Lou

Dear friends,

While this 8th month in Papua New Guinea has been fairly hectic, I had the good fortune to be able to return to Manus Province. This time, instead of taking a speedboat an hour north of mainland to visit Andra (as I did in August), we explored Lou island instead, an island 90 minutes south of mainland, rich with volcanic soil and abundance of friendly folk. As soon as our speedboat approached Lou, I was reminded of the way things used to be - an assorted group of whoever was present on the beach quickly assembled to help pull the boat in, irrespective of who the visitors were! We used a combination of ropes (with the cheer one, two, boo), pushing, and pulling, so I imagine this must have been what it felt like to live in joint families - only this was more or less a cooperative spirit between 4 separate townships and over 200 people on the island!

Due to the volcanic soil, Lou is known for growing all kinds of plants. Our meals consisted of freshly harvested sweet potato, cassava, sago, taro, watermelons, bananas and rice. Delicious. Accomodation was modest, we were kindly put up by the brother of one of our colleagues. While there was only an outdoor shower (water tank + bucket), there was also a diesel generator which was powered up from 7-9pm every day, mainly for lighting but also occassionally so that the villagers could gather round and watch a game of rugby on tv! They also talked about how they had gathered in a similar fashion to watch the World Cup in the wee hours of the morning. The people at Rei village who we interacted with had interesting views on religion - they were all Part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and felt that it was religion which had allowed them to peacefully join together as an island and work together. Previously, the 4 villages used to have tribal wars, and missionaries who came to Lou were eaten! But it is a lesson that persistence does pay off...eventually, and not always for the individual who wants to help, but now Lou is a fairly homogeneous island which seems to work well together. Another interesting experience I had was going through Sabbath, the day of rest that began at sunset on Friday evening and lasted until sunset on Sat evening. They took this very seriously - no cooking, swimming, or any activity at all - even a walk for 20 mins was considered too far. It's been awhile since I had an entire day of rest, and spent most of the time speaking with a variety of people who lived in the village. Visitors are a welcome but infrequent addition to the community, so we had plenty of people stopping by for a chat, both to share about themselves and to appease their curiosity about where we were from and what we were doing in Lou.

Before we left Lou on Sunday, we had some good fun playing football with some of the kids in the village. We also got the chance to take the boat around the island - not only did we get to take the boat through a bat cave, hang out on an island with plenty of obsidian (cooled lava without crystals), have a look at some huge wild fowl eggs and check out some Japanese wrecks from the War, but we also managed to take a quick dip in some hot springs on the side of the island close to the volcano.

Motupore

Dear friends,

Was great to see some of you over the Formula 1 weekend in Singapore - as always, great to be home, go to exciting events (Above & Beyond, Chemical Brothers!) and catch up with friends old and new. As I was reflecting on what I could do next, realized that my work here is far from over, still so much to learn, lots of the country to see, and enjoying the variety of what I'm doing (unsurprisingly, am taking on more responsibility). I have decided to stay here in Papua New Guinea for at least another 6 months (until mid Mar 2011), if not longer. So for those who want to come visit, the door stays open awhile longer!

In addition to the featured spot, I also had a chance to visit the monthly craft market at Ela beach - attached is a photo of a troupe from Bougainville, who have creative ways of making music (using the soles of slippers to hit poles of bamboo of different lengths) while other members dance. Pretty cool, prime example of where there's a will, there's a way!

This month's featured PNG spot is Motupore island, located merely 15 min away from Port Moresby (by speedboat). While it is extremely close to Loloata Island Resort, the setup is completely different. As a student research centre, the accomodation and settings are modest (2 bunk beds per room, in the white houses in pic 2), allowing us to focus most of each day on work (we were there conducting a 4 day training session). Even the view of mainland from the island was great - the S-shape in pic 3 becomes a sandbank in low tide). While I could go on at length about calm that comes from being in a simple environment (not to mention great snorkelling every morning), the bigger philosophical reflection of the month for me is about how 2 similarly simple practices (gratefulness and humility) can help raise both an individual's as well as a team's motivation and skill levels for a fairly sustained period. It was extremely humbling to learn about the hardships so many people had gone through, in order to enter even an entry level job. From broken families to 10-year career stagnation due to politics, from extreme poverty to convincing family that education is as worthwhile as farming, many of these challenges that people faced over the course of a month or a year are much greater than many of us have faced our entire lives. And yet to show only such an enthusiasm to learning, a hunger and desire to perform at the best of their abilities, and a dedication to serve the Office without complaint, is something so inspirational because in the grand scheme of things, any obstacle I can think of is indeed merely a fly in the way of an elephant. Celebrate the simplicity and wonder of life - just as the boy in the tree does in the last picture.

On that note, I have probably not said this enough, but I am really glad you are in my life. Please know that you have in some way shaped the person I am today, and for that I am truly grateful.

Manus

Dear friends,

Time has flown - I am about to complete 6 months living in this remarkable country, and today just watched an BBC Earth Documentary about the Birds of Paradise (click here for a 1 min version), which only highlights what I will be missing when I leave.

