....this next assignment was to a 'country club' with a golf course on an island province off Papua New Guinea called East New Britain. 'My' office this time was a separate hut labelled the 'Captain's Office'. I overlooked the golf course with coconut trees, that bordered a pacific ocean view. Out of the louvered windows on two sides, I was looking across manicured fairways then the bright blue ocean towards a smoking volcano! Oh, and the office was (usually) air-conditioned.
I was supposed to be going to advise a hotel/restaurant in Bougainville (also in PNG) but the host dawdled about signing the contract, then they could not find anywhere for me to stay(!), so the assignment was shelved.
I was staying in the club president's home (where he lived with his young son), which was very conveniently located just a ten minute walk to the club. He went to Australia for a colonoscopy and visit family for two weeks the week after I arrived, so I then had the house (almost) to myself. I say 'almost' because there were two female 'staff' (called 'Haus Meri' in pidgin) - a mother and daughter, plus a local guy living downstairs and they would wander in at all hours of the day or night for a drink or to grab or cook some food (a few times at around 3am) .... rather disconcerting for someone who usually lives alone! Oddly for PNG: the house was never locked up - even at night. The committee member who instigated requesting a volunteer (and would have been a great contact) left for Canada and Alaska and was gone for most of the two months.....situation 'normal'?
The house was two-floors, on steel pillars with car parking, laundry and one bedroom below but the main living and sleeping (3 bedrooms, one bathroom, with a large lounge, dining kitchen) areas upstairs. Adding to the general ambiance: I had arrived on a Monday and at around 3am on the Friday, I was welcomed with a relatively mild earthquake and the entire house was creakin', rockin' and a rollin' on its steel pillars for about a minute - I lay awake for a while waiting for the ensuing tsunami - but all was OK! Later, one night in mid-July, there were three small earthquakes (locally called 'guria') but in the morning the volcano was only quietly smoking - so life went on.....
I charged a 'dongle' with K50 (about A$25) for internet access - but it lasted just over two days, after only looking at a few emails and I had sent a photo! The flash hotel next door to the club had WiFi for guests but charged them - so I'd tried their service. I wandered next door, invested K65 for 200Mb...sat in their restaurant and checked Outlook and it received OK - but NO internet. I told the gal at the desk and she also tried but agreed that internet access was not working: "try later" was the advice. Next day, it was functioning, but still somewhat quirky! Then I established that I could (just) pick up their signal from 'my' office. After trying to limit the use, and disconnecting after using each time, 100Mb lasted four days.
The gizmo that I have to use to test and regulate my blood thickness (INR) decided to play up. It was out of whack, and the read-out on the screen was very dim before dying completely - I persevered with resetting and fiddling and eventually got a few readings before it died....just hoped it was accurate!!!!
The zipper on a pair of trouser decided to refuse to 'close', so I walked home to change dacks and left a note asking the house cleaner gals to find a tailor ..... they kindly replaced the zipper for about $3.
The club had a 'Chinese' restaurant that was leased to another operator. A deal was done and so that's where I had lunch every day ... I've never had so much 'Chinese' food before. The restaurant was closed on Mondays, so I wandered into the upmarket hotel next door who had a K20 'daily special' for lunch.
On a slightly more positive note - in my first week: I created a new and complete HR system for the club (they had nothing before), I put together a detailed survey of the members to gauge their responses to the club and its facilities (which was emailed out at the beginning of week 2), plus a self-calculating accounting system in Excel which should save them hours entering data and I was around 25 pages (half-way) into their main report - the President reckoned that I'd done more in four days than anyone else had in four years...
The atmosphere in the club was often rather déjà vu as they played western music from the 50s, 60s and 70s - well, now, really, is there any other 'music' worth listening to? The staff were predominantly female, so it was interesting being among a bunch of black girls and the Rolling Stones booming out with Mick Jagger singing 'Brown Sugar'!
Papua New Guinea 'politics' are always interesting, The Prime Minister was being investigated by 'Task Force Sweep' over corruption charges, so he held a press conference saying the team had been "compromised" and closed them down. The Attorney General was "removed" from his post by the PM and he sacked the Deputy Police Commissioner; then the new Police Commissioner was arrested. Life just went on as usual....
The island province of East New Britain was actually a German settlement from the late 1800s until the end of WWI in 1918. In true European fashion of the day: they just took over foreign countries, claimed them as their own, subjugated the local inhabitants and set new laws, regulations and even taxes! After war had been declared, the Australian forces swept in and defeated the German contingent. Did you know that the first shot fired after Britain declared war on Germany in 1914 was in Australia? Just as war was declared, a German ship in a harbour in Victoria tried to sneak away, a shot was fired across its bow and it turned back. There you go: quick history lesson.
