Xmas parties and another POM trip

I don't like going to POM. It's not a pretty city, it's hot and the security issues make it hard not to feel claustrophobic. I will be there for the next few days to assist with the logistics for their move to a new office. One redeeming feature of travel from Goroka is that you don't have to wait for hours at the airport. You can collect your boarding pass and walk back to work and listen out for the plane landing before packing your bags up and meandering over to the gate.

It's Christmas party season. There has been one pretty much every weekend for the past week weeks. There was one with the AusAid gang a couple of weeks back, one at Seraj and Manuel's place last Saturday and a 'Save The Children' one coming up this weekend. It seems Christmas is an even more obnoxious affair in PNG than in the US. "Less tinsel and more bbqs" attitude to Christmas that Australians foster seems to be missing from the legacy of Australian rule.

Next Monday we all leave for Rabaul for a 3 week beach & volcano holiday.

POM and back

I spent Tuesday to Friday in Moresby. Wednesday was a security briefing in light of the Madang events and I used Thursday arvo and Friday to work from the Moresby SCiPNG office.

Today was a wonderful day. Jason, his folks and I went to a part of Kamaliki village that I had never been to for a swim. There was a patch of sand where the locals setup the volleyball net for us and joined us for a game or two. We swam in the river, had mambu chicken, which one of Jason's friends prepared for us, played volleyball and headed back home. It was one of my favourite experiences in PNG.

In contrast to this, we went to a xmas party at the Pacific. While we scoffed down banana cake and quiches, a litte boy from the settlement climbed the tree on the other side of the fence and looked on with fascination. I soon forgot about him though as the beer took hold.

Quite a night. It seems that somehow I can justify both extremes with no problems at all.

Food

I have previously blogged about the abundance of fruits and vegetables here. In this blog I would like to list out the options available to an individual who does not wish to cook on a given evening and chooses instead to patronise a local hashery. Below is a comprehensive list that will serve you well should you happen to find yourself in Goroka:

Kai Bars - They all have the same menu of chicken, chips and lamp flaps but some add secret herbs and spices to their fried chicken and have windows. Kimi's at the back of SVS is a quite popular with executives out for a power lunch.

SVS - a supermarket with a bakery at the back. Stocks pies, sausage rolls, cold burgers and egg sandwiches. Another popular lunch venue.

Bird of Paradise - You can get most western food here for around K25-30. Stay away from the pizza.

Pacific - The other fancy place in town. Definitely order the BBQ chicken pizza. Rest of the food only serves to normalise your taste buds so you can truly appreciate the pizza once more.

Mandarin - Every city needs a dodgy chinese place. Stay clear unless you enjoy pork trotters and bland noodles cooked the night before.

****

Claire's - Can somehow turn 2 onions, a tomato and a cucumber into a feast. We're going over to her place for dinner tonight. Waste no time in making friends with her.

Celine's - Argued by some to be the original Claire. Though I was quite impressed with the quiche and stuffed capsicum but sample size (of 1 dinner) is still too small to topple Claire's throne.

Em tasol.

I'm ok

I wanted to avoid talking about it because of the fear and worry it would have caused amongst my well wishers. Looks like the Australian media had no such qualms about it. The constant news articles in SMH and The Age in the last days have had many concerned friends and family worried about my safety.

Firstly, thank you for all our emails, facebook messages and texts. I personally have not been harmed and am holding up ok. I will not comment on a public blog on the happenings but rest assured that I'm safe and in no danger. It was a truly a freak incident and definitely not the norm. I feel quite safe in Goroka and have never once felt that I was in any physical danger.

The incident has left us all in a pensive mood here - more out of concern for our friends that for our own personal safety. We have also been given utmost support from AusAid and VIDA for which I am extremely grateful.

Thank again.

Can we please just change the topic now?

:'(

Our thoughts are with you buddy.

PSP project and Port Moresby

Moresby seems like a city built for expats. Nice hotels full of mainly expats, fancy restaurant with even more expats. Shopping centres stock expensive imported merchandise that no local can buy (mushrooms for $30 a kilo). All of this is quite a contrast to Ghana with it's one Shop Rite and a few shops in Osu.

