Mijts Blog

Just over a year ago, Maria started volunteer work in a local Secondary girls’ school – OLSH. She quickly realized that they were very under-resourced and, in particular, only had a few computers for over 700 students.

Nick discussed this with a staff member at Suncorp – where he had previously worked. After several emails Nick contacted Chris Whiteford, Executive Manager BT Services, Suncorp Brisbane. Chris readily agreed to assist and rallied his staff to participate in a project which resulted in 25 computers for us to distribute to schools in the local area.

These second hand computers are normally sold off by Suncorp to the public. Instead, the staff of the Brisbane Suncorp Business Technology Group raised the money and purchased them as part of their ‘charity’ program. Dell arranged the packaging for shipment and Microsoft donated sufficient MS Office software to run on all of them. Chris has been the key person in coordinating the project, organising Dell and Microsoft contributions.

In March of this year the computers were shipped by Rotary from Brisbane through to Rabaul. There was one little hiccup when the container went to the Solomon Islands (and we received theirs!) but it was all sorted by our Rotary friend, Anne, and finally the computers arrived in July.

We went over to Anne’s place at Rabaul to help unpack the container. Students and a teacher from one of the receiving schools (Maltech) assisted to unpack the container. The boys are boarding students at the school.

We were all excited when we finally found the computer boxes at the back of the container.

We loaded our ute with computers to take to our house in Kokopo and stored the rest of the computers in Anne’s house until we could come back to collect them at the weekend.

Our HouseMary (Stephanie) helped Nick carry the boxes up the stairs at our house – she happily assisted Nick to move the computers into the house and again helped load them when they were ready to take to the schools. (I LOVE how she always carries heavy items on her head. She is only a slight build but carries quite heavy items this way).

The computers were stacked in the hallway at our place and for over a week Nick spent each evening after work checking each computer and loading software onto them.

Because we received more computers than at first anticipated we were able to give them to three schools.

OLSH received 16 and now have a small computer lab of over 20 computers as well as four computers in their Library.

At a special assembly we presented the 16 computers. The staff and students were very excited and grateful and even sang a hymn of thanks for us which was quite moving – they all sing so beautifully!

This is where Maria Volunteers and along with the Principal, Maria spoke at the assembly explaining fully how the donation of computers evolved. The school currently has a young Japanese volunteer working in IT at the school and with the donation of 16 computers to supplement the few they already had, they have set up a small computer lab. This is a huge asset to the school’s curriculum.

This photo/article appeared in the local newspaper outlining the project.

Two of the computers will go to Kerevat Primary school (soon to be delivered – when our holiday finishes). This will be their first computers!
Seven of the computers went to a secondary school in Rabaul – Malaguna Technical School (Maltech). Since the conception of this project, this school has had three of its buildings burnt down losing their Library and all of the computers they had.

We spent a Sunday afternoon at the school, installing the computers and talking to the Principal and a teacher and it was apparent that they have been quite devastated by this loss as there is no replacement of these buildings or resources as might occur in Australia.

Maltech also held a special assembly for the presentation of their computers.

It is difficult to describe just how VERY grateful the staff and students were for the donation. We would dearly love in the future to be able to source more computers for this school. We are also trying to source books from Brisbane schools for their Library.

Finally got time to finish posting about the Mask Festival. We are in Brisbane for a break at the moment and the time is flying by!

On the Saturday morning Nick and I went up to the Mask Festival. We watched three different cultural performances.
The first performance was by the West New Britain Patogrety Cultural Group. This was the only group to include their women in the performance. The women and girls dressed and prepared outside the ‘fenced off’ area – as this was a sacred area for men only.

The women ranged in age from young girls to older ladies and wore costumes that were very colourful and made from beads, feathers, leaves etc.

Some of them were also tatooed.

The women then came onto the oval and sang and clapped – ‘calling’ the masked group of men to come out and perform. Their singing was beautifully harmonised. A couple of men on drums accompanied the women.

When the men came out, it was obvious that their masks had several differences to the Tolai Duk-Duk.

The head-dress was taller and colourfully woven, they had seeds/nuts (similar to gumnuts) around their ankles and these made a significant noise. They also carried ‘whips’ woven from a string-like material and they made a loud whiplike noise when used during their dance.

The dance obviously told a story with the men and women dancing together, the whips cracking seemingly to bring the women to order, and at the end dancing in harmony with each woman/girl partnering a masked man – this is my interpretation of the dance and I am not sure how accurate it is! Either way it was very interesting and different to any others I had seen.

The next performance was by the Asaro Mudmen.

The Mudmen come from Asaro – just outside the town of Goroka in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. They were the first of two mainland groups which we saw perform.
Legend has it that the mudmen were defeated by an opposing tribe and forced to flee into the Asaro River. They waited until dusk before attempting to escape. The enemy saw them emerge from the muddy banks covered in mud and thought they were spirits. Most tribes in Papua New Guinea are very scared of spirits, so the enemy fled in fear, and the Asaro Mudmen were victorious. On their way home they ran into another tribe. By then the mud was all dry and cracked and they must have looked frightening. The other warriors got scared and fled. After that episode, aware of the fearful impression it had made, the warriors of Asaro always covered themselves with mud before going to war, keeping the illusion alive.
This performance was held in silence – no music, clapping etc. The Mudmen crept out with their bow and arrows and stealthily and agilely performed for us.

