Mijts Blog

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!

We had a quiet Easter. Nick went diving on the Friday. We had planned to go with some friends for a Barbie on Sunday but it rained heavily Saturday and was overcast on Sunday so we went on Easter Monday. We had access to a private little beach (via land owned by friend’s work) and settled in for a very relaxing few hours.

We took all OUR food with us but a local arrived for a bit of spear fishing!

Nick and John spent an hour or so snorkelling but the strength of the drift was a bit too much for the rest of us so we paddled and relaxed under the trees!

Nick put HIS chair in the water as it was much cooler!

Nick took some photos whilst he was snorkelling

He also took this classic photo of Anne and I in what, unfortunately!, is a common stance for us. (I am sure our discussion was an important one – ‘will we or won’t we snorkel today?).

After sufficient food, beer and a couple of bottles of wine (for the two ladies), we all felt relaxed and headed back home to Kokopo!