I got to know the PSP project a little better. It's quite ground-breaking especially in this country. Here's why: the Poro Sapot Project does HIV "intervention" (I learnt that this is HIV/AIDS jargon which mean whole bunch of stuff around HIV/AIDS prevention and support) for sex workers and men who have sex with men. Both of these are illegal in the country. The PSP runs a free STI clinic for this demographic. The project also run HIV awareness campaigns, works with government on policy changes and also educates the police force.

There is always a colourful crowd hanging in front yard playing cards or making themselves a cup of tea. I learnt the term "sister girls".

To POM

I am off to catch a flight in 20 mins to Port Moresby, affectionately called POM. I'll be there for 4 days doing an IT audit of the office, decommissioning old hardware and cross-checking the Asset register.

Later.

Mi Casa

beautiful much?

Mi Casa

Well you coouullldd use a knife

Introducing baseFruitball

BaseFruitball

Basic Rules:

• Machete-man gets a fruit thrown at him that he/she tries to fend off using a machete
• The bigger of the resulting two (or more) pieces is throw again
• 3 strike you're out - starts getting hard once the piece gets small

For the fruit sympathisers out there, we eat the fruits in the end (make a smoothie if it's been a good game).

Mekim gutpela trip pinis

After much planning to leave at 6AM, we left at a 7:30AM - a matter of much consternation for me since the night before was Oktoberfest party at Andrew's and his home-brews had gone down quite well and I could really have done with that extra hour and half of sleep.

Road trip there was uneventful. It look around 3 and half hours and there were the customary buai breaks and one coconut water break as we got close to Lae.

It was hot. We got there at 12 for a 3PM start and all the stands were full - hell even all the shady spots were full. We sat in the sun with our t-shirts on our heads hoping for some rain, which seemed to have followed us everywhere except on this trip where it was needed. There was no water on sale and a few warm cans of coke and sprite had to do. There were a few spakmen doing their spak antics (I should do a post called the adventures of spakman).

The most memorable event was the buai spray. Think bay 13 except replace beer and urine with bottled buai expectorate. Some guy on top of the hill threw an open coke bottle filled with buai spit. A few people at the bottom of the hill copped it quite bad. One enraged gentleman not knowing who was to blame decided to take it out on the entire hill. He lobbed an open bottle of his own in to the crowd. This seemed like the start of one of these scenes from Asterix which results in the whole village being in an all out fish fight. Luckily another bottle of buai was not readily available and it ended at that.

Great game! Lahani (woot!) won 21-10. We got into it and cheered loud and proud.

The trip back took 6 and half hours as we stopped at the local vegie market, stocking up on watermelon, mangos and coconuts. A dense fog on the mountain slowed us all down to a crawl for about 40 mins which caused further delays. Overall, going was slow due to a large number of cars making their way back to Goroka on a single lane road.

Lahanis or Muruks?

Goroka and Mendi set to do battle in Lae for the season's ultimate prize this Sunday.

...And i'll be there.

Post-climb report

NOW WITH PICS!!

We left early enough on Saturday. Michael aka 'Long Man' was not feeling his best (turned out to be Malaria - zoiinkk!) and had to drop out.

Two hours in a PMV and 4 hour in an old Mazda ute (we luckily got to sit on the inside) got us to Keglsugl. We played some cards, ate some of our rations - rice, packet noodles, can of tuna with some local produce and crashed for the night.

Next morning we did a sweaty 4 hour trek through the rainforest to the base camp. To be honest, I was quite knackered and feeling a bit of the altitude and was praying the climb to the summit wouldn't be too much more taxing. More rice and tuna and a game of 500 later, we dressed up in our climbing regalia and retired for a disruptive sleep. At this point, I was extremely pleased that I brought my sleeping bag along. We were up at 12:30 for a 1AM departure when the rains arrived. At 1:45 the rains abated to a drizzle and we set forth.

