Blogs from Papua New Guinea, Oceania - page 16

PNG - News #10 - Melting ice cubes (February 17, 2004) How long does it take for my ice cubes to melt? Less time than it takes to play two hands of bridge. And that is after the sun has set. Yes, I have finally found four other whites to play bridge: A New Zealander who has us each take back our card and position it as a winning trick= vertical or losing= horizontal A cautious Australian who once startled out of her conservatism can really play the game. A Polish woman who was playing within 20 minutes of being shown. An English man who has a hard time showing up because he lives off campus and must ride his bike to the university. Recently he has been threatened, someone wants his bike. Next week we ... read more

PNG - News #8: Snakes and Ladders In this life of snakes and ladders I am definitely on a ladder. LADDERS Last Monday night I went by boat with the Hash Harriers* to Kranket bearing candy for the island children’s Xmas. The island is a community of thatched sago huts on stilts with a circle of outhouses in the sea as there is no water. The perfectly groomed lawns, and never ending numbers of children that made it seem like a suburb. I will go back to Kranket Island for a New Years Eve party. Tuesday was a bike ride to the resort pool in the monsoon rain. On the way back stopped in at Gisele’s house where she made me my first cappuccino in 12 weeks. (but who is counting?) It was made with UHT ... read more

PNG - News #6 Impressions of work & garden ‘Our impressions of human life are picked up one by one by one, and remain for most of us loose and disorganized." Northrop Frye*, Educated Imagination p. 63-64 I am searching for things that will suddenly coordinate and bring into focus a great many impressions. So far I only scratch the surface of the life in Papua New Guinea (PNG). My job for example. Attending the opening of an AusAid funded project for the Lutheran School of Nursing (LSON) included a singsing where two hundred people were drummed into the new building. LSON is an affiliated institution of the Catholic Divine Word University.(DWU) (Missionary work here is as much of the landscape as the banana trees and supposed to be just as nourishing) Because of the affiliation, ... read more

PNG- News #4: If you want a story without animals, DON’T READ THIS. Brandy in the heat is different than on the Queen Charlottes Islands. The fire it creates in your belly just extends to the outside atmosphere and melts all around you. It is raining, lightening and thundering tonight (a real treat) and one of the neighbour’s sick child is crying non stop (not a treat at all). You can hear the crying because all the windows are wide open all the time. I heard about two cases of malaria today. One, an eleven year old boy died. I know his mother who is HIV positive. His father died of AIDS - he had two wives so produced two widows. The other, an adult male sponsored by the European Union who will survive after spending ... read more

NEWS FROM PNG #2 - First village encounter. Last weekend's visit to Rempi village, part of our in-country training, was extraordinary. I mean really extra ordinary, or in Pisin "gutpela tru". Sleeping underneath a mosquito net directly on the floor - PNG fashion. This was on the porch of a bamboo hut on stilts overlooking the ocean, which was carpeted by sharp coral. Eating freshly caught & BBQ'd parrot fish with my hands. Four young men, out of our group of fourteen, netted the fish by swimming in tandem with the net. Village men and boys climbed coconut trees after fashioning rope out of branches. The coconuts thundered down with large thuds while the "natnats" mosquitoes feasted on the blood of the white skins. Using sharp, large and intimidating bush knifes, the villagers shucked the fruit ... read more