Around Kokopo

Coming here, we thought were going the wilds of PNG. But in some ways its a bit like being in Kaiapoi, but with no transport and the roads in a much worse condition. There are some things we like about Kokopo, so I thought I would show you some photos of the town.
It was a back water until the eruption in 1994, which destroyed Rabaul. At that time the main street of Kokopo (right on the water front) had a picture theater, two shops and a post office and the police station.
That picture theater is now an agricultural goods supply business. Walking through the back (a warren of little rooms and stairs) brings back memories of the old Riverside church.


Right outside the market is the bus stop for all PMV's. The market is the social hub of the town. Right opposite here are a couple of large general merchandise shops, one sells supermarket food and clothes, etc, the other sells general hardware. The concrete pads in front of the shops are where trucks, PMV's and taxis pull in and the occasional street preacher sets up shop.

The local Provincial government office has some loudspeakers on the poles (you can see the poles sticking up) in front. Every morning there is Christian music, prayers and the occasional sermon/ exhortation, broadcast. You can hear the speakers for at least a block.

 

 Lunchtime in Kokopo; a favourite spot to spot for lunch, or an icecream; in the shade and somewhere to sit. Usually the whole fence is taken up with people sitting between 12 and 1.

Another favourite spot; under the trees in the shade. You can see a couple of people sitting on chairs, they are registering people's phone sims. Digicell the main phone provider, (a bit like Spark) has started insisting that all sims are registered, otherwise they will be cut off. Its a measure to help reduce crime. So you see lines of people waiting in the heat to register their sims. Everybody has their photo taken as part of the process.

 

The red tent roof you can see in the left of the picture, is another place taking registrations of sims. You can't see it but there is a big queue waiting. The building in the background with the veranda is the post office.

From lunchtime on Friday there are huge queues waiting at ATM machines, as people try to withdraw money. At BSP, the biggest bank, you could wait for an hour before getting to a machine and of course there's heaps of people watching over your shoulder, as you use your card. Luckily most supermarkets will let you withdraw cash as long as you buy more than 50 kina ($25) worth of stuff, so we don't use the ATM machines much.

There are security guards at the entrance to most big shops and also wandering around inside. In Lae we went to Bishops ( a bit like Fosters' chainsaws) sells chainsaws and mowers, boots and tools, etc. To get into the shop there were two doors. The first had to be closed, before the second into the shop would open. As people say here, security is the biggest and fastest growing business in PNG. The cops just can't, deal with all the petty thieving, scams, etc. If you are a PNG person you are watched carefully in many shops. In a big homeware type shop in Lae, there were about 10 security guards at the entrance/ exit and most peoples bags were searched, sometimes people were patted down as well. Pakeha's/ Asians are more or less ignored.


Not long after we arrived here I visited a village who are carving some space out of the bush to grow produce. Its not far from Kokopo, but takes about 11/2 hours to drive there, mainly due to the state of the roads. We went up there again last week to see what was happening. The crop (watermelons) are going well, with some small water melons obvious.

Looking up at the camp. Oldest melons on the right, showing some green. Youngest on the left, sown two weeks later.

Melc. the driver (left) and Jerry the leader (young trainee), talking about how the crop is going. Apart from time, the village has probably invested about 1000 kina  (mainly seed) in getting this far, which is a lot of money for villagers.

First watermelons appearing. One has got my name on it! the white stuff you can see on the ground is limestone, there are some large limestone outcrops in the area. At first I thought somebody had dumped concrete around the place.

 The villagers are busy clearing more bush and intend to have four large blocks cleared (about 20 ha) by October.

Labour to do things in the gardens is divided along gender lines. Men do the "heavy" work, clearing the bush and planting etc. Women do the maintenance work, like weeding. So three "mothers" had turned up do some weeding among the youngest melons, presumably the older ones had been done a couple of weeks ago.

On another note, the other day I was walking along the road to catch the PMV to work, when a young guy stopped me and asked; "I see you walking everyday, why are you walking, why don't you get a car?" When I explained to him that I wasn't rich enough to buy a car, he couldn't comprehend it. When I tried to explain things he just shook his head.
As far as most people in PNG are concerned, white people including Asians, are all "rich". For most of them getting a car is the height of their aspirations and so can't understand why the "rich" people are using PMV's. A couple of volunteers here do have vehicles but the costs of purchasing and running them are exorbitant; one expat.who needed to drive about 1/2 hour down from a village (using rough roads) spent about 9,000 kina ($4500) last year, on repairs to tyres, suspension, shock absorbers, etc. Broken/ cracked windscreens are common.
On-selling cars is difficult because most people don't have the money to buy. So they become a liability.

Christine:
The wife and two teenage children came to visit their father who is one of the regular guards for the next door property. They left their village at 7am to get here just after 12. The 4 hour journey involving 3 different PNV's takes some doing. Patricia (wife) said how tiring it was. They stayed for lunch. I supplied some Kiwi Kai (stuffed potatoes) cold water and ice-blocks. It was a fun time as we sat down with my tablet and they showed me where their village was and I showed them NZ. The tablet fascinated them and took them no time at all to figure how to work the maps etc. They left just after 2 hoping to get back to their village by dark - around 6pm. Felix lives here at the security guard compound until he has a few days off and can go back to the village and his family. The best possible education for the children is their primary goal, so much of what parents earn goes on fees. The return trip from their village would probably have cost in excess of  20kina or around $10 - a tidy sum given the very low wages! The daughter (bless her) has wanted to meet the old woman from NZ for a couple of months now. So, success at last!!