RED TAPE

8th November 2009

People in PNG love a celebration!They can't organise it very well, but a lot of time and energy goes into the planning and every event warrants a celebration, from opening new teachers' houses to opening classrooms, roads and of course, the annual graduation - even primary school pupils graduate!A head teacher from a remote school was chatting to me as we were driving over the mountain to do work in his school - a boarding school.He was boasting about the fact that he'd recently built a new dormitory for the boarders, but he lamented that it wasn't in use.Naively I enquired 'Why'?The answer was because it hadn't had an official opening and he had no money to hold such an event.The suggestion that it was used without a grand opening was apparently totally out of the question - there had to be a grand opening!Part of the reason I think, is because at such events the local MP is invited in the hope that to glean votes from the locals, these venerable gentlemen pledge money somewhere in their interminable political speech, so it's a money making opportunity not to be missed!

A teacher was missing from this particular school when we visited and when we enquired where he was we were told he was in hospital because his wife had stabbed him - a role reversal there!But the funniest thing we read in the paper recently, was the case of the grand opening of a new road or the installation of electricity or a satellite dish or some such happening.It came to the point where the dignitary was to cut the tape - guess what - no-one could find any scissors!!Eventually, a telephone engineer was tracked down and his pliers did as a substitute - I said organisation was not a forte here!

If we've learned any thing while we've been here, it's patience and resilience, not a quality we were renowned for previously.Last Saturday evening I made a cottage pie - decent looking mince had been obtained from Goroka.We were really looking forward to it and I put it in the oven in great anticipation.It was to be accompanied by fried cabbage, onions and broccoli, all purchased freshly that morning from the market.We were a bit frustrated, as we'd had no water all day so no washing could be done, but hey ho, there's always hope for tomorrow.

As I was preparing the vegetables, the electricity went off - so on went the head torches.Then, I went to check the pie was cooking OK - no gas!The tank was empty.Of course, on a Saturday night, no gas to be had anywhere, nothing until Monday (if we were lucky), so biscuits and peanut butter it was.Sunday night, we thought, no problems, we'll have beans on toast - ah, no way to heat the beans.Never mind, we'll have a toasted cheese sandwich (courtesy of some kind folk who bought us some marvellous bags in which you put your sandwich then pop it in the toaster for a few minutes to toast).Made the sandwiches (including Branston Pickle, again donated by more kind people), popped them in the bag, slotted them in the toaster and the electricity went off!!Oh well, cold cheese sandwiches aren't that bad for a Sunday dinner!!

Rubbish disposal here consists of slinging it in the river (plastic and all) or, if not living near a river, household waste is disposed of in a pit dug behind the house.No-one seems to consider the problems which will be caused when all the land is full of refuse, with no more space to dig more pits.

We only put compostable stuff in ours, (though neighbours aren't so careful, and often deposit their rubbish in our pit) and the rest we either burn, feed to the neighbour's pig or take to the rubbish bins, which have relatively recently appeared in town.These are emptied periodically into a 'landfill' site just outside town, which overflows onto the road, but I guess it's better than littering the streets.Quite a lot is piled up in the street and burned, the plastic giving off noxious fumes, polluting the atmosphere for miles around.So, our pit was becoming full, when opportunely, five students approached us, as they were doing a Business Studies project and wondered if they could do any jobs for us, which they would cost and we would pay for.The pit came to mind immediately and last Friday they turned up with spades and shovels to dig us a new pit and fill in the old one.They came well before lessons had finished, so I enquired whether they shouldn't be in lessons."Yes" they said, but we have been in school all day and no teachers have turned up for lessons, so we wanted something to do."Why is that?" I asked."Well, it's Friday and the teachers haven't attended our lessons."I asked why they didn't do something about it and their answer was that if they complained, the teachers would beat them.So I asked why didn't they get their parents to do something.They said they hadn't had a chance to complain, as the head teacher hadn't held a Parent and Community meeting for a long time and in addition, they said their parents were village people and didn't know how to complain.

They did a fantastic job - these boys are so strong with exceptional physiques and they attacked the task with vigour and plenty of good humour.John promised that if they did a good job he would 'talk stories' with them about England.So, after the job was completed, (the pit is so deep it should last us until we come home, as long as the neighbours don't fill it) the boys came onto our balcony to 'talk stories'(see picture of them with John showing them places on the map).They also enjoyed cans of coke and home made shortbread, which they had never tasted before.They are so interested in everything and talk intelligently on many subjects.It was quite sobering for us, so ready to wax lyrical about what needs to be done to improve the lot of these students, but we realise it's just not easy.

They feel impotent in being able to change their future, which they want to do, but their culture militates against it.For example, of the five, four came from different villages and speak a different language.So, though they work well together in school as good friends, should a fight break out between their tribes, they would be compelled to go and fight each other and I mean literally, engage in a tribal war - it's really common in the Highlands.If they didn't, their tribe would disown them and they would lose their land rights.In addition, they cannot speak English in their village, or they get accused of 'showing off' and shunned.One of the boys is in the equivalent of the year before GCSE in England and he's 18!Why? Because his parents didn't have the money to send him to school for a few years, so he was out of school and living in his village.These are delightful young men who are thirsty for change, but with a poor education system, poverty, corruption and cultural restrains, the future looks pretty grim.They're coming back to dig our ditches and cut our grass (with bush knives!) if the price is right and no doubt will ask for more "talk stories" accompanied with shortbread and coke.

We're nearing the end of term - there's little work being done by teachers now, other than trying to organise graduation ceremonies.We've been kept busy running a workshop (on time management, would you credit) and a conference for new graduate teachers ending their first year of teaching.Next week it's off to Karamui, then our boss is coming up for a week to conduct monitoring and evaluation workshops - yippee - we can't wait and nor can anyone else.Then it's end of term and the excitement of Richard, Jo and Mollie coming to spend Christmas with us.We're so looking forward to that.After our time with them, we are going to tour New Zealand (it's the long school holiday here) then back for our final two terms.Sadly, it looks as though we're not getting any new volunteers to replace the three who are leaving, so we will be down to a team of 3 plus Jake, who is leaving in March.It's a bit depressing really, as it will be hard to sustain the momentum of this year with such a drastic reduction in numbers and we are afraid that without new blood, the project could well fold when we finish at the end of June.We shall see.

It's incredibly hot here at the moment, so we splashed out and bought an electric fan from an Asian owned shop, to cool us while we're at work on the computers.It lasted a week before it went baggerup, so as we speak, I'm sitting here in a puddle of sweat!Sorry if you're cold and wet in UK!

How many more shopping days til Christmas?Not a clue, but I know how many days it is before the family visit!

Happy shopping!

Love from us both.