Goroka

Hi friends,

As I conclude my 3rd month in Port Moresby here in Papua New Guinea, it still brings a smile to my face to see green mountains outside my team room window every day! Quite a contrast to Singapore, Bombay or Ann Arbor. This month's featured visit was travel to Goroka, part of the Eastern Highlands Province and home to PNG's 2nd highest peak, Mount Michael (~3,750m above sea level)

In addition to catching a great mountain view at sunrise, we also managed to visit several local villages, observe their cooking the 'mumu' (traditional heating of food using hot stones) way, and share in eating a meal with them at the chief's hut. Also they were kind enough to have a subsection of the village perform a 'sing-sing', traditional song and dance which was quite interesting...as you can guess from the picture.

Through the visit, we got to see how people live out in a rural environment, including housing: 'Traditional housing is built in a circular or rectangular shape and the walls weaved from pit pit canes or bamboo. It is built low to keep the interior warm from the cold climate and the high thatched roof, keeps the smoke away from the inhabitants. Cooking and sleeping is done in this communal, open-spaced living arrangement.' - Wikipedia

Actually this visit was quite profound - coming from living in super developed environments, it was a little surprising to see virtually everyone we met (in the communities) perfectly happy with living a slow life without access to electricity, or privacy (somehow to me these 2 were the first things I thought of that I would have difficulty living without), not to mention water and sanitation issues. People were extremely friendly and welcoming, taking us on little walking tours around their humble abodes, and seemed an extremely well-knit larger group, a community of ~60-70 ppl basically functioning as one big family. Makes me take a step back and rethink whether operating at a rapidly increasing rate is really the way forward, or if I need to reexamine any of my assumptions on the pursuit of happyness.

I can expound on more philosophy in person or via detailed individual emails, but that's enough of a flavor of what I've been up to for now, since I have to get back to work :(

Diving for Easter break

Hello,

Quick update on my life since I suspect most of you will enjoy finding out more about this random country I live in. Spent easter break going diving, I have come to the conclusion that Papua New Guinea is an absolutely beautiful country not just above sea level but also below! Had a great weekend getting my open water diving cert with 2 dives to different wrecks from WW2, and 2 beautiful coral reefs, along with Suzie's bommie - a 10-15m pillar of coral reef, where we swum nearby only to realize we were then surrounded by 100s of different types of fish (pic frm internet attached). Perhaps I'll buy an underwater camera one of these days, but for now here are some over-water pictures of the sites. I'm no expert on diving, but I do concur with the expert viewpoint that PNG is one of the best places in the world to dive; bidiversity is amazing, temperatures are great and costs are relatively cheap.

The beginning

Hello friends!

As I marvel at the somewhat surreal fact that I've already been in Papua New Guinea for a full week, I thought it would be fun/useful to share some of my experiences and contact info, given that I'll be here til Aug, if not til 2011. As most of you know, I moved to PNG to work on some climate change capability building, and so far its been quite an adventure. Notwithstanding frequent power blackouts, internet unreliability and the absence of hot water over the weekend, the rural environment is simply beautiful and I've showcased the tip of the iceberg from a hiking trip that I enjoyed thoroughly on Sunday at 8am in attached pics.

While I'm here, if any of you get the opportunity, please feel free to visit as I will be able to provide a tour of this interesting place. I'm based in Port Moresby, but planning to take some weekend trips to the highlands and other provinces and will continue to take pictures. In addition, I'm planning to take trips to Australia (Sydney and Melbourne at least) so if you're there please let me know if you have a timing preference. Since I won't be seeing too much of any of you in the near future, I would love to hear about what you're up to via email or phone!!