Today they perform in a peaceful manner with no warlike sounds or moves. I actually found them quite cute and even a little bit cheeky! – although some local children ran away in fear when the mudmen came close to them.

This masked character also performed with the mudmen – not sure of its significance!

At the end of their performance, the mudmen removed their (obviously heavy!) masks. It was apparent these men were not all young which I found quite remarkable given their very lean and fit build and the agility they showed during their performance.

They also demonstrated traditional fire-making – accompanied by a couple of flute-like instruments.

The mudmen were my favourite performers!

The last performance we watched was by the East Sepik Mask Cultural group. This group also came from the mainland (East Sepik Province -the Sepik River area). Rather than perform out on the oval, they performed in a small defined area in one corner of the grounds – probably due to the fact that the very elaborate mask had no holes to see through – thus denying the wearer any means of sight! An ‘assistant’ aided the masked man in his movements around the defined space.

Those are cassowary feathers around the assistant’s head!

There are mask-making villages all along the Sepik. The villagers keep small gardens and the women fish. They trade fish to the inland Sawos people for sago flour, the starchy pith of the sago palm, which is the main staple of the Sepik diet. There is a small cash economy along the Sepik and the people sell fish, as well as carvings for cash. The middle Sepiks have a common ancestry, but each village is independent and this is reflected in their art, including their masks. Every village carves in a distinctive style.
The men carve masks from soft wood, although some are made of clay over-modeled onto turtle or coconut shell. They mix paints from earth pigments and charcoal. The masks are decorated with shells, pig tusks, and cassowary feathers.

Few masks are worn directly over the face, which explains the lack of holes for eyes. Some are fastened onto a large cone-shaped wicker framework for a dance costume called a tumbuan. Raffia is knotted into the bottom hoop for skirting and flowers, fruit and leaves added on for color and power at the time of the ceremony. Other masks are made only for display, most often in the men’s Haus, to attract powerful and useful spirits.
We were amazed by the detail and decorativeness of these masks.

Check out the huge shell!!

I also thought this little carved stool was worthy of a photo! The masked tibuan sat on it as part of the performance!

The mask Festival was a wonderful cultural experience which we thoroughly enjoyed.

After the dawn arrival of the boats to open the mask festival, the activities moved to the local football oval. On the Wednesday afternoon I took the wife of Nick’s boss up there as the program said that the mud-men were performing at 1pm and I was keen to see them. It was an interesting afternoon – my companion, who is visiting from Japan for a few weeks, only spoke Japanese so we communicated mostly in sign language. It was hot, windy and dusty and no performers in sight!

We sat under a Coca Cola ‘tent’ for an hour and were rewarded for our patience – although not by the mudmen as they were a no show that day. However, from 2pm onwards there were several performances by Tolai Tubuan groups – from six different villages.

After our long wait, some men and boys assembled by the ‘sacred men’s area’ (no females allowed in there) wearing red laplaps and carrying their traditional ‘man bags.’

They then sat together on the oval, chanting, singing, playing drums and clacking sticks ‘calling’ the performers and accompanying their dances. They sat in the hot sun doing this for a couple of hours!

There were a few Duk-Duk dances.

But most of the groups featured the ‘female’ Tubuan mask.

Whilst all similar, there was some variety in appearance across the groups.

They danced in pairs and there was great variety in the dance style of the different groups.

One group featured an action where they dropped to the ground and rolled. They were very flexible and agile and despite their masks and costumes were able to quickly get up and continue dancing again.

We really enjoyed these dances and I took HEAPS of photos – thank goodness for digital cameras!
Nick and I returned to the festival on Saturday morning and much to my joy we saw the mud-men – more about this in Part 3!

The Mask Festival was held here over four days of last week. We missed this festival last year as we were in USA for Ben’s wedding – so we were really looking forward to experiencing our first mask festival – and we weren’t disappointed!

A bit of history first:
The first National Mask festival was held in Port Moresby in 1995 as were the following three festivals. In 1999 the festival moved to Madang where it stayed for two years before it moved to East New Britain (ENB). This is the 16th year of the Mask festival with ENB hosting it for the 10th consecutive year. In 2001 the then Minister for Culture and Tourism declared ENB as the permanent home and the Festival has stayed here since.

The performing groups that have participated over the years have been varied, manifesting mask cultures of the respective Provinces. This is a result of the great diversity of mask culture which is found in PNG today.

For many years, the main features of the Festival have been the Tubuan performances and the Baining fire dancers of ENB. However, the groups coming from the other Provinces are also very interesting to watch and are quite spectacular in appearance.

The National Mask Festival is one of four annual National festivals which are funded and partly organised by the Cultural Commission.

The main purpose of these Festivals is to encourage the maintenance of traditional cultural forms by the people as ‘living cultures’ – in this case Mask Cultures.

The festival commenced with the arrival of boats at daybreak – these boats transporting Tolai Duk-Duks from local villages.

Some history for the local Tolai Duk-Duk (male) and Tubuan(female) masks:
The Duk-Duk is a revered god– part of a secret society, and part of the traditional culture of the Tolai people of the local area. The Duk-Duk society has religious and political as well as social objectives. Once women and children were forbidden to look at this figure – but traditions are more relaxed now.

