Preparing for Departure
Our pre-departure training colleagues holding flags of the assignment countries. "Not doing this again" I said after the last time. But here we are, a few weeks away from a year in Papua New Guinea. Jenny and I both have Australian Volunteers positions with the National Agriculture Research Institute ( NARI ). I will be helping the scientists with their research programs - experimental design, data management/analysis and publication. Jenny will be helping the extension team get the research messages out to the farming community. Our home will be in the city of Lae where NARI has its headquarters. There are smaller research facilities in Port Moresby, in the Highlands and on the coast of New Britain. We will probably get to visit these. Living in Lae will be interesting for two main reasons - the climate and the level of security we will experience. Lae is about 6 degrees south of the equator and has hot, steamy days throughout the year. ...