Week Beginning 18.05.09

Another week in our very weird and wonderful lives. We often wonder what we are doing here.How did this happen to us? Our lives were fine. But then we feel very fortunate to experience another life.

It has been a difficult week for PNG as there has been trouble about the Chinese employed in this country. Groups in many towns turned nasty and shops were looted and there has been widespread unrest. The police were on high alert(!) and some looters were shot. TheFilipino volunteers were told to stay in their houses in case the mob turned on them so we worked without Ben this week. VSO offered to send them home but it would have meant the end of their contract. UNICEF removed all their Asian volunteers until the trouble subsided. Hopefully it has all settled down for a while now.

We heard this week that the 'culprit' that they caught with our cameras and visa cards got 8 months hard labour. The police and locals were really pleased but said the sentence was light as we got most of our stuff back, otherwise they said it would have been 7 years!

We had some excitement this week as all 8 of our chickens escaped. Mike tried his hardest to get them back in but it wasn't easy. He had some bread crusts to induce them but the dogs, cats, ducks and cockerels then crowded round and chased the chickens off. It was amusing towatch.

The PNG ladies all wear a meri dress. It is a tent like dress with puff sleeves, a round, scoop neck, a frill at the bottom and a garish print. Apparently they were introduced by the missionaries to cover the women up. This week Alison saw one on the market with quite a nice pattern and bought it - £6.50. Some local women were with her and persuaded her that it would be nice and they came back to the house to see what it looked like. They thought it looked lovely. Mike thought it looked awful so she won't be wearing it outside the house!

On Friday we ran the Social Science workshop in order to prepare resources and materials to teach SS. It was like drawing teeth. The only idea some of them could think of was to copy from text book. Others, noticeably the women (and Mike), had more ideas and we ended up with some good programmes of work with some resources. Some schools in towns have photocopiers, some have Gestetners, some banda machines and some nothing. Some schools have manual typewriters to write resource material on. Its odd to hear the tapping of a typewriter followed by the occasional 'ping'.

We had no water Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. We had used up all the buckets and Mike went out in the rain - with his umbrella in one hand and a bucket in the other - and filled the buckets quite quickly . By Saturday we were desperate for a shower, hair wash, clean the house, do the clothes washing and flush the loo. Alison woke at 5.30 a.m. - no water. Mike got up at 6.30 a.m. - no water. At 7.30 Mike shouted that the water was on and Alison rushed to the shower only to find it had gone off again. Wailing and gnashing of teeth. Finally the water came on and we had to get in the shower together as we were so worried it would go off again (much to Mike's delight!). It stayed on for four hours - enough time to fill the buckets, do the washing, flush the loo and generally restore order. (It is off again now though - it's just come back on again, no it's gone off! You just never know).

In the newspaper it said Parliament sessions were cancelled this week as they couldn't find the key to Parliament House! 'Piss up' and 'brewery' come to mind.

Week Beginning 25.05.09

Beautiful day on Sunday - as it was in England by the sounds of it and a pleasant cool breeze on Monday when we went to Boromil School. Funny how your perceptions change. When we first travelled to Boromil we thought itto be a pretty hairy ride and the worst road we'd ever been on anywhere in the world. Now we know better - and its one of the easier journeys! On Wednesday we travel to Doliba - one of the more remote schools and onewe haven't yet managed to visit due to bad weather (it's the school we were on our way to, but we aborted the journey when it started getting too hairy and too difficult for our driver to control the four-wheel drive). We hope to get there - via the school truck - but Alison isn't well at the moment and travelling with an upset tummy on these roads may not be too wise. Motorway cafes are thin on the ground - on account of there being no motorways - but there's plenty of bush in which to have some privacy. Fingers crossed that she picks up quickly. We're staying for two nights at the school in one of the teacher's houses on the school site, so we've got all our provisions ready.

We're managing to pick up our e-mails more regularly at the moment, so do please send us an email or leave a message on the blog. We're always a little disappointed when we check and find that no-one has left a message and its always a lift to read message that are left so thanks to all those of you who have left messages or e-mailed us. It's always great to hear from you.

Oh Yes - the water is off again!

Love Mike and Alison