The Duk-Duk society uses male Duk-Duk and female tubuan masks. Tubuan and Duk-Duk masks are made of barkcloth or mesh shaped over conical cane frameworks. Both have layered skirts of red and green leaves down to their knees. Tubuan masks are topped with tufts of feathers. The less important Duk-Duk are faceless, but taller and have elaborately carved openwork wood peaks.

Duk-Duk (Male mask)

Tubuan (Female Mask)

The society originally featured the Tubuan, accompanied by the Duk-Duks, acting as enforcers. They collected fines assessed against rule breakers and their relatives by the village elders. Traditional fines were paid with strings of shell money. Penalties for not paying up could include burning down an offender’s house. It would seem that the society is today much discredited and its practice has been dying out since around the start of the 20th century. However, the Tolai of Papua New Guinea generally regard the Duk-Duk and Tubuan masks as a prime symbol of their “traditional” culture. This is most clearly evidenced by the deployment of the Tubuan in “modern” settings, such as church celebrations, state functions, and tourism events where Duk-Duk and Tubuan dancers are often featured.

Until the festival and a bit of research on my part, I just called them all Duk-Duks – probably not uncommon these days! Although throughout the festival they were all referred to as Tubuans.

I have had these little model Tubuan (which I call Duk-Duks!) for some months and love them – so was really keen to see the ‘real thing’!

I bought the little mask during the festival – the detail on it is amazing!

We set the alarm for 4am last Wednesday so that we could drive out to a nearby beach to see the arrival of the Duk-Duks at daybreak. However, we didn’t need the alarm as one of the groups set off from a beach area just down from our house. Their drums and chanting woke us regularly from 2am until they set off around 5am.
When we got to the beach area we were amazed at the number of people waiting to see the boats arrive. Whilst this tradition/culture has somewhat changed over the years, it is still an important feature of the local Tolai community.

The breaking of day was spectacular!

You could hear the boats before you could see them – they came from two directions, ‘dancing’ their way along the water with much drum beating, singing and chanting! In the distance they looked like small islands moving along the water!

Some women stood along the water’s edge with white cloths to welcome the boats – as well as many older male members of these groups. There was much noise and obvious traditional routines before the Tubuan and Duk-Duks and accompanying male villagers came ashore.

The atmosphere was amazing!
Part 2 and 3 coming soon!!!

A couple of big shakes here last night. I was watching golf on TV around 11pm when the house started to shake and creak, things fell off shelves, not unusual – BUT when the fridge started to rock I ran to the bedroom to wake Nick to get out. He was already up and trying to quickly get some pants on when it stopped! The bed had rolled halfway across the floor and he was balanced on one leg, having trouble getting his pants on due to the shaking of the floor! Very funny. This was a 6.9 shake then another one hit at 11.30. It was 7.3 – that woke him too – same scenario!

Following is report from Google news:

Strong earthquakes strike off Papua New Guinea
Two strong earthquakes struck off the South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea late Sunday, a U.S. monitor said. There were no immediate reports of casualty or damage.
The first quake, a magnitude 6.9, struck around 11 p.m. local time 325 miles (525 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Port Morseby. It struck 35 miles (57 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The second, a magnitude 7.3, struck a half-hour later in the same area, at a depth of 31 miles (50 kilometers).
Indonesia issued a tsunami warning but lifted it soon after. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert.
The archipelago nation is part of the Pacific Ocean’s “ring of fire,” where earthquakes of this magnitude are relatively common.

Copied these details from the earthquake site:

Magnitude 6.9
Date-Time Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:04:13 PM at epicenter
Location 6.116°S, 150.522°E
Depth 57.5 km (35.7 miles)
Region NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Magnitude 7.3
Date-Time Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:35:02 PM at epicenter
Location 6.019°S, 150.497°E
Depth 57.6 km (35.8 miles)
Region NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Have to admit they got my heart racing – but gave us a good laugh this morning as I described to Nick what he looked like – trying to get his pants on!

Back soon with some great photos from the mask festival – just taking me a while to decide which ones!!

Last night we went to a dinner party – held at the house of a member of the local Chinese community. As usual we were offered a wonderful banquet of food and enjoyed a great variety of delicious dishes such as lobster salad, coconut battered prawns, fish, pork and beef didshes, spring rolls etc. The desserts were amazing and I loved the creme caramel that I had…….. BUT I WIMPED on the soup. I just could not bring myself to try the SNAKE AND TURTLE soup even though I was assured that it was good for my sex drive! Thank Goodness Nick didn’t have any either!

Garbage collection is a bit ‘hit and miss’ here! It is also very different to the automated garbage trucks they use at home. The company pays the local government authority to have our garbage collected once a week but it is rare for the truck to come weekly. It had been over two weeks since a collection and, as our bin was full, we had rubbish sitting everywhere. Usually someone in the neighbourhood goes down to the yard where the truck is kept and complains and we are always given a reason ‘truck gone bugger up’ (needs repairs), or no fuel this week (means can’t afford fuel!). However, they usually turn up in the next couple of days.

