It’s been very busy here in Port Moresby, between moving into our apartment, kids birthday parties, Halloween and work…

So let’s start with the good:
Although it is hitting mid-30’s now, I am not struggling that much with the heat, although that depends entirely on what I am doing. The four flights of steps in our 3-level apartment is much easier to run up and down now, than when we first arrived. Might have something to do with the 10+ kg I have lost since being here, I am not sure if I have lost it because I am not eating junk food, or that it is being sweated out of me, or the first month or two wasn’t kind on the ole belly – but I’ll take it!

We got our first power bill the other day, and only used 500 odd units of power which would have cost less than $150 in NZ – but at 80+ toea a unit here – yes, try $250 NZD… Thankfully we are ceiling fan people, just trying to get by with little shots of air-con.. But the next 2 months where the heat and humidity really crank up – yup, that will test us!

The fantastic thing about PNG is both the expat community, and the locals. The kids have had great fun both having a pool party for Xanthe’s birthday and then going to the Aussie government compound down the road for Halloween. Sadly the people that invited us are leaving in a couple of weeks 😦
We have met lots of people, including being adopted by the Buai (betlenut) Seller that has a stand outside of our compound, and our compound guards who look after us, and us them. I often go out and spend the evening with Mark and his family, and the guards, telling stories, learning tok pisin, and having a laugh. I think some of the expats that drive past really fast are really missing out, some of them stare at me as if to say “wtf is that stupid white fella doing sitting in the dirt”, but it’s all good – I am quite safe, and Mark’s wee daughter has come out calling me “Uncle” lately – so I guess that is a sign of acceptance and familiarity.

If you ever come up here, don’t get trapped into thinking that everyone is a rascal – you will miss out on everything. I also think, that even though there is such a huge divide in how we live, our income levels etc. Most people I meet don’t begrudge the fact I sleep on a bed, whereas they sleep on a mat. At the end of the day, if you strip people back to nothing, once you can connect with someone – it doesn’t matter who they are, where they are from, or where they shop – it’s called humanity…

And let’s end with the bad: the Lae riots, killings and violence – awful! But please don’t think that all of PNG is like this. The lawlessness was a direct result of people against the thieves and pickpockets taking the law into their own hands and then getting completely carried away. Very frightening for people in Lae and I hope the government is able to permanently fix the problems,

And with that, till next time 🙂

I forgot about the Holes! Yes, our apartment now has two of the hugest holes in the stairwells where the plumbers are jackhammering the concrete to get to the water pipe that has burst. Unfortunately, the pipe has burst on the 2nd floor, and our bedrooms are on the bottom level – so yes, for the past two days we have had an indoor swimming pool in the hallway and master bedroom – what fun! Last time this happened, it took them a week to find the leak….

On Wednesday, we finally moved into our new home. Not Era Dorina as planned – a long story that one… But in true PNG style, we have unexpectedly dropped into Pacific Vista, and boy does it have a Vista. Fantastic pool, great neighbours, and 4 toilets! Of which we do need all of them…. Later my friends later.

Firstly, lots of sad news, in no order except what is in my mind.

1. Dr Wendy, of Educating Wendy is leaving Lae and off to Borneo.. Yay for Wendy! I will miss her musings about Lae, but happy that she is happy. Still read her blog though eh! In true expat fashion, leaving is called – go pinis (go finish), however I was told by my PNG team, that to go pinis, is to be said when you have actually gone… I have so much to learn.

2. And Airlines PNG plane crashed the other day, and killed most on board. Yesterday, we found out that one of the guys that was in at work doing a phone system audit for me the other day, was amongst the departed. RIP

3. One of my team, Geraldine – was robbed on a PMV on the way to work, by two men at Koki. Whist organizing a lift home for her, and getting her some counciling, I found out our HR Manager had been robbed at the same spot earlier in the week. I will never stop outside Koki markets again! Earlier in the week, one of our expats smashed his car up going past 2 mile settlement, thankfully he is OK. But not a spot I would like to have an accident…..

