fire and rain forest

Tsunamis, pirates and (oh horror) loss of internet – whatever next?  A fire in perhaps the largest supermarket in town. The Chinese owners were away for the weekend just as ownership was changing hands leading to wild speculations and even more to looting or retrieving fire damaged goods all through the night and during the next day. I visited in the morning after with smoke still billowing out, on my way passing so may people leaving the scene with boxes of beer and bags full of ‘shopping’.  Apparently one looter had been shot dead by the police or a security firm and another had been suffocated and died in the store whilst uniformed security guards looted the manageress’s flat.  All I saw was a fairly smooth queue of looters waiting their turn to enter the smoking building and the fire engine parked helplessly at the back.  Anyway we get a big building site and hopefully a more attractive development.

Due to production problems (changing sugar production to palm oil?) the PNG Ramu sugar company needed to import sugar from abroad but with an import tax of 70% introduced to help Ramu sugar the company was pleading for a reduced tax – hard to tell how it will end.

A jungle trip one day last week – to visit a tree nursery, would you believe it! Just half an hour from the office with people from a local village industry organisation that encourages sustainable forestry and exports FSC certified wood (at a premium price) to Australia. A clearing in the jungle was being used to grow new teak trees for planting out in participating villages.  No great Madang type trees but they could be grown if we wanted and didn’t feel up to it ourselves. The woodland was dark and damp with birdsong above but no sign of cassowaries, tree kangaroos, crocodiles or snakes – will have to seek elsewhere.

Back in the office problems mount for my project in manpower help and sourcing the needed data despite trips to the ministries in Port Moresby. I am taking a luxury 4 day break over Easter along the north coast in the Kalibobo Spirit (try google (I’ve still to learn how to link things!)) where I will be able to  read, feast, snorkel, visit remote areas and decide what to do with my present career

 

morning after the fire

 

another slum

 

Country road

 

evening landscape