Finally the truck came this morning so I took a couple of photos. This is how it works – the truck stops and sounds its horn. The housemary runs out and takes the garbage out and puts it on the truck. The driver doesn’t get out. The passenger who is probably the supervisor will get out but will usually sit and watch or have a drink or chew buai (that’s him in the blue hat – sitting outside our fence)! Sometimes (as today) there is a third man who travels in the back of the truck and organises the rubbish! If nobody happens to hear the horn then they drive off without collecting – so the neighbours all watch out for each other and call when it arrives.

One time, soon after we arrived, there was no collection for several weeks and the very small plastic bin we had inherited was riddled with maggots – Stephanie called them ‘little snakes’ and was quite unconcerned that the children were playing with them. We soon morteined that problem and quickly invested in a bigger wheelie bin – the only one in our street! Actually, I have only seen a few of these in use.

Many of the locals don’t have bins at all but hang their rubbish in plastic bags on the fence. Some even have a purpose built ‘ledge’ to place it on (up high so the dogs won’t get it!) until it gets collected.

and others just hang it in a tree!!!

Last Saturday was Kayline’s second birthday and Toshi will turn 4 in a few weeks time. We will be in Australia when Toshi has his birthday so told Stephanie (our housemary – and their mother) that we’d fund a combined birthday party for them. We view Stephanie and the children as part of our PNG family and we are very fond of them all!

The party was held last Saturday on Kayline’s birthday. Stephanie did all the planning (she is a great organiser!)and we took her shopping at the market and a couple of tradestores. Nick paid and I crossed items off the list. Masses of food ingredients were purchased and we only bought lollies, balloons, party hats etc at my suggestion. I had previously asked Stephanie how many were attending – response ‘Not too many”, next question from me – ‘Maybe 15 or 20?’ – response ‘Yes!’ (with a smile). It was obvious by the food we purchased that we were feeding many more than this -but no worries! It quickly became apparent that this was not a children’s birthday party as we know it! It was a feast for the neighbours and villagers, children and adults alike! And boy do they know how to put on a feast!

Several girls from the village arrived early to help prepare the food

Some of ‘the boys’ came early too – but they typically just lazed around for about five hours until the food was on then they came in!

The birthday kids had new outfits (from the Chinese tradestore!)

Stephanie had a written program and there was a process to follow – obviously following local customs! Another village truck arrived, Nick’s Office staff turned up and the neighbours came until there was close to 100 people under our house – many more adults than children!

The food was put onto the tables (where it sat for an hour or so – they don’t mind eating it cold!)

Then Stephanie officially welcomed everyone (and asked me to do the same!)

Next everyone gathered around the cake and sang Happy Birthday – and May God Bless You (imagine that at an Aussie kids’ party!!!)

I’ll digress slightly here with a story about the cake – a local store has a bakery section and does cakes. I ordered one and requested just Happy Birthday and the kids’ names to be on it. When I went to collect it this is what it looked like (they obviously needed to fill the cake with writing!) – don’t you just love the ‘cheers’ at the end! I might add that the cake inside was three layers of VERY dark red, green and brown! One lady I know ordered a cake and on the order form where you had to write the message she wrote ‘No message’ – and that’s what was written on her cake – so I didn’t fare too badly!

After they sang Happy Birthday, there was the ‘presentation of gifts’ – everyone lined up (and it was a long line!) and little Kayline and Toshi shook hands with each person and said thank you – without being allowed to open any gifts yet – had to wait until the end of the day! – can’t see many children at home managing that!

Next, one of the elders from the village said a prayer before Kai Kai (food!) then the feasting began. The kids lined up

and plates were piled high with food! Even this little two and a half year old neighbour helped herself – and she ate that whole plate full! Many of the Nationals only eat breakfast and one main meal a day – often rice based.

After some time, there was the cutting of the cake

and my cupcakes were allowed to come downstairs – they were popular – and for many of them – never seen before!

The lollies and whistles were handed out and in line with tradition, Stephanie, as the hostess, had icing from the cake rubbed through her hair!

Nick and I had to leave late afternoon as we were going out to a curry night. We took plenty of photos so here are some more favourites!

I’m a sucker for those big brown eyes!!!

one of several favourite photos of the day! love that hair!

The funniest moment of the afternoon – I was taking a photo of Kayline and Toshi and went to straighten Kayline’s dress – she pushed my hand away and said ‘Heh!’. I then realised she had commandeered the bag of balloons and was hiding them in her pants. She then went over by the fence to finish the job!!! I love this little girl – so full of personality!

Kayline with her great uncle – one of the elder men of the village – typically wearing his laplap as most of the older folk do!

All in all – a very different kids’ party – but a great local experience for us!

As I have mentioned before, we regularly have gurias (earthquakes) here – but they are relatively minor and you get used to a gentle rocking of your chair or bed. We had one about 20 minutes ago that seemed to last longer than usual and when the whole house started to shake sideways so much that it creaked, I must admit I ran downstairs and clear of the house and I felt just a little bit scared. This has only happened once before and over a year ago.

It was probably over before I even got clear of the house but I just can’t ignore those creaking noises and a rocking house! Needless to say none of the neighbours were running out and most of the nationals continued to just sit around and have a good laugh at me. I felt a bit better when I phoned Nick and he told me that all staff vacated their office!

