Settling in here now.

We have had most of Sunday with no water and none on Monday or Tuesday. Luckily or unluckily it has been raining pigs and coconuts for a few days so we put a bucket under the broken guttering and collect a lot during the night and boil it as we need it. It was worse on Sunday as we had no electricity either. As we write the pipes are gurgling and we are hopeful that we might be able to have a shower on Wednesday morning - luxury. It has rained so much we are squelching our way around.

There are two stories abounding as to why Kundiawa is without water. One explains that a landslide has damaged the infrastructure, the other that landowners are claiming that the government have failed to pay them compensation for putting a pipeline through their land, so have hijacked the water supply. It seems that the compensation culture is hampering the improvement of the infrastructure by making any installation very expensive - this includes the repair of roads, for whenever work is undertaken, landowners claim compensation for workmen being on their land.

I was all keen to get organised and make it homely and invited Jake to dinner and thought I'd cook all nicely but got home from market and realised there was no water or electricity. Luckily the cooker is gas and so managed to scrape a meal together.

I had to roast vegetables as had no water to boil them - no saucepan either. I was going to mash sweet potatoes after roasting but had no masher and when I tried with a fork it bent in two. I fried some chicken pieces in garlic, ginger and chilli and served in orange juice picked 5 minutes before from our tree. We didn't have any beer, wine or juice so it was water- not even cold as the fridge doesn't work efficiently.

Going to market is lovely - no hassles - all smiles - all shaking hands. Yesterday two stalls gave us food free as a welcome - strawberries, passion fruit, peas in the pod, garlic & tomatoes. The stall holders were very sweet but it was embarrassing taking off them when they themselves have so little.

Everyone seems pleased to see us - they smile, call 'moning tru' or 'apinun', shake hands, watch us, etc. In the supermarket (TNA!) they watch to see what we have put in our basket and the children shyly follow us down the aisles. There is no coercion and no tipping which helps.

On Monday night Stanley, Maria's son, who is about 25 came round with a bilum bag for Mike. Maria had been round earlier with one for me. Stanley saw that Mike likes music so he went and got a keyboard that he had won on his graduation and as he couldn't play he let Mike have it to keep in the house for the duration of our stay.

He sat and enjoyed Mike's playing for a few hours and it was great. Mike has the keyboard set up on the ironing board - which makes an adequate keyboard stand.

Yesterday we went to the police station to get our PNG driving licence. It took about an hour for the policeman to fill in the two forms. He studied our English licences, our International licences and slowly, slowly (isi, isi) filled in the forms. We then went to the provincial Headquarters where we smiled and waited and shook everyone's hand and waited and then had our photos taken by a very old Polaroid contraption and then had to pay 2 kina each - about 50p - to have our licence laminated and then we were done - about 2 hours - which is probably a record as things go here.

It is so much cooler here than Madang - lovely to be able to sleep and cool in the early mornings so that I wear a cardi til about 9am. We are getting up about 6 as the cockerel screeches about that time outside our window. The pig sleeps under our house, as do ducks, hens, dogs and cats. As soon as one dog in the town barks it sets all the other dogs off.

Today we represented VSO by attending a graduation ceremony for a women's group which had undergone micro-financial management - learning how to manage the household income and to invest savings to pay for such things as school fees. It was a heart-warming occasion as the women were so pleased to receive their certificates and to have visitors and dignitaries attend the ceremony. Even the Provincial Director and the bishop attended. We were sat out at the front along with the VIPs. Alison was pleased to be sat in the VIP seats as she was the only woman sitting alongside the male-dominated VIPs. Ironic considering we were honouring the achievements of women. The women has also prepared kaikai (lunch) for us. Again all the men + Alison + one other PNG woman took precedence over all the women graduates, who wouldn't have eaten the left-overs until we had left.

On Wednesday morning we will attend the provincial education office to meet the staff and also to be introduced to the secondary school headteachers who have a meeting at the office.Proceedings will start with devotion at 8.00 a.m! There were about 10 of us singing Amazing Grace and Come Holy Spirit Come followed by a prayer. The Headteachers' Meeting should have started at 9 but they ambled in up to 9.45 and then started with a prayer. In the afternoon the VSO education team will meet to discuss recent changes suddenly introduced by the district officials without anyone's knowledge.