Malaria

Last Monday I developed what I thought was "flu" During the night I experienced sweating and fever, enough for me to think that something more serious than flu was going on. In the end a visit to Nonga hospital for blood tests showed that I had a mild malaria infection, from an unusual type. So onto two different malaria medications to deal with the parasites. Unfortunately the first medication didn't wholly agree with me. I experienced a disturbed tummy most of the time I was taking it. Once I was onto the second type things quickly settled down.
The worst day for malaria symptoms was Monday, after that things improved slowly. I wasn't bedridden but easily tired. I'm pretty well back to normal now, 7 days later.  I haven't been into the office all week but have managed to get some things done at home.
The reflection is on where did I get bitten? We've been pretty active in making sure there are no mosquito's in the house, we sleep under a bed net and I'd put screen material over the one window that didn't have a screen. we also tend to run the ceiling fans 24/7. Neither of us had been bitten in the house since just after we arrived. But in the few weeks before I developed symptoms we had been getting occasional mosquito's in the office at work. There are screens over the windows, so we suspect they are getting in the main door when people come and go in the office. I had got bitten on a finger a few weeks ago.
A week ago I was congratulating myself  that my measures had kept malaria away. The whole episode is a sharp reminder at how quickly things can change in the tropics. Yesterday we learnt that a helpful guy working in the local Digicel office (about late 20's) died last week due to an asthma attack, and no medication.
I expect to be back at work by Tuesday, with less than 4 weeks to go before we leave. I felt a few times last week that things were going to end with a whimper but not so. I have a training on spraying to organise for later in the month, other than that it is too late to start anything new. Its really about tying loose ends up.
 I have a presentation at the Science Cafe tomorrow night, which I'm looking forward to. No photos this week as I haven't been any where.
Christine:
A tropical downpour put the 'spectacles' trip to Nonga out until next thursday as the road is such a mess. Two people were washed away in flood waters and a PNV went off the road and down a bank on the high road to Rabaul. The road basically follows the ridge line and is often very steep on either side. I don't know yet if there were any survivors. Side roads too, become rivers of silt and debree floading everywhere, spilling out over the main roads on their way to the coast. Obviously PNG is far from being an easy place to live.
We welcomed a new VSA (Neil) last week and have a farewell for a couple this week. Barbara and Gordon have put in an amazing 18 months!! I will miss them very much. Our boat trip out to see the dolphins with them, will remain one of the highlights of our time here.
I have finished my 3,000 piece puzzle which has kept me busy for a few months and at 120.4 x 86cm  left a space just about big enough for the laptop on the dining table. Purchased at the Ashburton second-hand book and puzzle sale a couple of years ago for $4, it had all the pieces present and in very good condition!!  Such a treat. I will be bringing the puzzle back home. Now I can begin clearing out what we no-longer want, packing stuff to be dispatched ahead of our departure and cleaning house a little at a time with no doubt a nana nap to see me through some days (and lots of ice-blocks of course). I suspect the remaining 4 weeks will go very quickly.

"Payment of Taxes at Bethlehem" by Pieter Breugal (1564-1637/8)

into the last stretch

Starting to think about how our assignment is going to end. I told Elizabeth and Neli at the office when we were leaving and suddenly they realised there's not much time. I'm hoping that some of the things we've tentatively organised for October will go ahead rather than being deferred. We'll see what happens. I think that there is going to be some things that I would like to see happen, not occur and that I'll have to let some things go. 
There is a regular Monthly Science Cafe here and I've offered to do the one for the 1st of October. The topic is going to be on Plant Breeding and genetics, with a brief look at Genetic Engineering and the new technology CRISPR. Students from the University of Vudal and another agricultural college attend as well as expats, volunteers, etc. Most people here haven't heard of Plant Breeding even though they use the results quite happily. Of course all of the material I would have used is at Home in NZ. Luckily the internet is such a good resource and I was able to access copies of some papers, I wrote years ago which are tucked away at home in storage. Sometimes you think you're finished with one aspect of your life only to have it revived in a slightly different format later.
Next week APEC delegates are visiting Kokopo. Everybody has to be on their best behaviour and wear their best clothes when selling stuff at the market!! There has been a big clean up around town, along with ongoing titivating which has been going on since we arrived. The locals are all cynical about the effort, as it isn't addressing the real issues.