Manus island(s) provided me the opportunity to do what a lot of us haven't done in a long time - get out of urbanization (Level 0). It was difficult to realize how accustomed to urbanization I'd become, until I went through several levels of getting away from it. I.e. Firstly think of a place that sounds exotic, that you haven't been and would be super cool to live in, let alone visit. Being in Port Moresby itself (where I'm normally based), fulfils all the above (level 1).

Then, take a plane 3 hours far north of the country to an island (Manus!)somewhat disconnected from the rest of the country, and well surrounded by water. Did I mention that over half of this island does not have cell phone reception!!! When was the last time you went to a place that had no cell phone coverage? Anyway, Manus mainland (Level 2) was great. We got to see a market, with some poor cuscus trapped in cages! So we bought one and let it free :) But I digress.

Then, after I think I'm already as far away as it gets, the next day we go with 2 guys from an NGO who are doing a demonstration project to the island close to the site. Andra island (Level 3) is a 1 hr speedboat ride away from Manus. We get to spend 2 days and a night with a community of people who are excited to welcome us into their homes, feed us a feast of lobster, yam, fruits and more, and tell us about their lives. We traverse the island (its roughly 1km across, and 1/2 km wide), learning about its history, how the king tides have shaken (but not stirred) the people, and about their concern for how climate change will continue to affect them. We spent the night in a houseboy (shack for men, visible from Andra pic) with 8 other guys from the community and talk into the night about life in general and how best we can help. FYI there is no cellphone signal at all on Andra. Unless one goes right to the southernmost tip of the island, holds a phone at a particular angle, and prays for a few mins.

On our 2nd day in Andra, we awake early to roosters' crowing, and paddle out in 'kayaks' - extremely thin vessels made out of hollowed tree trunks - super sensitive to shifts in weight, and definitely close to capsizing on many occassions. We alight after a 15 min paddle across clear turqouise waters, and are on an atoll (level 4) - a beautiful small island ~100m across and 50m wide. The view is spectacular, just the ocean around us and supremely peaceful. The kids paddling with us play around with the sea-snakes we find on the island, and we walk around for awhile before getting back on our kayaks.

Finally, before we head back to Andra and then to the mainland, we have one final stop. Naturally, we have to visit the site in which the NGO is doing their pilot project to adapt to climate change - planting coral on a sea bed so that it grows and can help resist the tides. So snorkelling in these clear waters ensues, with a view of how the coral grows while we also spend time with the kids from the community. I suppose level 5 hits me when my colleague surfaces for a breath, looks at me and remarks, 'can you believe this is a work trip?!'. Most importantly, this distance from urbanization is a really helpful way to step back and take stock of what I'm doing. To take a breath. And realize some important truths. For example, that I'm doing work that I truly enjoy, which allows me to much better navigate other ups and downs that go on from time to time. But also that while helpful (and extremely cool), its not necessary to actually go all that physical distance in order to attain level 5, its merely a state of mind that focus and internal exploration can also bring one to. Just as there are hundreds of atolls around Manus alone, so it is that there are hundreds of ways to get to level 5. All we need is to find one that works for us every now and then.

So it was that with joy in our hearts, we said a temporary goodbye to the people of Andra, made our way back to the mainland of Manus, and soon after came back home to Moresby, hoping to return to Manus (and level 5) sooner rather than later.

Kavieng

Hi friends,

This month’s featured PNG travel was a trip to the beautiful islands in New Ireland Province. While the trip focused mainly on speaking to people in the provincial administration regarding climate change issues, fortunately we had time for a quick visit to Nusa Island Retreat – a small self standing island hideaway with a few bungalows (pictures attached), along with a beautiful view of clear blue-green waters and other islands. It was only a 20 minute speedboat ride away from Kavieng, though a pity that we time did not allow us to explore many smaller islands North of Nusa.

While Kavieng (capital of NI province) is known for phenomenal diving, that is a luxury I shall have to wait on since the 2nd and final day of my trip involved a 10-hour road trip to visit a hydro pilot site (including me driving a manual pick-up truck for 5 hours!) As with most other island communities, people are friendly, welcomed tourists and showed us a good time.

I know some of you have requested a special South Africa edition of these emails; all I will say is the trip was a blast, catching 6 games in 12 days (in 6 different stadiums!) was definitely worth all the sweat, $ and pain we went through. You can have your own view of the journey we undertook on facebook, and seriously hope all of you make it to Rio in 2014!

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 :(

Loloata Island

Hello friends,

So far it has been a brilliant 2+ months in PNG - Aside from weekday interactions with friendly team members and clients, weekends have offered the opportunity to go hiking, diving and venture to offshore islands. Earlier this month I made it to Loloata island, an island resort with clear waters to scuba and snorkel. Being only a 15 min ferry ride away from Port Moresby, this serene environment provided a great weekend getaway. Attached some pictures below of my walk around the island so you can get a glimpse for yourself, including some island wildlife - birds and wallabies roam around pretty freely.

As always, you are more than welcome to come visit while I reside here (likely til Mar 2011). Since we are a couple of degrees south of the equator, PNG is pretty much summer all year round (think Singapore but slightly less humid) and provides a welcome respite from the winter no matter which hemisphere one comes from. My next few updates will likely provide a little more variety as I finally start exploring the massive country outside of Port Moresby. Trips to the highlands and the beaches, volcanoes and indigenous tribes shall follow.

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!!