4. It was my 39th birthday the other day. Does this make me middle aged? I think, I don’t look 39, no balding head, no midlife crisis (no marathon or triathlon here), and I so don’t feel that in 363 days, I’ll be 40. On the bright side, it was also the companies birthday – so we had a BBQ lunch, and then after work I got half drunk at the Yacht club, came home and passed out on the couch. My day did start out in typical Bird fashion, up early, then Xaria (X3) vomited all over me – yay!

So on Wednesday, we moved into our new place. Customs still haven’t cleared our container, and now I am being asked for 4000 kina for storage charges. This must be why, in the past 12 months, the customs department has been the most profitable government department in PNG. When you make more than the Tax department, then you must be doing something right/wrong/dodgy.. (delete the most appropriate)

Thankfully, our new place has 4 toilets, even more if you count the ones out at the pool. And this morning we need them all. It started with X1 vomitting, then X3, then JB, then X2 shat himself, X3 had the runs, then JB, then X1 with the vomit again (in the bed), then X2 shat himself, then vomitted, I then ended up on the bog, JB did too whist trying to clean sheets. I was dry retching whist trying to clean vomit and spew off the floor, and finally – apart from us all being very exhausted from being up all night, we might be OK.

Something tells me, I won’t be going to the Yacht club to watch the league or the rugby today….

Let’s hope our container gets here soon, so that at least we have spare sheets!

On the awesomeness scale, digicel have released new prepaid data rates. 500mb of goodness (to be used within 30 days) on the mobile 3G network, for just 80kina. Beats the hell out of 100kina for about 150mb! And thus, my portable 3G Huawei mifi hotspot is getting a hammering – hello world!

And finally, on actually the saddest note. My hero: Steve Jobs passed away. Steve had a mantra, which I use every day: “The journey is the reward” – yes Steve, it certainly is. RIP you genius of all technology, everyone will miss you – but everyone won’t miss you. Your presence will endure for ever, and you will be remembered as the revolutionary of our generation, our century.

Hopefully the title of this post will kick the google algorithm into life and bring me some visitors!

This last week, one of my team came down with Malaria. Two days later he arrives in the office to drop off his medical certificate, he was sweating profusely, looked like death warmed up, and yet came all the way to work. This is really significant, as I’ll explain soon. The next day, he came in and was fine, said he still felt awful but was ready to take anything on… Amazing fortitude! The previous night I was bitten by a mozzie 3 times on my leg – so paranoid me, especially with one of my guys down with malaria, I brought up the subject with my team.

This is the PNG method in how to get over Malaria really quickly… Freeze yourself! They say you will feel very cold, but be very hot – and the last thing you will want to do is jump in a cold shower, but that is what they say you MUST do. Their advise is that the cold kills off the parasite that is attacking your system, it loves being hot, hates the cold.

Given how quickly the recovery was this week – If I get Malaria, it’ll be the first thing I do.

So the really significant thing about one of the team coming in whilst sick. It’s not like they can just jump in a car, and two minutes later be at work. Nope. It might be a couple of km walk to a PMV stop (bus stop), then a very crowded ride to work taking anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. In some areas they run the very real risk of having the PMV held up by opportunistic thieves. And each time they board a PMV they are putting themselves in the hands of a crazy PMV driver, who speeds and doesn’t give a shit for other cars, and in a PMV which is being held together by rust… and people.

I so admire, not only my team – but everyone that does this. It takes a fortitude that most people do not have, just to get to work… And to top that off, most have little pikinini (children) at home being taken care of by a Pikinini Meri (Nanny), as well as supporting lots of their immediate and extended family, their wantok’s (one talk). High rents, high food prices, and being able to do it all on sometimes (most times) less than the NZ minimum wage. They are an amazing people in an amazing country. And they still have time to make sure the big pela dimdim (mwha) is OK.

If you are reading this blog, rest assured – PNG is not for everyone. I will never get used to being called Mr Bird, nor Bossman or Sir. And even less so “white man”… Or people, especially pikinini’s staring at me – and then getting scared when I smile at them – too cute. This place is… inspiring!

Aaron