 Some of the titivating happening about 2 weeks ago. Filling pot holes on the busiest road in Kokopo.
Its the only time I've seen anybody using asphalt to fill potholes. The market is in the background and the people are crossing at a pedestrian crossing. Lots of people cross at this point and can hold the traffic up for considerable lengths of time. Its the main traffic route through town to the industrial area, near where we live.  I understand there is a plan to build a bridge over the road to the market. Not sure how that is going to work, since there is a lot of heavy stuff carried over the crossing.

The PNG prime Minister is also visiting Kokopo next week, for the first time in many years. Apart from cruising around with APEC delegates he will be launching the new Sewage treatment works, which has been under construction for the last 3 years by the Chinese.
Some of the locals here aren't very happy with the location of the plant as the outfall pipe releases material directly into the bay where the dolphins, we took photos of a few weeks ago, are based. There was a meeting about it early last week and things got quite heated. The treatment plant was supposed to be much further out, past the airport, almost at the tip of the peninsula but it sounds as if business interests prevailed over the decision. Most houses and commercial premises are on septic tanks, although there is a suspicion that there is some discharge directly into the sea in front of the town. There is a new large pipe installed along the road to the airport from the town to the sewage plant but no other infrastructure. No pipes under the roads, no pipes from houses, etc to the roads. So the next part of the job is to install the pipes under roads and connect to the main pipeline.
In many respects the easy work has been done, the hard bit to be done. I can see the job taking many years with lots of disruption, to complete. I wounder what will become of the roads, as fixing potholes and repairing damage to the seal doesn't seem to be a forte of construction teams here. Its probable the work will be done by the Chinese and given the way they have proceeded with other road building, it wont hold up in the long run.

 One of the Trainees, Jerry, who has featured in photos a number of times has started harvesting water melons. So far things seems to be going well. It started raining this morning (sunday) and has so far been raining all day. Access to the land where he is growing is difficult as the "road" is slippery, steep and there is a large ford to cross, so I wonder if there will be melons in the market tomorrow?
$2k a kilo is the price. The ones in the foreground are $15K. (about $7).
 


 
 We turned up to church today, after a long wait to get a PMV, to find the service was in Rabaul. It was too late for us to get there (at least an hour by PMV) so we went to our favorite spot in Kokopo and had coffee instead. It started raining not long after we arrived, here's the view out across the deck where we normally sit.
 
  
 Christine:
A volunteer flew to Garoka to see the Garoka show, last weekend.  Her phone was snatched out of her hands as she was taking a photo.The people who appeared to be chasing the thief were 'decoy'. The police were not interested and suggested she use the GPS on her phone to track it down. Cameras are much safer as there is no demand for them.
I am trying to complete my 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle quickly as time is flying and I may be wanted for the next training day, not to mention spring cleaning needed here before we leave. If a piece is missing the local op shop has the same puzzle for sale.
Suzanne and Spence have returned to Kokopo bringing with them about 120 spectacles donated by people in England and NZ (esp. Blenheim, Kaiapoi). Later this week I have the privilege of going to Nonga hospital at Rabaul to be part of the presentation of the spectacles to the eye cinic, as the Kaiapoi representative. Many thanks particularly to Karen G. and others who gathered the specs and mailed them to Blenheim for pick up - a fantastic effort.
We don't put the lights on if we get up in the middle of the night because we leave some curtains open to let the breeze waft through and security guards stroll around outside. This morning I noticed a flat cockroach on the floor just in front of the bench. (I just thought I would share that little snippet of info with you).
We awoke to the smell of sulfur to day. It appears one of our volcanoes (3) let of some steam in the night. A #5 shake wednesday morning, cockroach and sulphur sunday - never a dull moment........ It was just a baby cockroach.

