First week in PNG
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| Extensive snow cover over Tamworth on the flight up to Brisbane. |
With no issues or delays we arrived in Port Moresby via Brisbane on Sunday 3rd August, late afternoon, were met by Margie and Jonathan from AVI and were soon checked into the excellent Airways Hotel. Our room had a small balcony overlooking the airport so always something to look at there with planes of all shapes and sizes coming and going. The hotel pays homage to the famous DC3 aircraft that saw so much service in New Guinea post WWII. There is a complete plane suspended at the 7th floor restaurant and pieces of DC3s can be found in all sorts of odd places in the hotel from the reception desk to meeting room doors.
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| I can't fathom how they got this DC3 up here. |
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| The door to our meeting room with a panel from a DC3. |
We were five as we had been joined in Brisbane by Michael, Sam and Anthea. Michael and Anthea will be volunteering in Goroka and Sam is with us in Lae - joining Ringisai who has been in Lae for most of this year. We had 3 days of induction in Port Moresby covering customs, security, language, health, housing etc. For our security we have been issued with panic buttons, a satellite phone, EPIRB and a life jacket. The panic button has to be with us at all times. We have all been issued with SIM cards and now have local mobile numbers and data plans.
On Monday we visited the AVI office and met the six staff (we only had two in Tanzania). On Tuesday we visited the Australian High Commission and met a couple of the important DFAT folk relevant to AVI. Sadly the High Commissioner was not available but we are highly likely to meet him in the near future. On Thursday morning, Jenny, Sam and I plus Margaret and Tendina from the AVI office flew to Lae. By lunch time we had visited our new homes - Jenny and me out at 11 Mile and Sam in town (see previous post for our village). We've had a couple of days to learn how to move around Lae, do some shopping, figure out how the TVs (yes plural!) work and visit our workplaces.
I managed to lose a crown off a molar the first morning. Not a good start! It was replaced by the excellent team at Mills Dental Care and is staying put so far. Our health provider - International SOS - were most helpful in sorting this out for me.
A major part of our life here will be the drivers and guards of Black Swan Security. With few exceptions we are only allowed to travel around with them. They will take us to work and back home each day and take us shopping on weekends. This will take a bit of getting used to. We can wander down the road from our village and visit the small local shops and fruit/vegetable sellers.
Jenny and I visited NARI on Friday and met a range of colleagues including the Deputy Director. We have a nice big office to share with a view out onto gardens and lawns. Everyone seemed pleased to have us come to work with them. We will be NARI's first AVI volunteers so we will help them get used to the concept as much as they help us settle in with them.
Our house is amazing. It has an apartment downstairs and two upstairs. Ours is upstairs and the bigger of those two. We have two bedrooms, three bathrooms, three TVs, a large kitchen, dining room, lounge plus a large balcony. We have housekeeping Monday-Saturday from hausmeri Wama. We have a digital TV subscription and unlimited internet access. Channel 11 is ABC Australia and they cover the AFL games so we watched Essendon take it up to Geelong on Friday night.
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| Our deck. |
The building below us is a gym and up the hill is the pool, sports bar and restaurant. We have said g'day to a few of the neighbours and met the owner who has a large collection of caged PNG bird species - pigeons, parrots, hornbills and birds-of-paradise. He also has at least one tree kangaroo apparently. I have to filter out his birds calling when I'm on the deck birding.
So far it has only rained much last night into this morning. Every day it looks threatening however. I need to find somewhere to set up my rain gauge.
There is little vegetation in the village but the eastern side is thick secondary forest and I'm starting to see some good birds by scanning the wall of vegetation regularly. Some highlights are Torresian Imperial Pigeon, Variable Goshawk, Papuan Eclectus, Helmeted Friarbird, Hooded Butcherbird, White-bellied Cuckooshrike and Yellow-faced Mynah. Black Kites and Tree Sparrows are common.
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| View from the deck to the south-west over the Highlands Highway. |
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| Our house. We have neighbours downstairs and to the rear upstairs. |
Looks promising Steve. Great to have all the bells and whistles at your fingertips. They're busy outside doing the tiered retaining wall. Hoping they get the bulk of it done before it rains later in the week. Took it up to Geelong??
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