Photos at last !

 

 my office, the town hall

 

desk bilong mi

 

riverside slum

 

town centre house by the lake

Internet

Saturday, so a chance to go to the Telecom office for a dongle which I’ve been assured will solve all my internet access difficulties. The wi-fi connection at the lodge is weak and expensive. The office has not had internet or even a landline for months because we haven’t paid our bills and are unlikely to in the near future.  Anyway, arrive at telecom office in the rain to find it is not open, the heavy rains of last night have put all the town’s telephones out of action and the staff are either out on site solving the problem or have decided to take the day off rather than face their customers. So I end up buying a few more hours at the Lodge after looking further around the town centre. Too wet I decide to go across to the park and get a fresh fish as planned, maybe tomorrow.  Bump into a cheerfull Australian builder who is just completing two years in Madang, warns me to be ever on guard for the roaming villains (called ‘rascals’) but assures me that this is the best town of PNG to be in and that I will be sure to love it.

The other day a boy, drunk on homemade brew was knocked down by a car next to one of the settlements and had to be taken to hospital. His mates spent the next day stoning passing cars and in the evening the police moved in demolishing a handful of shanty houses. One of the councillors is upset but I’m not sure what she is going to be able to do.

Am sharing an office with the Building Control officer who deals with 2000 applications a year, and Sonia, the Parks and Gardens officer. There is another desk for the Town Engineer (post vacabt for some time). No windows but acceptable climate due to air-conditioning when we have power – on Thursday we lost power and boss Titus had to rush to the electric Company’s office in town to apparently pay a bill and get re-connected. Never a dull moment!

problem with picture uploads agaon.... sorry

Miscellaneous

  My partner, or boss, am not sure which yet, was away at a conference in Vanuatu last week – admittedly he had expected me a week or two before so it could not be helped and it gave me the opportunity to explore the town centre shops, the parks and housing areas. Some areas quite rich and leafy suburbs close into the town centre and  a few minutes walk away the equally leafy slums of the ‘settlements’ where we have been advised not to enter.  It seems that many people have moved into town looking for work, many finding it but many more not – probably the root cause of a dire law and order problem.

I gather that electricity comes from an inland hydroelectric station and that drinking water, for those who are connected is piped from an inland reservoir although the capacity of each for a full service and the growing needs of industry seems in some doubt.  Rainwater is collected from many roofs and I’ve seen a quantity of solar water heaters although no photo-voltaics except in one shop

The metalled roads are seriously potholed which helps to slow traffic down but is clearly not conducive to walking or cycling and in over a week I have not seen more than 5 bicycles – everyone walks or crams into the small minibuses (called PMVs)

I should be trying to write on a different topic each time but at this stage I’m just overwhelmed with so many new experiences and surroundings!

no pics this time for some reason......to follow later 

Hello Madang

At last I have arrived and am too slowly acclimatising to the heat outside the air-conditioned chalet that I am sharing with a volunteer teacher during our week’s training and language learning.

The town is attractive, if not it’s buildings which are generally corrugated tin prefabs on legs. We have the Pacific ocean on one side where my gated and barbed wire protected resort is (google ‘madang lodge’) and twenty minutes walk across the peninsula with all its luxuriant greenery and great trees to the lagoon side where the VSO office is. No seagulls but plenty of fruit bats of the same size and equally noisy hanging about in the tallest trees and whose excrement is apparently even better as a paint stripper so I’m happy to have my sun hat. 

Yesterday I spent the day touring all the supermarkets looking for a larger chess set but very few people knew what a chess set was and one could not be found so I guess I won’t find many players, I also had a disastrous game with Felix – a Philippine volunteer.  There is a temporary drinking ban in force following some youthful street fighting although it only seems to apply to teenagers and poor people, the rich and the ex-pats can continue in our protected enclaves although at £2-50 for a bottle of beer it is still not cheap.

My employer, who I have yet to meet apparently feels unable to find me safe accommodation and is going to pay for me to stay at the resort which I guess detaches me from my working colleagues but we will see how it works out. VSO say it is definitely unsafe to venture out after sunset and even the small busses stop running at night and in the day time we are advised to keep clear of the shanty town areas, to beware of pickpockets and not to go out of town alone.

Anyway all the people I meet on the street are very friendly and helpful and once I am used to the heat I can see myself enjoying the stay

So much for now – will enclose photos if the internet signal is good enough today or may have to wait and see what the office connection is like later in the week

 

view from VSO office

 

roosting fruit bats

 

path from reception to restaurant - Madang Lodge

 

My chalet