Independence Day

The big thing this week is Independence day celebrations, which started early in the week. There has been a carnival atmosphere in Town since last weekend.
During the week there has been some reflection in the office about the day and what it means to PNG. About how far PNG has come since Independence, how much it has left un-done, how much is still to be done and the frustration at how much better things could be.
The best illustration of how things work here is the polio outbreak in PNG. It started in early June with a case of Polio in Lae and the number of cases has increased and spread since then; as people travel and spread the disease, new cases emerge. The most recent case has occurred in Port Moresby; which means its inevitable that the disease will spread to other parts of PNG because POM is the main travel hub.
Obviously while there have been no new cases of Polio over a period of time, the disease has really only been suppressed not conquered. Polio has not been eliminated from everywhere in the world and world travel means that the disease can appear "out of the blue" so to speak. The reason the disease has emerged again is that vaccinations for Polio in PNG, have been steadily dropping off over the last 17 years, mostly it seems because local clinics have been closed down, or not maintained and education regarding the importance of vaccination has as a consequence dropped off.
  To me it points to a mindset that seems to under-gird most things here; start something but don't provide the means to maintain it. Most other countries still vaccinate for Polio regardless, as a way of maintaining action against the disease. Of course the Govt. is responding and providing vaccine and encouraging people to get their children vaccinated but it does show the inconsistency of decision making here.
As mentioned before there is a lot of  locals who have a great deal of ill feeling about the money (Billions) being spent on APEC, that could be spent on things that ordinary people desperately need.
I have strong feelings about Polio, because it is preventable and you can see people walking the streets in Kokopo affected with the disease and when I was growing up I had a number of classmates at primary school who were affected by it.

To return to Independence day. There were events taking place all week. The local culmination was a three day festival in Rabaul with canoe races, dancing demonstrations and singing, etc, etc. The main focus on Saturday was the street parade.  FPDA has in the past taken part in the parade but stopped for a few years. This year we again took part. Planning and discussions have been going on all week. Christine and myself were provided with PNG "independence" shirts decorated in the local colours; bright red, green, black and gold.
The work ute was decorated, a whole lot of people climbed into the back and we all travelled to Rabaul. I wondered if we would make it over there in one piece but we did, taking about 45 minutes to travel what would normally be a trip of 20 minutes. We were just in time to join the parade which traveled around the main shopping center of Rabaul twice and ended in the local school grounds for the presentation of awards, for the best floate etc. The focus of the parade was keeping rubbish and plastic out of ocean.
What struck me was the way everybody was enjoying themselves and letting their hair down. Most of the floats come from Kokopo  and so needed to travel to Rabaul for the parade. On the way over to there were heaps of people on the side of the road waving and shouting out encouragement. It really was a festival day.
Locals were really pleased to see us wearing our "independence" shirts and greeted us warmly, as we walked along the road to the office. They also were excited to see us in the ute waving out. It was something I wouldn't have missed. It was good for us to take part, rather than be spectators. We were lucky that the weather was kind to us most of the day; slightly overcast, with some light  rain at one point, average temp. of about 26 degrees. We would have been cooked otherwise.

 At the office before leaving.

 

Lined up ready to joint the parade.

 

View down the road of some of the other floats.  

This is the one I liked: a pile of people inside the cabin all with binoculars looking out for rubbish.  

Some of the crowd.

 

Lots of kids. The float in front of us was throwing out lollies, which is what the kids are looking for. National flags everywhere.

The guys from Island Petroleum enjoyed themselves with a water blaster, shooting it off regularly. Great fun!

 

Some of the crew, including Erickson's (one of the Trainees) son with national flag. The Aikika, (a traditional leafy vegetable) on the sides looking a bit sad after the journey.

 

The playground was full with parked up floats by the end of the morning. I reckon there were over 100 floats. Some business houses had two or three. A great morning! No silly behaviour that I could see; People just having a good time.

