SORCERY 19th March 2010 In PNG, when someone dies, it is never accepted that the death is caused by a natural phenomenon.It is believed to be caused by sanguma or witchcraft. "Today, practically no death is regarded as natural and one blames sorcery for it and tries to discover the sorcerer by asking the dead to reveal his or her killer.No accident is only the result of human error:behind it there is always bad will and sorcery, which must be avenged.The ...

SUNDAY PAPERS AND BACON BUTTIES! 7th March 2010 It's Sunday morning and we still have no water and when politely asking John if he would go down to the shop, buy the Sunday papers and make some bacon butties for breakfast, I got a rude response!The washing has to be done, as we are running out of clean, sweat and dust free clothes.Washing involves pulling out the twin tub and John lugging bucket upon bucket of water from the water tank up to the house.Not far a...

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! When proven beyond all doubt that students are having sexual intercourse with each...

TRAVELLERS RETURN 9th February 2010 Back to reality! We returned on 23rd January and since we've been back, there have been several bouts of no electricity, no water and most distressingly, the phone lines are down, which means we were unable to let the family know we were back safely. Apparently phone lines had been down for several days, with no indication of when things will be fixed. The one man and his dog outfit jokingly called a telecommunications serv...

SPIDER ENCOUNTER! 6th December 2009 Had an unexpected trip to Australia for the past three weeks.A long and boring medical saga, caused by a simple earache lasting for two months and one which baffled one doc and two specialists in PNG. So, off to Oz we went, where things proceeded like a well oiled machine.The verdict was: Ears fine (for an old girl) Misaligned jaw, causing tissue damage and referred ear pain - solution a plate to wear at night.Can't talk ...