When I looked up the earthquake website and found some data, I realised it was a reasonably strong tremor!

Earthquake Details
Magnitude
6.4 (Preliminary magnitude — update expected within 15 minutes)

Date-Time
• Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 05:32:30 UTC
• Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 03:32:30 PM at epicenter
Location
5.810°S, 151.390°E
Depth
56 km (34.8 miles) set by location program
Region
NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Distances
• 198 km (123 miles) SSW (206°) from Rabaul, New Britain, PNG
• 211 km (131 miles) ENE (77°) from Kandrian, New Britain, PNG
• 366 km (228 miles) S (170°) from Kavieng, New Ireland, PNG
• 496 km (308 miles) ENE (78°) from Lae, New Guinea, PNG
• 615 km (382 miles) NE (49°) from PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea

data from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/

Nick and I are both prolific readers! With no books available to purchase here in Kokopo, we have both purchased a Kindle (electronic bookreader) and we constantly use them – they are probably our most valued possessions over here!
At first we bought just one but soon realised that sharing just wasn’t possible! We soon had one each.
The kindle looks like this

well that’s what Nick’s looks like. mine looks like this:

yep! I dropped mine and to put it the PNG way -‘he has gone bugger up!’
So we are sharing again – for the next 5 weeks until we go back to Brisbane and I can get another one. Now, in my life, that IS a disaster!

After 3 weeks in Brisbane, I returned to PNG just two weeks ago. A couple of days later we joined some friends with a boat to go to Little Pigeon Island for a Barbeque. Little Pigeon is a small Island about a one hour boat trip from Rabaul. There are no residents on this Island as there is no fresh water and it is small enough to slowly walk right around in about half an hour.

We drove to Rabaul to get on the boat. Whilst Rabaul is only about 30-40 Km away from Kokopo, the roads are very rough (from volcanic ash) and the trip can sometimes take an hour or more – I once got bogged on this road!

Here is just a little bit about Rabaul – the former capital of East new Britain (now shifted to Kokopo where we live).

Rabaul township is built on the edge of a flooded caldera of a large volcano.
The caldera is the home of a number of dormant and active volcanoes. There is Mt Tavurvur (known as the “baby” – still active), Mt Kombiu (the dormant “mother”) and Vulcan, a minor vent which blew spectacularly in 1994 but is now quiet.
The Tolai people who live near these have a saying ” Tikana pakana takaum kilala na nilaun – una gire ra kaia na vuvuai” – “ Once in your lifetime you will experience a volcanic eruption.” This was proved once again in the early hours of the morning of Sunday, 18 September 1994, as subterranean volcanic activity began violently shaking the Gazelle Peninsula, heralding the coming events.

At 6:00am on Monday, 19 September, Tavurvur volcano commenced destroying Rabaul town and the surrounding villages of Talwat, Nordup, Matalau, Rabuana, Korere, Rapolo and Matupit. This was followed about one hour later on the other side of Simpson Harbour when another volcano, Vulcan (Kalamanagunan), vented itself upon the villages Raluan, Valaur, Tavana, Latlat, Rapolo, Karavia and Malaguna, burying them with Tephra and destroying the property and livelihood of thousands of people. (We drive past Vulcan on our way to rabaul!)
Tavurvur has continued grumbling and spewing smoke, ash and the occasional shower of hot rocks for the past 15 years creating an ash-covered “moonscape” that surrounds the still-active “baby” volcano Mt Tavurvur, which stands less than 100m above sea level.

However, since early this year – for the first time in 15 years, Tavurvur has gone quiet – no ash, just blowing steam. It is great to see a little bit of green coming back on the surrounding hills – although Rabaul town is still a greyscape, houses covered in ash and roads ruined by deep ash deposits! We still regularly get earth tremors and on a windy day ash swirls over Rabaul. Many of the locals believe that this quieter Tavurvur is just a ‘calm before the storm’ and that there will be a big blow in the near future!

We set off from rabaul – I always enjoy a boat trip!

Check out the golf glove tan on the left hand!!!

First we headed out towards the outcrops known as The Beehives.

Next we went across by the vocanos – Mother and Tavurvur – rejoicing in the bit of green coming back on the hills! this may sound a bit over the top – but it is such a change to the usual grey moonscape! Tavurvur is quiet at the moment with just steam coming out the vents so we could clearly see the sulphur deposit on the side up near the crater. We could smell it too!

We then motored on to Little Pigeon and waded ashore with all our needs for the day!

Nick had his dive boots on which give best protection from coral cuts – so he got the job of helping to push the boat out further as the tide was on it’s way out!

This was my first trip to Little Pigeon but Nick has been several times – in between dives on many of his diving days. He suggested we walk around the island – which we did – while the others just relaxed on the beach.

It was well worth the walk as much of the coral comes right up to the shore! I also love the red hermit crabs and the vibrant blue starfish!

The walk just whetted my appetite for some snorkelling. Several of us went out for about an hour.

- now me in snorkel gear, boardies etc is not a good look – but the beautiful coral and fish means I just don’t care!

-and the water is so clear!

The further out you go – the more spectacular it gets! I must admit that Nick goes out much further than I do – and he had the camera for these shots!