Let me tell you, it was tough. I have never climbed a serious mountain before but man was this was tough. The terrain was quite technical. I had to get on all fours many times (consequentially freezing my gloveless fingers) to climb over a slippery rock or up a steep rock face. I remember being short of breath pretty much the whole way up. Our guide, Joe, had a smoke every time we stopped to catch our breath. I wished he'd stop mocking our puny tar free lungs. The altitude gave me a slight headache which got worse the higher up we went and lasted till I got back to Keglsugl. Oh and we met this student from the highlands who, probably for the sole purpose of making me feel inadequate, did the climb barefoot.

We got to the top at 7:25AM, chilled (pun intended) for an hour or so and headed back down. Down hill was great for my lungs and heart but devastated my knees. We got back to base camp, had a cup of tea and biscuits and pushed through to Keglsugl arriving at the guesthouse at 5PM.

Take a minute to do the maths here. We walked from 1:45AM to 5PM with an hour at the summit and half an hour at the base camp. A lot of that was up hill through some challenging terrain. I have never been more physically exhausted in my life. It also puts it in perspective though doesn't it - this was just over half the height of Everest - HALF! The easy half as well I'm sure.

In Keglsugl, we bought some veggies (that were picked that morning) because thats what you do when you are in highlands and took a ute (this time sitting at the back) and a PMV back to Garoka.

I had a few beers and a nice piece of greasy fried chicken to forget the rice and tuna.

Pre-climb excitement

My first outing in PNG is a sleep away. Mt. Wilhelm at 4509m, is the highest mountain in PNG dwarfing Australia's Mt Kosciusko (2228m) and New Zealand's Mt Cook (3754m).

The following decisions were made:

1. I will not take a sleeping bag

2. I don't need a scarf

3. I can manage without gloves

Let us see how these hold up in retrospect.

I just want to make sure I'm travelling light since there will be no porters - a day pack with a few T-shirts and a spare pair of shorts will probably do. We'll be stocking up on food today and leaving at sparrow fart.

My first buai

I was actually quite nervous walking over to the market with Michael and Jacky. I wasn't anxious about what affect the nut might induce in me but that I would find it rather unmanageable and consequentially make a red mess all over myself.

Michael and Jacky both got stuck into gnawing husks off nuts. Michael struck gold first. He handed over a green nut with the glossy seed just showing through. We were ready.

It was dry, bitter and a bit cumbersome. A few chews later my tongue went numb and then saliva build up began. I got my very own "mustard" stick, stuck it in the communal lime and bit half an inch off. I started chewing furiously and trying to filter out the saliva for a nice clean spit stream. Mathew, a good friend of Jacky's, out for an evening chew, picked this time to come over to introduce himself. He was truly impressed with my effort and proceeded to recount the time he taught another Indian man how to chew like a pro. Not knowing where my tongue was in my mouth, i didn't trust it enough to have a chat. It was time. I made a mumbling sound from the back of the throat, nodded hurriedly and lent over to my left side and tried to squeeze a stream through the teeth. Fail. A dribble at best and it just missed my shoes. I was swallowing - are you meant to swallow?

Then the hit. My head was bit light - quite a good feeling actually. Lasted about 10 mins. Not sure if it was worth the mess.

We walked back still expectorating every 30 seconds all the way home.

The best part was that I felt close to the masses. Not a foreigner trying very hard to fit it. This was it - I was fitting in. I got smiles which are a rare commodity for a complete stranger around here. I left I was hanging with the common man, talking smack, hi-fiving guys walking past. Ok, there was no hi fiving but I sure as hell wanted to. It was nice to hang with peeps, shoot the cool 5 o'clock breeze while watching the market close.

I think I'll try this again.

Op shopping

There are three stores that I know of so far. Closest one is Labels which, due to it's proximity, can be patronized by the city workforce. Apex and Hamamas ('happy' in tok pisin) are a bit of a drive or a long walk but make up for it by having a bigger range of products.

During a certain lunchtime last week, i bought 2 t-shirts, a air of linen pants and shorts for a bank breaking K6 ($2.5) from Labels. Last Sunday, we drove down to the other two centre for some retail therapy and walked away with a breadmaker (K120), 2 t-shirts, a singlet, a warm jacket for the Mt Wilhelm climb and a light jacket for the cool nights - all for less than the cost of a quarter pounder meal. Barg.

