GROUND BRUK NA ROAD BAGGERUP

20th April 2008

Just a comment about the sports day photos which I hope you have received.When you see the junior 100m - please note the beard of the winning runner.Just because he's in a junior class doesn't mean he isn't 35 yrs old! Note the tape denoting the track which got baggerup very quickly and the new style of high jump!It could be a world beater! Disconcertingly, there was a piece of tape strung across the demarcation line for the javelin - luckily no-one tripped over it ( as I feared they might) to impale themselves on their own javelin before it left their hands, but it could have happened and did, in my mind's eye!!!!! Not sure when the finals are but I suspect John and I might be otherwise engaged!

Seriously, we have had a major disaster here.Part of a mountain has broken away and slid down onto the main arterial 'road' from the coast to the highlands, completely cutting us off from the coast.Hopefully you can see the devastation caused from the photos.So nothing can get through (sorcery has been blamed).There is an alternative route (the road we described in an earlier blog, where we had to be towed up by an army of boys.)This is passable by a 4x4, but at a price, as the villagers who own the land are demanding high prices to pass through.So petrol has already run out and diesel won't last much longer.John and I went to take a look to-day and it really is horrific.How no-one lost their lives is a miracle, 2000+ people made homeless.The problem is that the mountain is still moving, so nothing can be done until the ground settles. A huge slice of the mountain, some 500metres wide, has displaced, moving the road over 400m down the mountain. Various stories as to the contributory factors abound, other than sorcery, which is the number 1. There is talk of an underground river and a lake, both possibilities in the area, as there are some very large caves underground. The major cause is the heavy rain, which we experience for about a couple of hours a day, every day at some time or other, and the mix of clay and limestone plus the fact the road should not have been built on the side of the mountain in the first place, but that's PNG for you! We witnessed carriers of huge bags from one side of the broken road to the other, charging high prices of course, they were running with the sacks over the ground that was slippery, uneven and treacherous, it made us look really pathetic as we picked our way gingerly over the tracks they had made.What do you think they were carrying?Flour? Rice? Sugar? - no, betel nut and chickenfeed!!!Let's get the priorities straight here!

It will mean the growers from the highlands cannot get their produce to market, transport will grind to a halt, people won' be able to get to work and food prices have already increased hugely.We met three teachers from a boarding school on our side of the 'groun bruk ' who were heading to the other side with 20 or so students to collect 5 tons of rice and carry them back to the school truck in order to keep the school fed.We're in no immediate danger, unless the locals start to get ferocious, and fights break out, but if that happens, VSO will evacuate us and the airstrip is within walking distance, so no worries!We've got a stash of chocolate in the fridge, courtesy of Lisa, so we can survive for ages.It was somewhat demeaning though, aged grannies in flip flops took my hand, to help me over the slippery clay (I didn't need any help, but they insisted) and youngsters were sitting on the side of the 'road' just hoping a white man would go arse over tit on the clay, just to give them a good laugh - we didn't oblige, but it was a close call!

We met with a headteacher to-day from Karamui, which is a remote area of PNG, and the most isolated in Simbu Province (she is the only woman headteacher in Simbu).We are going out to her school in a few weeks time to do some work with her teachers. We were arranging the sort of resources we would need and we said we needed 35 chairs.They don't have any!!That's what we're up against.But she was telling us of initiation ceremonies of boys that take place in certain areas of PNG, along the Sepik River.They go to the crocodile house for initiation for two months and some do not survive!!Their arms, legs and torso are subjected to numerous cuts, the pattern resembling the double line of ridges along the back of crocodiles.They then go to the river and stand under a bridge where the men urinate over them (to sterilise the wounds).However, if a boy has been naughty in the eyes of the villagers, he goes into the crocodile house never to return!!How scary is that!Another is, boys have to lay under water for 3 weeks!They are put into some sort of trance first and if they survive, they are hailed as sorcerers - I wonder how many don't! Luckily we're too old for initiation ceremonies - age does have its advantages!

To those of you who are old - be glad!

Lots of love from 'the Aged Ones'

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