After our swim/snorkel we just relaxed on the beach, enjoying the company, the barbequed food (and, of course, the beer and the wine!)

After lunch a couple of us decided to try some kayaking – everyone had a good laugh at me and said that I just went around in circles – I didn’t think I was that bad BUT I had imbibed in a bottle of wine! Needless to say I soon handed the Kayak over to the one young teenage member of the group!

Soon it was time to pack up and head home – Bye! Bye! Little Pigeon – we will be back!

This picture was taken by Nick when we were out snorkelling – what a perfect welcome back to PNG for me – just what I needed! Slept well that night!

I now have quite a collection of baskets and a few bilums too! Most of these crafted items come from the highland areas of PNG. They are hand crafted and real works of Art. My BASKETS serve a variety of purposes -

as well as just being for decoration.

This recent addition to my collection stands about 70cm tall and has a diameter of 60cm – it will make a great laundry basket for the unit when we return home!

From time to time the ‘basket man’ arrives in Kokopo (from the highlands) and sells from outside the supermarket. Whenever he is there I go to check out his wares and do a bit of haggling about price – not too much as I feel guilty if I knock them down too much – but inevitably come away with a basket or two! He is never there for long as they sell very quickly.

If I had to choose a favourite – it would be this basket. It is so beatifully made and the pattern and colouring really appeals to me. Nick bought this for me from the basket man whilst I was on holidays in Africa last year.

The basket man was in town again last week and I went down to buy a couple of baskets to take home to Australia as gifts – I came home with a couple of trays for this purpose but also with two more items to add to my collection!

Taking these home as gifts for family/friend when I return to Aus next week.

Just couldn’t resist buying these two for myself! I know we’ll never be able to accommodate them all when we leave here but they look great in our house here with the beautiful polished timber floors. I am sure I’ll be easily able to offload the excess to family and friends!

I also have a few baskets that have been given to me as gifts – including these Buka baskets (from Bouganville) – thanks Anne – I love them!. While the baskets are known as ‘Buka Baskets’, the artists are in fact from Buin, South Bougainville. These baskets have very fine work to finish/strengthen them – like the cross-stitch effect around the top.

This is my market basket (also a gift – think it might be locally made??)

The local Tolai people make baskets for everyday usage – mostly carried by men – e.g. to work with their food etc inside. Some of the day students at the school where I volunteer also use them to carry lunches etc. I bought a large and a small one at the market to display on the wall and in some shelving. They were only about K6 ($2.50AUD).

My Tolai baskets.

BILUMS
Long before supermarkets were forced to give or sell non-plastic bags for customers to carry groceries, the women of Papua New Guinea (PNG) were using the ultimate shopping bag – a bilum.

The bilum is a traditional PNG string bag and they have been made in PNG for centuries. Bilums come in a variety of shapes and styles and are made for different purposes. Bilums are made to carry food, to carry babies in and to use for leisure. People can identify a person just by the creative design or style woven on the bilum. Despite the many different aspects and purposes of bilums they all are made from the same basic weaving method.

Originally made from traditional materials they are now usually made from commercially manufactured material such as nylon and wool. The original fibre was manufactured from the inner bark of the wild tulip tree and other readily available natural materials. First the bark is soaked in a stream or the sea for up to 8 months until the material that binds the bark twine together rots. Then the bark is dried and the strands of bark are separated before the woman will rub the bark with her hand on her thigh to produce the strands of twine.

A bilum is almost a universal trademark of Papua New Guinea. See a bilum anywhere in the world and you know that person has some connection with PNG.
Bilums are used to carry a wide range of items, from shopping goods in large bilums to personal items in purse-sized varieties. Mothers often carry their babies in bilums and swinging a baby in a bilum usually guarantees a sleeping baby in a very short time. My housegirl’s little children even have their own small wool bilums – very cute!

Traditionally a bilum is carried around the forehead and hanging down the back. I have seen elderly PNG women laden down with heavy loads carried this way – bent over and heading to the market to sell their goods. Men and children also carry bilums – also usually on the forehead or sometimes hanging around the neck (on the chest or back).

I have received several bilums as gifts from national people – two like this one which are woven in a basket style. I use these for decoration only.

I also have two string bilums which I use regularly. They too were gifts from local people. They are great and stretch to hold a lot more than you would expect.

When we were going to America last year for Ben and Sarah’s wedding several of Nick’s office workers gave him wool bilums to take over to them. I recently bought the blue and green wool bilum at the market as I really liked the colours. I love the bilums – almost as much as the baskets. Bilums are often ‘decorated’ with tassels – and I have even seen bilums with feathers on them for adornment. I have no doubt that I will buy more bilums over the next couple of years!

In PNG, children generally don’t start school until they go to Elementary school (Yrs 1 to 3) in the year they turn eight. Primary school is Years 4 to 8 so most children are at least 16 years old when they finish Primary. Many children do not go on to Secondary school. There is still a percentage (close to 40%, I think) who NEVER attend school at all – although this percentage is likely much lower in Urban areas.

Schooling is not free and many schools – especially in remote areas – are very under resourced.

There are two schools at Open Bay – a preschool/playschool for 3 to 7 yr olds which is totally funded and staffed by the timber company. They have three classes – 3 and 4 yr olds, 5 and 6 yr olds and the 7 yr olds which runs like a Prep class.