There is a walk to some waterfall on the cards this weekend. It will probably have to be Sunday. On Saturday, I'm quite looking forward to watching the footy at Andrew's place again and trying some more of his homebrew - an art form he has been perfecting for the past 15 years.

Photos from Garoka Show

http://picasaweb.google.com/112918988108248304486

Sorry about the delay

I have a pretty poor internet connection here. It's a 128kbps ISDN line which i swear runs slower than dial-up. Geographically, it's a poor location for broadband - highland plateau surrounded by mountains on all sides.

It may not be suited for broadband but definitely does ok by me. It has cool mornings and warm days, fresh crisp mountain air and some million dollar views... And the fresh vegetables! Oh my god!

Work is going well. There is a lot to do - seriously heaps. If you're interested in knowing exactly what I'm doing, drop me an email and i'll send you some stuff.

I played a game of squash the other day and almost died of a heart attack. I was told it's the altitude and takes a few weeks to acclimatise. I figured it's like when Goku trains in a the high gravity spaceship on his way to fight Freeza and then is awesome strong. I'll be a super saiyan when I get back to the plains.

Garoka show was on last weekend. I have 200 odd photos and videos of it. So awesome. Will upload when i get a better net connections.

Lukem you...

T-7 and counting

Hello all... ETA 7 days.

Flight have been booked for 6AM Saturday 11th Sept. Medical obligations have now been completed. Few more loose ends need to be sorted out:

1. International drivers license

2. Trekking shoes for kokoda :P

3. New pair of glasses

4. Call Qantas about excess baggage

5. Sell motorbike

This will be epic.

Goodbye Sydney

Hello CBA'ers - not much to this at the moment but come back again in 2 weeks for loads of insightful commentaries and stimulating writeups on... well... whatever i feel like. Lucky you.

Thanks for the nice card and the present guys!

Last day at work boyo!

Just waiting on the truck to load my stuff for Melbourne - Caahmon!!

Complex? Skipped the class on medicals?

I spent 3 hours at the doctors with about 5 mins of that getting a test done.

9AM - at the doctors- waiting
10AM - get blood test for HIV
11AM - get all paperwork sorted and realise need couple more tests
12PM - at the doc - waiting
1PM - get told it's all "too complex" - Sid eats his arm

Here's how it went.

Flashing my big friendly smile, I started. "Hi. i saw you earlier today but realised I need a few more tests done as per AusAid requirements. Here's the list"
"Ask your normal doctor". Bam!
"But... she's away today"
"I can't do this. This is not covered by medicare". Ooh... a double - BAM! BAM!
"I will pay you". Felt so dirty saying that. Is there a better way to say those words? Ok time to help her out. Lucky i printed out all these docos. "I have it all here; including a letter of explanation from AusAid. Can you please have a read of this?"
Flinches from the letter like she'll be bound to help me if she touches it, "Read? I'm not reading that!"
Boom! He's down. He has no comeback.
While I'm struggle back on to my feet she goes for the finisher. "This is too complex. See someone else"
I plead to her gentle heart buried very deep under that 'I will beat the crap out of you' exterior "I.. I have to fly back to Sydney tomorrow"
"Sorry too complex. I can't do this". It's buried seriously deep.
Can she do this? Surely there is a medical centre ombudsmen i can report this to right? I'll complain at reception! Ok have another go.
"Ummm... okaaaayy..." That's it? How about a scathing barrage of my finest? LET THE RAGE OF SPARTA FUEL YOUR BLADES KRATOS!
But no rage mode. I shuffle a bit looking for some incipient tenderness in the craterous face i might have overlooked. Nothing. Stone cold.

Damn doctors.

Then i had a eye fillet cooked rare with danish blue cheese sauce and a stubby of coopers pale to cheer me up.

Hello everyone

Welcome to my blog for my PNG stint and the following trip through southeast Asia. I'll try and update this as frequently as possible.

Here are some details:

• Location: Garoka, PNG
• Length: 6-9 months
• Program: VIDA (AusAid)
• Host organisation: Save the Children
• Fly out: early September

Finished my pre-departure training today where I met some incredible people who have been doing some really good work. Got me even more excited!