Time flies and we've been a bit busy to get writing! Anyway here's a quick up date on what we've been up to. Again photos to follow after a slight technical hitch!

I [Una] have been out with a VSO colleague to three Primary Schools around the Province. Really interesting to be "in the bush" and see how well kept these Primary Schools are. The children do it themselves. Tiny little ones carrying bush knives are common!

Both us also went out to visit two Secondary Schools with another colleague. One of these schools is now ours to mentor but we didn't know that when we visited. The biggest problem that school's face is the often lack of a teacher presence in the classroom. This could be for many reasons. However, the students still quietly continue to work on whatever has been set for them!

Last week we sat in on a day and a half of Inservice training which our three colleagues ran. The venue was a conference centre in what used to be a Catholic Mission which was bombed in the war. You can still see relics about like a burnt out jeep.

The course took me back to what I did when I was based in Cambridge and so I particularly enjoyed working with the teachers assessing practical work [for ex-colleagues it was like GNVQ days all over again! "What is a range etc"?]. ken sat with the other group who were planning school training sessions.

So we now have our two schools, one about half an hour ago and the other is a three hour journey away towards the Highlands.

Friday saw us with colleagues travelling to Bogia where they are based and then we brought the land rover back. Good to be on the road again and it actually was a good surface, well in most places! The views were amazing and the volcano island very clear and smoking nicely!

What I have failed to mention is that on our first day we were made aware that the main problems to be faced are earthquakes, volcanoes erupting and tsunami. Today (Sunday) we found a Baptist Church and had a lovely time. All in Tok Pisin, of course, and we followed the majority of two sermons. Una sat on the lefty with the women and Ken on the right.