The Playschool/Preschool building.

and there is also a government school – Elementary/Primary school in the Open Bay village.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Open Bay was to visit this school and to deliver some books that were donated by the children of Mount Crosby School in Brisbane (where I used to be Principal before I retired). We planned our trip so as to not be there during school holidays. However, it was the last week of Term One and what we didn’t realise was that in remote areas, they sometimes finish a day early!

On the Friday, there were no students at the Elementary/Primary school – many of them were at a working bee planting flowers and gardens etc at the new cemetery!

Over 200 students attend the school and there are 7 teachers (including the headmaster.)

A message was sent out early morning and we arrived at the school at 10am to be met by most of the teachers – many of whom had been working at the cemetery for several hours but had rushed home, changed into their best clothes and turned up to show us around.

They were absolutely thrilled by the books that were donated and by a few counting board games I had made for them.

We met in this building which served many purposes – indoor activities room for students, staffroom etc (but no furniture!! – just one table and a notice board)

All my Aussie friends will appreciate the Sports House names (on the notice board)!

We spent about an hour looking at the books and talking about how they could use them.

The donation included a large selection of small books called the ‘cocky’s circle’ books which were ideal for Upper Elementary students. In fact I spotted this little girl (one of the Teacher’s daughters) already engrossed in one of these books when we returned from a tour of other classrooms!

We visited the Library and it was apparent that any donations to this school would be much appreciated. The shelves held a few books – most of them very old and included a set of encyclopaedia that was VERY out of date!

The teachers told me that they only owned one atlas and one dictionary between them and they shared them. In the Library they had one World wall map so classes were brought to the Library when they needed to refer to this map. When asked what they would most like, they asked for one atlas, one world wall map and one dictionary per classroom and one calculator per teacher. (They share one calculator between all staff to do assessments etc. ) They have no access to copying, have no computers and very limited resources for Art etc.

I talked at length to the teachers and was most impressed by their knowledge, their dedication and how they managed with such limited resources. I plan to donate those dictionaries, atlases and world maps as soon as I can acquire them!!

We were also taken to see the Year 8 classroom. I then realised that there weren’t even enough desks in the school for each student to have one. They had built these desks themselves a few years earlier and 4 or 5 students shared each desk. I was told that in some of the younger classes they had no desks and often did their work by writing with chalk on the concrete floor.

Year 8 classroom.
Some of the year 8 student project work was interesting

and there was some great traditional art and craft work

These mobiles typified their resourcefulness – made out of softdrink cans and food packaging such as from maggi two-minute noodles (there are always plenty of these around!) They do teach the 3 Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle!

This was the teacher’s desk (and most likely the only desk the headmaster has!!!)

I came away from this school visit with my passion for education intact! – and a determination to try to organise as many donations as possible – of books, desks, computers etc. I know that we will be able to organise some of them through Rotary!! I also know that there are many more schools with the same needs – some of them even worse off – with dirt floors, open air rooms (no side walls, and no furniture).

And I took one last photo to remind me never to give up in this endeavour!

At Open bay, the company has an area in which special guests plant a tree in memory of their visit. Nick planted his tree on his first visit a year ago. I was quite ‘tickled’ when told that I would be also planting a tree. We went out on the Friday afternoon in pouring rain!

First we checked out Nick’s tree and he was amazed how much it had grown in just one year (must be all that rain!).
Then it was time for me to plant my tree. Very muddy and sloppy – but enough rain to wash the hands!!

The family who lives at the site and looks after the memorial garden all came out in the rain to greet us. They were very friendly and loved having photos taken

Check out the tupela (twins) in their matching laplaps!

On the Friday that we were at Open Bay we drove to various sites at the main camp and then in the afternoon one of the managers took us for a tour of the plantation.
A visit to the clinic was interesting – the only medical service in the area. Open Bay timber company assists in the running of the clinic. On this morning one of the managers drove an HIV Aids awareness team up into the remote villages. The clinic was clean and well organised but lacked some basic resources. I asked the man in charge what they needed most (hoping I might be able to get some resources through Rotary) and discovered they had no stretcher, no crutches and only a few bandages and dressings. They also wished for a refrigerator in which to store medicines and needed some scales to weigh adults. He gave us a tour of the clinic, including the ‘labour ward’.

Baby weighing scales and labour ward.

We also visited the area where some of the school teachers are housed and met one of the teachers (whose husband works with Nick back in Kokopo) and her two children.

The children were very cute – as was their pet cuscus!!

We also called around by the log pond – an area where the logs are floated out to the ships for transport. We were lucky that a ship came in that day to collect a load of timber.

These pictures show the Atago with logs beside it for loading and back on the banks are the workers placing the logs in the water to be floated out to the waiting ship. Note the muddy conditions that they work in. The tally clerk (in white shirt) stands there counting the logs!

In the afternoon we were driven for several hours over the mountain range and around the plantation. The roads were rough and slippery as it rained all the time but it was very interesting. We even crossed a couple of fast flowing rivers with water well up the doors of the vehicle! We saw several areas which had been recently logged/cleared and had been planted with small trees as part of the reforestation program (Open Bay timber only logs planted trees). They mostly grow a native eucalypt called kamerere.
We also visited a couple of nurseries where the seedlings are raised.