Christine:
Many in the crowd were just as dressed-up as the floats - national dress and flags galore. I am the proud possessor of two Mary dresses - one a gift from my 'family' here and the other in national colours. Looking at Elizabeth (see photo #10), I think I had the 'national' one back to front as the flag hangs down the back! Oh well, it was all a lot of fun. It was good to see some of the tribal costumes again and everyone so happy. I estimate there would have been about 10,000 people there.
Freight ships arrived and cheese stocks disappeared promptly from the shelves - just blue vein, haloumi or if you really do have to have tasty, then tasty 'sticks' are available at 24 kina for 160g or $72 NZ$'s a kilo!
VSA's friends returning to NZ soon handed over two boxes of books for our friendly guard and his family to work their way through. The relief guard who is on duty today can read Tok Pison but not english. Anyone who can't read in English has a very limited choice of reading material as there are no books here in Tok Pison and even books in English are scarce. Guards unable to read have a very boring time unless someone stops to chat for a few minutes or of course, somethings 'going down' and their radio crackles into life with the latest update. Nothing exciting happens in this area......
The grasses need 'weed wacking' at least once a week now and their nasty little seeds catch in the hem of my skirts. On the other hand more flowers are appearing in beautiful bright colours and more birds are returning to nest. Seasons are changing with September getting more rain. It lays the dust and cools things down for a day or so at least so is very welcome. Thunder storms are more frequent but PNG does not get hurricanes and typhoons as it is outside that particular weather belt.

Getting busier

Over the last few weeks I've been working away updating a few of the "growing notes" FPDA supply to growers. They were originally written by a NZer but are now pretty well out of date, particularly around chemical control of pests and fungus diseases. I've also added a section on fertilizers which was missing in the originals.
 The more I see the more I realise that fertilizer deficiency problems  are very common. It seems to be one reason why people stop growing; nutritional problems, plants don't grow well, the yield and quality deteriorates, finally the grower stops growing, because nobody knows what is happening and so can't advise the grower on what to do. One of the problems here is that the money is in supplying the plantation crops, so the small growers don't get much help from the agricultural wholesale companies who are just interested in turning a buck. I've been working with a guy (Steve) who works with one of the companies and has been here all his working life. He's a mine of information and has been helping me sort out what chemicals are available and so on. Its taken me a quite a while to find out who and what sells what products and what are available. Of course cost is an issue but some wholesalers are willing to repackage products into affordable containers for small growers.
 There is no central register of chemicals,  Agchem manual, or any oversight on what is sold. Labelling on containers is pathetic. No health and safety around agchem use, etc. One of my jokes is that we could send the H&S people over from NZ. It would give them something to do and get them out of NZ'ers hair.
We have some more training days coming up for the trainees and I've tee'd up  with Steve to run a training session on sprayer safety, use and handling of Agchemicals, in October, when he's back from holiday. Elizabeth and I have talked about also running a training course for established growers, as most of them don't have any training at all, so are not very confident in handling pesticides and don't understand the types of chemicals that are available.
One interesting development in the last week is regarding finances. The Provincial Government, FPDA and the Market authority signed an agreement back in early 2016 to work together to develop the vegetable growing in the area of ENB. The market authority were to develop cool store facilities and improve the marketing of produce. FPDA gained the most money (1,200,000 K over 5 years) and were to help develop the growing industry.
Elizabeth has been talking about this since I arrived and expecting some money from the agreement. I went to the Provincial offices with her for a meeting with a planning officer last week. They wanted an update on what was going to happen before releasing funds. I spent some time coaching Elizabeth  on what she could write in the update. It certainly looks as if FPDA will get some funds. I suspect another extension officer will be employed to do the leg work that is needed.  We'll wait and see!
We visited a larger grower last week and who had some interesting things to see. He has grown before but gave up and is now on another block of land and trying lots of different things. It was interesting to see some fertilizer problems showing up!
Jerry one of the trainees(pictures in earlier blogs)  and the group of villagers he is working with has started harvesting melons, so there was great excitement! We need to go and visit him again soon as I've picked up on some problems around accountability, over the way things are being run.


