Celebrations
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| Sing-sing performers heading for the arena. |
Over the last two weeks we have had extensive Independence Day (Sep 16) celebrations. Everyone at work has been so distracted. Jenny and I kept to ourselves and pushed on towards our plans for the rest of our time here. For NARI the foci were the Morobe Show on the weekend and the Independence Day activities on Monday. The show is a huge event on the local calendar each year. This year it was moved forward to be close to Independence Day. NARI always has a big display space at the show and lots of staff are involved in preparing for it over many weeks. No apologies for the number of photos in this post by the way.
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| Mud! |
The show ran over Saturday and Sunday. We had already decided to go on the Sunday which was a good move as it rained heavily all day Saturday. We had the mud but also the sunshine. It was very crowded as many people probably cancelled their Saturday plans and turned up on Sunday instead. It was very much a traditional big country town show with lots of trade displays, competitions, showbags, rides, games and of course, fun stuff on the arena. We wandered in the mud for a while then headed to the arena for lots of bands, marching displays, the Show Queen and the highlight, a sing-sing.
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| Sir Bob Bofeng Dadae - Governor General of Papua New Guinea. |
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| An Australian military band. |
About 40 teams from villages all over PNG were dressed in their respective costumes with lots of amazing headdresses. Many groups had percussion in the form of drums and shells and a few had types of flutes. Some were meant to be threatening with spears, some were story telling and others were just joyous celebrations. That was my interpretation in any case. Some were mostly men, some were mostly women, some were mixed and a few had small kids. They paraded past everyone twice so lots of photos were taken.
To celebrate Independence NARI organised a staff and family day on Monday with speeches, prayers, flag raising, kids traditional costume competition, a trivia contest for kids, a huge flag-themed cake and then team-based sporting activities on the soccer field. We enjoyed the day and it was good to meet our colleagues outside the work environment.
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| NARI staff Independence Day party |
Later in the afternoon we headed into town for a cruise with the Deputy Prime Minister - as you do. We and the other two AVI volunteers were invited by the DPM via The Australian Consul-General in Lae, Brenton Kanowski. The function was on an inter-island ferry. And maybe 150 people were on board. We steamed out a little way into the harbour then sat and watched the fireworks display over finger food and a few drinks. We had a couple of short speeches and a cool band played. There was also a group of young men who danced enthusiastically with machetes.
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| Deputy PM |
I summoned the courage to have a chat to the DPM John Rosso (who is also member for the Lae Open electorate and Minister for Lands and Physical Planning). There are two National Parks in Papua New Guinea - one is the well-known Varirata NP close to Port Moresby and the other is McAdam NP in the mountains to the south-west of Lae. McAdam NP has virtually been abandoned and has not seen a ranger for many decades. It is being destroyed by illegal gold mining (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgjDU9D8h7s). The forest and rivers are being trashed. I asked the DPM if he knew anything about this and he said he didn’t even know there was a NP up there. He promised to look into it for me. So that’s sorted!
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| McAdam NP is about 3 hours drive from Lae. |
With all the distractions at work I gave my scientists an extra week to get their survey forms back to me. Apparently a typical email-based survey can expect a response rate of only 15-25%. As of yesterday close of business I have a 52% response rate so plenty of useful data to work with. I’ll write a report on the responses next week, discuss it with the bosses and that will be a big part of my planning for the work ahead in my assignment. There are some common threads coming out as well as a few individual-specific issues so I can plan for group activities as well as one-on-one training.
The birding situation has not improved. Our kayaking trip has not happened but planning is still underway. We have met Australian neighbours who do some bushwalking and we hope to join them soon. In the meantime I’ve added a few birds either at work or home: Channel-billed Cuckoo, Pinon’s Imperial Pigeon, Masked Lapwing and Doria’s Hawk. At work I’ve been watching a pair of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins building a nest in a palm outside the office window. I reckon I can get some photos of them coming and going when they are feeding chicks in a few weeks.
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