These pictures show a new nursery – a couple of hours drive from the main area. Already a small village is starting to form – to accommodate the workers. The church is often the first to be built.

This lady’s job was to sift/mix the soil and fill the plastic tubes for the seeds. In most villages you will see several pigs roaming freely – highly valued animals – even used for a bride price!

Will also show some photos from our school visit in a separate post!

Open Bay is a very remote location – accessible only by boat or, on rare occasions, helicopter. It is quite rugged and there are no sealed roads at all. The managers live in houses that are thirty plus years old and all of a very interesting design. The General manager has a ‘guest house’ where we stayed – of the same design.

The houses are built on a hill – and have a pop-up roof with a screened opening right around to catch the breeze. There is no electricity supply at Open Bay and they power via a generator which is turned off at 10pm and back on around 4am when the men get up to go to work. They work long hours six or seven days a week in sometimes very murky conditions. It rains EVERY day – in fact in January and again in February they had well over a METRE of rain each month!

It is very lush and green and there were many flowers around the house including these hibiscus.

Inside the house (as with our Kokopo house) were beautiful wooden floors. We noticed in the house and also at the office and in ‘The Mess’ there were also several pieces of beautiful old furniture.

This old shoe shine chair (the ledge at the bottom pulled out) was in our house.

The alligator boots were lined up at the door of the guest house – evidence of how wet and muddy the place gets! Especially needed for visiting buyers who go amongst the logs etc to check on timber.

The views from the balcony were great – especially at sunset

We were fed in the Japanese managers’ Mess and the food was fantastic – ate far too much!

More about this trip soon!

We have had internet connection problems for the last week but all seems to be well now so I am going to share some photos from our trip to Open Bay just over a week ago. In fact, I am going to do it in several posts just in case internet drops out!

The boat trip down was just perfect – a clear sunny day with VERY calm seas. Only took us three hours. The Open bay manager’s cook was on the boat with us and it was so calm she slept most of the way!!!

I had to buy a hat for the trip – and this was the only wide brim hat available – at least it gave me better protection than a cap and I didn’t get sunburnt. The hat was much too big for me and kept slipping down over my eyes!!! Nick had the one that he bought in the Vietnam markets!

When we arrived at Open Bay there was a small welcoming committee for us!!

The boat trip home was a bit different! Started out nice and calm and when we spotted a whole lot of birds and fish jumping from the water in a feeding frenzy, the boat boy even threw in a line as we circled around the action a few times. Alas! no fish were caught – perhaps the strips of white plastic bag didn’t make such a good lure afterall!

However, about an hour into the trip we hit rain – and bigger seas – no photos – too wet and windy! Because it was rougher we even had to make a stop to refuel and the trip took over four hours.
Will share more about our activities while we were at Open Bay in separate posts

Tomorrow I am going with Nick down to Open Bay where the company logs the timber. It is a 4 hour banana boat ride which I am not really looking forward to as it will be so hot. We will stay in the workers’ camp, eat in the mess etc so it will be a bit of a first for me. No power supply there and the generator is turned off at night so no power at all after 10pm – that means no fans or aircon!!

I am going to visit the school while Nick works and have some books and other supplies to give them. We also have some things to give the medical clinic which is on site.

Nick has been before but went down by helicopter and back by boat.

After the boat ride we had last December to get out for a holiday(airport was closed due to volcano ash!) I am a bit anxious about the trip down and back. Hopefully all will go well and we won’t hit a storm and rough weather this time and it will all be yet another adventure – who said retirement would be boring!!!!

Will let you know all about this trip when we get back on the weekend.

After a couple of months of no volcano action and very few earthquakes, we have had several gurias (earthquakes) in the last week or so.We were quite surprised on Sunday night when the house started to shake just as we were about to have dinner. Seemed quite strong but only lasted about 20 seconds – long enough to make a photo frame topple off some shelving and smash on the floor!- was a ceramic frame so both glass and frame smashed! The USGS site only registered it at 5.5 – although it felt quite strong! Had another 5.4 one yesterday which lasted longer but seemed a lot gentler.

Around this time last year we had one just over 7.0 and the house shook vigorously from side to side making a LOT of loud creaking noises. I ran downstairs and out onto the road calling to Stephanie to get out – I was quite frightened. The locals just sat under the houses and laughed at me. They told me I don’t need to worry until the house starts jumping up and down! Shaking side to side is apparently OK!

The volcano remains quiet with only steam coming out. It has been like this since the New Year and it is incredible what a difference it makes not living with ash all the time! Some of the locals say that it was like this before it erupted in 2006 so they are expecting a big blow to be on the way.

On Good Friday I went for two dives out near Little Pigeon Island. It was a really clear day where we could see to about 50 metres and the water temperature 29degrees – PERFECT.
Really enjoyed these dives including a VERY close encounter with a shark of about 3 metres. Actually was a bit scared at the time but he came in fast for a quick look then turned around and left just as quickly! gave me quite a fright but, in retrospect, was an awesome experience!

In between the dives I did quite a bit of snorkelling and took some photos, including this one of what I think might be a Crown of Thorns Starfish!