Elizabeth talking to William about some brown onions he's growing from transplants. The young guy is one of Williams relatives. This is the only place I've seen cats in PNG. They had a couple of kittens they were feeding because the mother had died. Elizabeth wanted to take one home! It was a very attractive property; as you can see they had flowers growing everywhere.

 

 This Aibeka (a traditional crop) showing signs of a deficiency. The leaves in the foreground are spindly and narrow. The leaves on the plants in the background are showing yellowing around the edges, the leaves are drooping at the tips and slightly wrinkled. Leaves should be like the plants in the background; but bigger. I think its Potassium and or magnesium deficiency.

Photo across the crop shows a definite pattern the deficiency so its likely to be a macro nutrient. A similar pattern was observable on some corn further down the paddock. I asked William about the previous cropping history. He blamed the balsa company as there was a balsa crop in the land at one stage. I know that the balsa company wouldn't try and short change the fertilizer. When challenged he said that after the balsa was harvested some villagers "took" over the block for their gardens, until he managed to move them on. That explains the pattern a bit better. 

On another note, Independence day is coming up next Sunday (holiday on Monday)and it looks as if its going to be a big event, with parades and performances. We were talking to the waitress at KBB (our favourite coffee place) and she was saying that there was a large group of Japanese including the Japanese Prime Minister coming to Kokopo in the coming week. The intention is to have a Reconciliation service on Independence day, and lay some wreaths on the war memorial in Rabaul. The Japanese didn't behave very well towards the locals during their occupation in WW2, so the service is to make amends. There is also a large contingent of Japanese volunteers working in PNG, some in Kokopo, which is part of the making amends. The Japanese, like NZ offer scholarships and training for PNG people.

Christine:
Following on from the 'icebreaker' time we had with the Japanese volunteers last Saturday we twigged to the fact one of our VSA's had a birthday the following friday. We had a party for her on Saturday night out here in Seaview. We didn't have to travel anywhere or worry about getting back safely - such a relief. We piled plates with the delicious left over food and took them out to the compound guards.
As the spring turns to summer we are noticing the trees flowering and the birdlife returning. A real treat. Sunrise is around 6am so not too early a chirpy wake up call. Very noisy now around 5:00pm as the birds return to nest. The heavens opened up and the rains came down from a new direction on wednesday. The builder appeared on friday and repaired the roof. As he was leaving he noticed the ceiling over our bed was in the process of letting go! The continual movement of the ceiling fan may have loosened the nails. When he had fixed the ceiling he kindly cleaned said fan which probably hadn't been cleaned for a year or two.
Two freight ships broke down this last week so milk stocks were down to powder or 250ml for $2.75, eggs ($5.50/dozen) and cheese ($16.50 500g) were getting scarce and apples were down to Granny Smiths only. Makes life interesting. New stocks of milk that arrived on saturday were selling at 6.95kina or $3.50 a litre.

Remember if you would like to donate to the work of VSA you can contact  Denise Aquino at daquino@vsa.org.nz, or donate on our Everydayhero fundraising site; nikoloff's in Kokopo.

Elizabeths visit to Pomio

Last post I mentioned that Elizabeth was going to Pomio to help a couple of project managers from Goroka set up some training and plant some trials.
She arrived back on Tuesday and told us how things were over the "hill". Its only 20 minutes by air and while there are regular sailings of a ship around the coast its another world away from Kokopo. There is no road access. Between Kokopo and Pomio, across the island there are a number of  mountain ranges and rivers. Some of the rivers are wide and in deep gullies. The mountains are high and rugged.

There is a small settlement at Pomio and a government office, as well as an accommodation place and a small general store. The scenery and beaches are spectacular.
But the power is only on for 3 hours every day, no running water and limited phone connection. The nearest village now has a road up to it but before that was formed, it was a track, which took at least 12 hours walking to get to the village. Now it takes about 2 hours by 4wd. The villagers live life as if the 21st century doesn't exist, the village is too high (and cold) for bananas and coconuts to grow, so they live mainly on Taro.They have no source of protein, nor are they growing any "greens" to supplement their diet. Most of the Villagers have very little education because those with any education leave. Elizabeth was shocked at what she saw. As she was speaking, I thought she's been through the similar sort of culture shock we had when we arrived in Kokopo. It was interesting for me to see Elizabeth not being able to put words to what she had seen and experienced.

