RULES, RULES, RULES!

21st February 2010

I have to stress here, that the following is not made up!It is the truth, unbelievable as it may seem!The following are the first nine points of the Simbu Education Board major school rules for all secondary schools in the province - haven't seen the minor ones, probably a good thing!The penalty for flouting any of them is TERMINATION!

1. When proven beyond all doubt that students are having sexual intercourse with each other.
2. A female student who is impregnated.
3. Students who practice homosexuality and heterosexuality.
4. A male student who has impregnated any women within the school grounds
5. A male/female student living together as a married couple (some students are well into their twenties!)
6. A student living with another person as a married couple.
7. Students in possession of pornographic material in any form.
8. Intimate teacher/student relationship of the opposite sex.
9. Practising circumcision in the school grounds (why would you?!!)

In all, there are 34 school rules, the majority of which incur the penalty of termination, even for fairly minor offences such as appearing scruffy despite warnings and also more serious ones such as practising or leading a cult or satanic worship!The whole school population sat in the blazing sun for many hours being harangued by the teachers yesterday about the importance of these rules and they were even warned, that if they were in the armed forces and broke any rules they would be shot!!Not sure what that had to do with anything, apart from scare the living daylights out of the students.

There seems to be an annual issue surrounding the school bell, which is a large empty cylinder which is struck with an implement supposedly, at change of lessons.It's not the bell itself which is a problem, but the timing of the ringing of it.No-one seems able to get it right.It is sometimes the job of the duty teacher to ring it at the allotted time, but he/she complains it takes them out of the classroom and they don't have a watch to tell the time.Class captains proved equally unreliable, so it was decided the two women in the office who carry out administrative jobs should be given the task.But still it was forgotten or rung at the wrong times, until it was discovered that neither of the women could tell the time!!So some teachers have suggested an electronic one - now there's an original idea, except what happens during the frequent power cuts?The trouble is, that even the few teachers who use their mobile phones to tell the time, don't move between classes until the bell tells them to.They have been conditioned only to do things when they are told - thinking for themselves is treading on dangerous ground and heaven help us if the students start doing it!

We have been spending quite a bit of time recently in the company of the Senior Secondary Inspector, who we like and respect a lot.The poor guy has a heart condition, with no hope of getting treatment here and a prohibitive cost for him to travel abroad to get it.Not only have we included him in our conferences and workshops, but we have also been travelling around to secondary schools with him and the Provincial Adviser, presenting our paper to all the secondary schools on suggestions for improvement in implementing the new curriculum, based on last year's performance.The schools don't know it's our paper, the Education Department are presenting it as their own.

On one of these visits, we turned up at the Education Offices at the allotted time, only to discover there was no vehicle available, so the Provincial Adviser had asked our head if we could borrow the school vehicle which is an open back truck.John and I were charged with collecting it, so we legged it back to school to pick it up. The Head Teacher was in bed sick, so the deputy gave the OK but said it was out of petrol. To get petrol, a cheque had to be signed by the HT.One was produced and we duly got the HT off his sickbed to sign it.Eventually the keys were found and we went to get into the truck.

It's a 4x4 but, guess what, the 4-wheel drive was baggerup and the school we were going to was over a mountain.Undaunted, we leaped in, me in my white linen trousers (we'd had no water for the past week, so it was all I had left clean) which didn't stay clean or dry for long.It transpired that the last time we travelled in the truck, the passenger window wouldn't wind down.Things had now changed - the window had been wound down and that's where it stayed and refused to budge.The previous night we'd had a storm with a deluge of rain which had, as you would expect, poured in through the open window.Consequently, the seat I was sitting on was sodden wet and the car well swimming in water!!I sat on my diary with my knees touching my ears, leaning forward so as not to touch the back of the seat, which made pothole bouncing quite tricky!

We picked up Jake, the Senior Inspector and Deputy Provincial Adviser, all of whom sat in the back of the open truck.The Provincial Adviser came separately with a rope, in case we got stuck!We somehow managed to get to the school, although at times it would have been quicker to get out and push the wretched heap of rubbish and of course, as we skidded through the puddles, the mud shot through the open window covering me in muck!!

