Aahhh, in Madang like I said before. It’s frikkin’ hot here. I’m not used to that in Hagen. It’s rainy season now in PNG. This means rain and a cool temperature in Hagen. In Madang unfortunately not. I went with Froukje (one of the other VSO-volunteers) to town today to get some clothes. I didn’t have short trousers. Wonderful shopping here for clothes. I bought the trousers for 15 kina which is roughly 5 euro and a shirt for 6 kina which is about 2 euro. Just lovely. Even I who doesn’t like shopping for clothes, like to shop for those prices.
I’ve got a lot to tell you, but I’ll start with why I’m in Madang. I’ve had a meeting with the head of the physiotherapy department (HOD) about the trainee physiotherapist who is coming to work in Hagen hospital. I’m going to guide him during a period of two years. So to make sure that I understand what is expected of this trainee I met with the HOD. And of course a long weekend to Madang is like a holiday. Salware, kokonus na bia (see, coconut and beer).
Now some of the things I’ve been doing recently. I’ve had my first frustrating times during this week. I thought South-Africa had taught me something. But unfortunately no. I’ll sum up why I was frustrated.
First, I don’t have a outside telephone line in my office. This means that every time when I have to make a phone call, I have to go to administration.
Second, there is no computer in my department. So every time I want to type a document I have to go to the library. But before I can use the computer in the library I need to find the key. Which is actually nonsense, because there is supposed to be a liberian. But she never seems to be around. Ok, the key. Most of the times it’s not traceable, because somebody took it.
Third, if I need to reach somebody in a far away hospital or health-centre I have to use a radio. Either this radio’s battery is empty, because somebody left it on during the night, the reception is to bad to transmit or the person you want to reach is not at the radio.
Fourth, because I walk around arranging things I miss phone calls I’m supposed to answer (sorry Merijn).
Fifth, this Tuesday the association I’m helping had it’s election of executives, chairman, treasurer and secretary. It was supposed to take 2 hours. Unfortunately, somebody asked about the finance of this association. It seemed that a 1000 kina were missing. It meant that 4 hours were used to talk about this unholy thing called corruption. It seemed that one of the executives forged 2 signatures and withdrew the money. Now the thing in PNG is that every man who has any authority is going to say something about the issue at hand. Even when the person before you already said everything to resolve the matter. Four f…… hours. And than the piece the resistance, election. Because they don’t trust each other, I had to count the votes. I knew only 2 people there. Whiteman are all knowing, have all the money, are honest, work hard and it’s fair to say they don’t ever do anything wrong. I had a talk with the chairman the next day that he either treat me as an equal or I would be very unhappy. I think I might ask for compensation.
Intermezzo: Compensation is a very common practise in the Highlands. Whenever something bad happens to you even when it’s your own fault, e.g. somebody drives over your pig when it’s running loose on the road, when you hurt yourself while climbing on the back of your car while somebody offers you a ride or when you buy medicine without a doctors consult and get sick you ask for money from the one who you think is fault. If you are not able to ask for compensation, because you are dead for instance, your family will do it for you. In our eyes completely unfair sometimes.
Now that was my first frustrating experience in PNG. I have to say I can laugh about it. You can’t take anything for granted here. But the weird thing is that even being frustrated here is something I like. In a strange kind of way feeling this emotion makes me feel alive.
*hold on, have to wipe my face. I’m almost drowning in my own sweat here*
Now mi tok long narapela samting (Let’s talk about something else)
I’m surrounded by lovely people. My neighbours, the security guards, the chairman of the Turangu Association (yes, he still is the chairman. I cheated with the votes…ghegheghe, that will teach them…whiteman….tssss) and my work. This chairman’s name is James Eka. He introduced me to his family. I’ve had diner with them, I talked with them, so now I’m officially their wantok. It’s great to notice how everybody looks after each other. No individuality, but everything is communal. I do see the pro’s and the con’s of this, but at the moment I’m revelling in all this attention.
Whenever I step outside people great me and this is not only because I’m a white man.
It’s almost weekend when I get on a pmv (little bus, like south Africa) to do a 10 hour drive to Madang.
Pictures
The first pictures are from a mumu I had in Kiam. A little village 1 hour from Hagen. One of the VSO-volunteers worked here in a project where he taught some of the villagers to become bank tellers. This meant they are going to collect money from the community and put it in a bank account. Previously these villagers did not have access to a bank, simply because they’re illiterate. This volunteer went back to Kenia now. The mumu was as a celebration for the graduation for these bank tellers and for his leaving.
A mumu is a way to cook food in the ground by using hot stones. They put vegetables and meat in this mumu. In this case they used 2 pigs. They completely dissect the animal into, the head, the spine and the rest of the body.
This is what the mumu looks like. A hole in the ground with banana leaves on the side. Vegetables and meat are inside with the hot stones in between. After they’ve put everything into the ground it’s covered up with banana leaves and left to cook for 2 hours.
After two hours they get everything from the hole. And everything is supposed to be cooked. As I found out the meat is not very well done, at least my stomach found this out.
After a ceremony of 6 hours where everybody has to say something we started to eat the mumu. Really nice. Except for the pigs meat, that wasn’t really well done.
In the highlands I meet a lot of local people. Because I seem to be a nice guy who shares his skills with people. Furthermore I seem to do the right things in company. So that is why bilums (colourful handbags) and bilumkaps (colourful caps) are coming my way. I think that by the time I go back to the Netherlands I can open a business in bilums and kaps.
Here 2 pictures of my wounds. The first one was the wound on my foot and then after 3 weeks you can see my shin had a secondary infection. You can see the red line on my thigh. These are my glands. They had swollen up until my groin.
And my second disease. An eye infection. Like I said before I’m in Madang. Staying at the house of Froukje. She somehow contracted this eye disease. Now this eye disease is highly infectious. So that is why I have it now. Every time I go to Madang I seem to get sick.
Well, not all is bad in Madang. On Saturday we went with a boat to one of the islands near to Madang. I saw this island and I thought that I would like to live there for a while.
Some of us went scuba diving and I went snorkelling. Everything you see on discovery channel or national geographic in nature series, I saw in the coral here. I even saw nemo 
The owner of the boat had floaters with him. So we took turns in lying on these things. A book, a beer, a beach and water where you can see the bottom even if it’s 5 meters deep. This is the life.
Well, I think I did my best with this story. Next time I hope to show you some pictures of my house. Lukim yu bihain.