PNG News: Just Visiting April, 2005 This is the last PNG News! To anyone who read each and every one of these, congratulations welcome to my snakes and ladders experiences. If you have been more discriminating in your reading you will be aware of the varied quality of the reports depending on my moods. I am not of this place, and my time here has been a collage of bright meri blouse encounters. Ways of being in the world- the laughter, the young men holding hands, the strong women carrying billums hanging from their foreheads. On this tapestry, which are in [View Full Entry]

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PNG News Up the Lazy River March 25, 2005 It was like you would imagine it- floating on a log (in truth it was a long dug out canoe with a 25 hp engine) visiting dusty cathedral proportioned haus tambarans (sometimes called haus boys) with earth tone painted shields and totems. Planti of crocodiles, marsupials and insects in the swamps and amazing birds including white and black herons, and birds of paradise. The ever changing Sepik River is fast flowing, silt coloured and meanders. Air Nuigini transported me to Wewak to rendezvous with my English fellow explorer Sue Baker (www [View Full Entry]

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PNG News : Understanding Contrasts January 24, 2005 :“What” is not to understand and “what” is to understand or not is not to understand that even when “what” is understood, it is not understood, for “what” is to understand and “what” is not to understand, “what” is “what” and “is not” is “is not”, and so is not to understand not wanting to understand or simply not understanding why “what” needs to be understood or whether “what” can be understo [View Full Entry]

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PNG News - Three Countries December 20, 2004 Summer Solstice I want to reassure you all I am fine and wish you a fine summer/winter solstice and a happy 2005. I am at no risk. A month in Brisbane allowed me some perspective into the tight hot world of my Madang existence. On arrival back, brother Andrew told me the news- brother Hugo, the Swiss religious farmer come DWU driver, killed a local who was passed out on a one-way bridge near the RD Tuna plant. This is just about the worst thing that could happen to this gentle, conscientious driver. [View Full Entry]

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PNG News # 19- Liklik longway Just got back from trying out a crackers idea that two English volunteers had. They figured it would be possible to bike from Bogia all the way back to Madang. The road hugs the coast all the way southwards. Only an Englishman and a Canadian woman would actively seek hardship and pathos by trying to cycle 200 kilometres in the tropics in one weekend. On the crappiest bikes on Earth. Friday began with an endless wait for Richard's wanwok’s open backed truck to haul us up to Lupabisa (the school he worked at in the [View Full Entry]

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PNG News #18: Nigerian Independence Day (October 4, 2004) This week is exam time and so far I have spared you the inevitable tests of learning. Life has become slow motion for me and fast-paced for instructors. An article in last week’s National newspaper outlined how in the cycle of financial crunches, students have turned against the administration for not allowing them to take their exams. The administration (that includes me) says that they have not paid their fees so of course they cannot take their exams. The students are responsible to pay for the governments’ s [View Full Entry]

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PNG News # 17: Like every Place you have never Been (Air Nuigini slogan from David Millar’s time) (September 11, 2004) Firstly, you need to note that the above is how people Capitalize letters here. It drives me bananas. And related to going ‘bananas’, this morning a man came to my house selling bananas from my own garden. Two trees had recently fallen due to the heavy weight of the fruit and the lack of rain. ‘Why did you take the bananas?’ ‘Because they were there.’ Any Way, back to the punctuation that thanks to sister Janet who bought m [View Full Entry]

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PNG News- #16 The Road to Bundi (August 26, 2004) Well it should have been the road to Bundi, however the policeman’s truck was bugarap and he turned back at 5:15am. So Jamie, my 24 year old British fellow trekker and I went back to sleep at the Catholic Mission and then spent yet another day walking to Brahmin. On this final hike, six members of the Warriors- Brahmin’s under 21 rugby team saved the day. They showed us shortcuts down steep mountains, bought us bananas, and most of all carried my pack. Surrounded by a circle of young beetlenut chewing [View Full Entry]

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PNG News #15 Under (July 18, 2004) This week's theme simply under Under surfaces; my counter, PNG culture, and the Pacific ocean Under my counter Under my counter is a half dozen canned products from Australia In my fridge most things come from Australia Except if it is from the Philippines or Singapore My shopping basket is a lesson in the high cost of AID This is a country where people fed themselves for 30 centuries This what remains in the mouth After swallowing the wisdom of the west for 40 years [View Full Entry]

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PNG- News # 14: Sargent Major fish frenzy (June 12, 2004) Sitting on a dock outside of Finschhafen wasting time. Four Canadians trying to get to Tami Islands. Patrick drops a Lae Biscuit cracker into the sea and a dozen fist sized sargent majors swim every which way. It is difficult to watch as the sea motion from Sunday night’s sixteen hour boat trip is still present. One successful stripped sargent major poses with his catch - a large piece of cracker in his mouth. Its Tuesday, no market today. No boats. We walk to the local high school Dregerhafen Regional [View Full Entry]

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