We survived the visit, inspecting new buildings and being treated like Lord and Lady Muck and even managed to hack the 'light lunch' which consisted of great lumps of pork fat, goat, boiled grass and rice.Being the only white woman in the party, I had to go first with all eyes on me as I tried to make it look as though my plate was full without actually taking very much - an art I am perfecting!!The rain clouds were gathering, so off we set back to Kundiawa.A few miles from there, the heavens opened. Jake and the rest of the passengers got soaked to the skin in the back of the truck, with no protection whatsoever, as did I, with the rain pouring through the open window.I had a brilliant idea though, I had an umbrella in my bag (never go anywhere without it), so I put it up inside the cab of the truck and stuck it up against the window, which worked really well at keeping the rain out.Sadly, it meant John couldn't see much, as not only was the umbrella blocking his view but the whole cab had steamed up with no means of clearing the window screen (the blower didn't work of course - it was amazing that the wheels actually turned round!)

The Senior Inspector told us at some point during this visit, that only this week a man came to his office wanting to go to college, but he had 'lost' his school leaving certificate.The inspector said he would have to get a copy, whereupon he offered the inspector 50,000 kina (10,000 pounds) if he would forge one for him!!Bribery rules! We are advised to get a police report from here before returning home, in case we need a reference.We need it too, before we can go and visit my World Vision child in Cambodia.World Vision staff informed me however, that they consider any kind of police check report from PNG as invalid, as they are so easily obtainable through bribery!!

On a more positive note, we feel at times that things have at last begun to move in the right direction in some areas.Being invited to do a workshop on 'Time Management' with the Education Division staff is one of them.It went well, was well attended and we have been asked to do another one.Equally, we ran a conference last week for the new graduates who have been appointed to the Province.That too went well and we always enjoy working with such a group, though they are not all youngsters.They particularly enjoyed our role play on Professionalism and were even persuaded to undertake one of their own, which they entered into with enthusiasm.Next week we are having a two- day head teachers' conference, so we hope that too goes according to plan.Equally, it was quite a coup to present a paper to the Division of Education, making suggested improvements to the system, which they claimed as their own and, as I explained above, resulted in a road show of the senior divisional staff visiting schools, which has never happened before - this was greatly appreciated by school staff.

We now have the task of analysing the responses from the teachers and make recommendations to the Division, which may hopefully make a difference too.In a way it seems a shame to be deserting in a few months time and leaving only 2 volunteers to carry on the work, just as we seem to be making an impact, however small.

Jake lives above a PNG family of large (in numbers) proportions.The dog belonging to the family has puppies at regular intervals, which don't seem to survive long.Of the last litter, one died because a member of the family rolled onto it during the night and others were given away and died of neglect.Of the latest litter, two gorgeous ones were kept for most of the time in a hutch and pen built for two rabbits - they were eaten by marauding dogs!These puppies were really lovely and Mollie played with them when she was visiting.When we went to Jakes the other day, they had gone - died.The story was that the family regularly fed the puppies beer - to make them aggressive!!In the absence of beer one day, one of the youngsters fed them steam (lethal home made brew!) and they died.Probably dissolved them from the inside! Very sad.

We returned back one day after work to find a very large goat in the garden next door, (see photo) which already contains a pig which is being fattened up nicely.It loves pumpkin skin, but I feel guilty when I feed it in the knowledge that I am contributing to a later feast!This goat is a very handsome creature and much bigger than any goat I've ever seen, but boy does it stink!!They bring it up close to the house at night and the pong wafts into our house something alarming!Anyway, our neighbour tells us that the plan is to buy a female goat, mate them, then the poor billy goat will be eaten.

Only 18 weeks to go and counting.We're excitedly planning our holiday with Lisa and Simon on the way back, in Thailand - to include compulsory diving of course. Then after that, John and I are travelling to Cambodia to visit our sponsored child close to Phnom Penh, before returning to UK in early August.

It's hot as hell here.It's still supposed to be the rainy season, but we haven't had rain for nearly a week now and we're finding the heat quite exhausting.

Enjoy the cold!!

Love from us both