotau, capital of Milne Bay Province, which, like most of the towns in PNG, has seen better days in colonial times and has been allowed to fall into shabbiness.The market was good though, brimming with mangoes as this is the season, but they haven't reached Kundiawa yet.Samarai, an island off Alotau, was once the capital but again, once the Australians pulled out in 1974, everything went to rack and ruin and it is now a ghost town, but has vestiges of grandeur about it and I suspect, in its day, it was beautiful.

We visited many islands around the tip of PNG, reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe - many uninhabited.John had a couple of dives, though one was disappointing.We went out to a dive site called the 'cleaning station' because there was a rock under the sea inhabited by wrasse, which are little fish which clean the gills of larger ones.Allegedly, at certain times, giant manta rays come to this site to be cleaned by the wrasse.However, this was obviously not the time, or the mantas didn't like the look of John, as he waited on the sea bed for about 40 minutes, but to no avail.

However, me, having a sickly constitution when on the waves for too long, was rowed ashore while this was going on to an island close by, where I got into conversation with an elderly gentleman called Nelson, who owned the island and the sea around it.He was telling me about his family and village and it transpired that he used to eat people!!To my relief, he assured me that this was no longer carried out.Apparently it was discouraged in the 1930's but continued in many parts until the 1960's!He told me there was a skull cave on the island which contained two types of skulls.One, with the skull intact, would have belonged to someone who had died naturally.They bury their dead upright, with the head above ground covered in a clay pot.When the flesh has fallen away, they remove the skull and put it in this special cave.The other skulls would have cracks in them.These would have belonged to people who had been killed and eaten!!Mmmmmm!

Interestingly, locals from Milne Bay seem very reserved and gentle.They are of slighter build than the stocky highlanders and Nelson told me there was no tribal fighting.He believed it was a peaceful place because it was a matrilineal society (the only province in PNG, all other provinces are patrilineal) - but then I found it hard to square this with killing and eating people so recently!

The place we stayed at in Alotau was close to the beach, so I was rather nervous about the risk of tsunamis, but thankfully the one which hit Samoa and American Samoa whilst we were there had no repercussions in Milne Bay, for which I was eternally grateful. It housed a small animal sanctuary and we were visited regularly on our balcony by a very large hornbill called Honker (which he indulged in every night - loudly!), a beautiful whistling kite with a broken wing, who spent hours practising trying to fly by launching itself from fallen branches on the ground.There were three snakes, but thankfully these were contained in an enclosure.I was offered the opportunity to go in and inspect them more closely, but it was an offer I quickly declined, requiring no time at all to consider the options!

All this was a lovely way to relax after running a 2 day conference ourselves in Kundiawa and then participating in a 3 day one at Goroka University just before we came away.We were pretty exhausted and so appreciated the opportunity to chill.The conference in Goroka went well and we are hoping our paper might be published, however, as we have come to expect, the organisation was chaotic, but some interesting speakers nevertheless.The keynote speaker was Prof. Michael Crossley from Bristol University and he was very interesting.

We arrived back with all luggage intact, a feat in itself!Simbu hadn't changed.While we'd been away, members of a gang had attacked people at a school fete, killing several.In reprisal, the villagers turned on the gang, caught the leader, chopped his head off and stuck it on a post for all to see - bet the school children enjoyed that!We arrived back on the Thursday to find our school had no pupils in it, as all the teachers were busy running around shopping, in preparation for the 'sitting meal' for all the final year students, which happens every year before exams - is it to give their brains a good feed in the hope they will perform well?Not sure.Then the meal was due to be enjoyed on the Friday, so no school on that day either.Pigs, chickens and cows were slaughtered and the day was devoted to the cooking.I enquired of some students when the meal was due to take place - they didn't know, maybe 1pm, 2pm or 3pm? They all just hung around patiently until eventually, at 4pm (students had been waiting since 8am) the meal was produced.Trouble was, many of the students have miles to walk home, so the proceedings had to come to an abrupt halt around 5.30pm to allow time for them to get home before dark - at least it cut the speeches short!If teachers put as much effort into their teaching as they do into 'organising' celebrations, we wouldn't need to be here!

We don't have much work currently, as next week is exams, so no school wants to see us, so we'll spend the week planning.Jake has been in the UK for the past few weeks and returns on Tuesday, so we will travel to Goroka to meet him and collect our laptop, which we left for safekeeping at the university.

We're very excited, as Richard, Jo and Mollie are going to visit us over Christmas.We think they're very brave undertaking such a trip and we are busy putting the final plans together and trying to concentrate on our work, but it's difficult.Only about 10 weeks to wait and then, after Christmas, we are going to visit some relatives in New Zealand, as it is the long school holidays here over the Christmas period.

I was thinking this morning, we have come to take for granted waking up to sunshine every day, with very little variation.We don't have to wonder what to wear as we know it will be hot, just have to take an umbrella in case of rain. So, the thought of autumn is very appealing (some people are hard to please I know!) and it sounds as though your weather of late has been lovely.So, enjoy all those gorgeous colours of autumn, wrapping up warm against the chill of an impending winter and for those of you who have one, the delight of a cosy fire as the nights draw in.

Happy Autumn and love from us both