WINE AND WEEVILS

30th May 2009

It seemed a good idea.Phil had spent the day conducting a science workshop and Jake was having to go down to Madang on Saturday, so we invited them to supper.We bought some vinegarish wine and vaguely palatable mince and cobbled together some resemblance of a spaghetti bolognaise followed by a rice pudding, using the rice from Karamui, which we found too glutinous for savoury rice.Couldn't remember if we'd got enough spaghetti, so bought some just in case.All went well until I opened an old packet of spaghetti, stood it on end and attended to something on the stove.When I turned round, the spaghetti had erupted, with black weevils coursing down the packet, like a lava flow from a volcano!John was called to the rescue and he duly dumped the whole packet over the balcony and deposited the remaining little devils into the sink.The new packet was pest free and the rice pudding, according to John, was ace, especially as it was laced with his home made strawberry jam!

Earlier this week we travelled to a far distant school and survived the journey.The beauty of the setting really took our breath away, with the school nestling amongst the stupendous mountains, it was relatively cool too.We got close to the school and found houses still smouldering from being burnt and banana plantations chopped down.There had been a tribal fight the day before and four people hospitalised, the injured from both sides being taken to the hospital in the school truck. There's a notice in the hospital outlining the cost of treating an injury from a tribal fight, so much for a gunshot wound and another amount for a wound inflicted as a result of domestic violence! Thankfully the school wasn't involved other than providing transport for the wounded.

The lovely thing was, as we arrived at this school, we approached the staffroom and were assailed by an unheard of raucous noise from a classroom, unlike the usual silence, indicative of pupils silently copying from the blackboard.It was a teacher who had attended one of our workshops on Personal Development, teaching a student -centred lesson which he had learned, and the students weren't sitting in silence copying from the blackboard, which is the norm, but actually participating in a lesson with what sounded like great delight!It was music to our ears!Some other colleagues conducted a workshop recently and went into the education offices to ask for some used paper.They returned to the workshop, only to discover that this 'waste paper' had all sorts of information on it from confidential medical records to personal financial information!!Confidentiality isn't big in PNG!

The school we have visited in Karamui has been hit by more problems.Not only has the head teacher been threatened by a criminal who has escaped from prison, despite his achilles tendons being cut, but she had just left her office one day when a guy with an axe proceeded to demolish it.She escaped and discovered it was someone who was owed money by the province and had been waiting years and got desperate! She's now in Kundiawa trying to sort the problem out whilst her school is closed.

There has been plenty of unrest lately.In Madang and Lae, groups have been persecuting the Chinese and we expected trouble in Kundiawa, with looting and violence.Luckily it didn't happen here, though many of the shops owned by Chinese were closed for a few days just in case.The other threat of course, is the swine 'flu, which we understand has now reached Queensland, which is only a spit away.I hope it doesn't get to here, as the cultural practice of spitting betel nut in the streets, will cause the virus to spread like wildfire.

We have been working very hard over the past weeks, giving demonstration lessons as well as coaching members of the senior management teams with a varying degree of success.We've observing lessons, accompanied by developmental feedback for the teachers and in addition, delivered workshops on a variety of subjects.We were on our way to a school on Thursday this week, me, John, Phil and Jake, when the PMV slowed down and we were stopped by a group of drunkards demanding money.The driver duly delivered and then we heard that the reason we had slowed down was because a huge lorry had jack knifed round a corner and blocked the one and only road to the highlands completely.We waited for an hour or so, deliberating on what to do, when the truck was hauled clear and we were able to continue our journey.On the other side of the problem, as we were crawling along owing to the volume of traffic (it reminded me of the A14 during a snarl up, without the threat of financial demands),another group of drunken raskals bombarded us with demands for money, because the PMV had to go very slowly and they too were given money.They were opportunists on the make and I reckon they made a fair packet that day.

Next door has a baby pig and I was very confused to hear it squealling incessantly.Looking out, I saw what I thought was the pig being washed. Why would you wash a pig?I enquired.The answer was, once you take a pig from it's mother, you partially drown it a few times and then, for some inexplicable reason it stays within the area of the new host family (I think I'd hightail it as far away as possible to avoid another drowning!)So I didn't and still don't understand the logic.The poor thing is still tethered by its leg and the puppy dog torments it incessantly.It's only purpose in life is to be fattened up for a mu-mu - I hope we don't get an invite!

Saturday tomorrow and if we have water, it's laundry time.Without water, (and we've been without for 10 days now), it takes John and I at least 2 hours to do the week's laundry.Then shopping, fruit and veg from the market and meat if they have any, from the supermarket.Probably a coffee at the coffee shop and a catch up with other volunteers before lugging many bags of shopping up the hill to home, usually arriving in a puddle of sweat.

We're both well and working hard, and we do see some glimmers of progress here and there, which keeps us going.Still can't get used to the child beating though and John has to tether me on occasions.

Lots of sunshine at the moment and the weather is definitely getting hotter.Hope your weather is hotting up too

Much love

XXX

PS.It's getting towards the end of term 2 and we're now on timetable 15!!