We also followed up on an number of trainees last week. It was an interesting experience to see the how far many of them travel and the effort involved to get to Kokopo. For me its also interesting to see how far the village "settlements" are from Kokopo. Driving down the road, you think there is "bush" on both sides, but in the "bush" are many houses and villages.  In many respects its a bit like CHCH with urban development and then rural settlements radiating out from around the outskirts of the city. Population growth around Kokopo is going to be an issue in the coming years; Ive meet a lot of PNG'ians who moved here from other regions because its safer. Readily available land is quite a long way out of Kokopo.

Its amazing what you take for granted. Last week I was having a discussion with a trainee about weeding. He didn't know what a hoe was - they tend to do all their weeding by hand here. A discussion with Elizabeth revealed she was aware of chop hoes but not torpedo hoes, which are quicker. Nor do she know about wheel hoes. There is very little in the way of mechanical aids to ease workloads, here. Work that would be done with a rotary hoe or mechanical grubber in NZ is all done by hand here. Only large operations have tractors, and most of them are pretty beaten up.


 New bridge being built over a river on the way to Kerevat (a small town about 1 hour away). The only way of crossing it at the moment is via a ford, which is reasonably deep (nearly up to the sill on a 4wd).

 The bridge has been under construction since about the time we arrived in May. Its the only bit of infrastructure I've seen under construction. I'm guessing the oil palm company next door is funding a considerable part of it. Whenever PNG'ains see a camera they want to be part of the action hence the guys yahooing on the bridge. 

This morning (sunday) we went dolphin watching with some other Volunteers. A pod of about 100 about 10 minutes from Seaview.
 Dolphins were leaping and spinning around in the air. The construction you can see in the right of the picture is part of the new sewage treatment plant.

Part of the pod, many young dolphins among it.

It was nice to be on the water, in a boat. The water often looks inviting from the shore. For me it highlights one of the things missing from our life here; ready access to things that help you enjoy life.
If Kokopo was in NZ, there'd be heaps of boats on the water. Nobody waterskis/ wakeboards here, nobody sailing. Not many fizz boats. I saw my first jetski today; this is an ideal place to use one. Not many people can't afford "toys" here, let alone the car to launch it. Quite different from NZ.


Christine:         

Fruit and veges from the Kokopo market:
Prices in approx NZ dollars: Spring Onions (about 30/40 to a bunch) $1, Beans (red, green 8-10ea bunch) .50, Paw Paw $2.50, Avocado $1, short Cucumber .50, Carrot (1only) $1!!!, Gallop nuts (wrapped in banana leaves) $1, Tomatoes (not pictured) 3 for .75, Peppers (5 very small) .50, Rabaul Mango $1 (large, early season can be up to $5) peanuts (roasted in shells) .50, eggplant (bunch of 4) $1. Onions are $1 each!!! We can buy apples from the supermarket for $5-$9 kg depending on the supermarket. I brought a Red Emperor (fish) from people selling them on the side of the road in Kokopo for $12.50 - superbly fresh, just divine!!! and will visit them more often. Good sized Pineapple $5 (expensive but end of season).
This week I visited a friend at the women's safe house at Vunapope in Kokopo. She is the sweetest, gentlest lady and the nuns are wonderful with her. They tell me that when she arrived about 5 months ago she was full of fear and now she is much stronger and has a measure of peace. The courts are taking an inordinate amount of time to hear her case. Alcohol fueled violence has a lot to answer for here as in NZ.
We had a luncheon at Gazelle International Resort on Saturday with other countries volunteers in East New Britain. Trying to understand each other made for hilarious misunderstandings. We started with icebreakers and I thought the Japanese volunteer was asking "how many people had a bath today"? The icebreaker was about birth dates!! We had a delicious light lunch with a can of drink for $11. A very enjoyable time.