After WWI the German's property (plantations, etc) was 'reclaimed' by the British (via Australia) and sold primarily to 'white people' - the property did not revert to the local inhabitants - it went to the 'British crown'!!
There was also a strong contingent of Chinese (even over a hundred years ago) who started with small stores and businesses and, today, many of the plethora of stores are Chinese owned. Rather oddly (I feel anyway) there seems to be no animosity by the local inhabitants who just seem to accept the situation and be employees.
In 1937, the resident volcano really let loose and many millions of tonnes of ash rained down - primarily on Rabaul, covering everything with a choking, fine ash. Trees were falling over under the weight. Apparently the air was so charged by ash that it generated thunder and lightning . When rain fell on the ash it became almost like concrete. Press reports of the time advised that there were only four deaths (well - that was four white folks, nearly five hundred locals died as well!).
Just as an odd aside: Errol Flynn was a local character in the area before storming Hollywood.
It seems anomalous to me that this out-of-the-way little island should have been impacted so significantly by both world wars. The area was 'invaded' and taken over by the Japanese in January, 1942 and by 1943 there were 100,000 Japanese troops, plus their Korean and Chinese POW 'workers' and some 3,000 Korean prostitutes 'working' in the 'Houses of Joy'. There were hundreds of aircraft, massive fuel dumps, concrete fortifications and fleets of warships and transports. After the allies started intensive bombing, the Japanese forced locals to construct hundreds of kilometres of tunnels as they virtually moved underground. During this time, several local residents just 'disappeared' (European plus locals if the Japanese thought that they were spies for Australia). One ship loaded with several hundred Australian prisoners of war being sent from Rabaul to Japan just disappeared and it was only established much later that the ship had been sunk by an American submarine and all the POWs drowned.
In 1941 there were about 42,000 Tolai (local tribe) in the area. By 1945 there were only around 28,000 - some murdered or worked to death by the Japanese, many died of diseases and malnutrition.
By the end of the war - every single building in Rabaul had been destroyed (mostly by Allied bombing). After they surrendered, the remaining 91,000 Japanese servicemen were eventually repatriated to Japan but 550 were held on charges of war crimes. Depending on the severity of the 'crime' (whether carried out either directly or on instructions from an officer) those convicted were either acquitted, jailed, shot or hanged.
I had done an assignment to a resort in the same general area in 2008 and I was taken there one night. Met up with the owner again, and we had a good chat. Hanging on the wall in the bar/lounge area there was a printed and framed full-colour certificate that I'd done listing all the staff I'd trained and their different departments; it had the volunteer organisation's logo and my name and signature. Isn't it interesting, the little incidents in life that give you a lift?
The club's membership reflected the cosmopolitan mix of ethnicities in the region - a range of locals, plus: Aussies, Kiwis, Europeans and Asians (Chinese, Filipino, Singaporean, etc...). Then there were the usual white guys posted in managerial positions, plus those with local wives and families, some of whom had been in PNG for many years - including the usual: those with a family of adult children elsewhere and young children in PNG.
In July, the club hosted the 'New Britain Open' - promoted as 'the oldest and longest running sporting event in PNG'. The first event was held in Rabaul in 1951 - after the course was resurrected following obliteration by the 1937 volcano eruption. The course was then again totally destroyed by bombing during WWII. Then two volcanos erupted in 1994 and everything was wiped out. The event was subsequently hosted by the Ralum Country Club (where I was based for this assignment). There was some heavy rain and parts of the course became small lakes for a while - still: the event was very successful with 114 entrants.
The competitors were an interesting mix of races, genders and ages. There was a good atmosphere but I thought that some of the raucous laughter came across as rather artificial bonhomie. Mind you: a few were drinking beer from 7am onward!
While I was briefly at 'home' in April, there was a federal election, so I duly voted. Then the scrutineers (or someone) stuffed-up and Western Australia had to vote again for the Senate seats - while I was out of the country; so I did not vote. As you may know - voting is compulsory in Australia; so while I was away yet again, I received a 'please explain' or a fine for not voting. The fine was only A$20 but my daughter sent a copy of my itinerary explaining that I was not in Australia at the time, so all was well!
The accommodation on this assignment, whilst being greatly appreciated and convenient, could be rather challenging. The homeowner's 9-year-old son had a penchant for watching Nickelodeon on the huge television in the lounge area - but with the volume on 'max' so the entire home reverberated to continuous silly voices, shouting, peculiar noises and explosions... I tried to keep a low profile cosseted in *my* room; a few times even to the extent of not being able to endure the TV cacophony and skipping cooking my dinner.
The cultural diversification inherent in the small country of Papua New Guinea is truly incredible. The social environment at my last two assignments in PNG (Rabaul and Alotau) was totally different to Port Moresby or my experiences in the highlands (Porgera) where I lived for about three years - only a few hundred kilometres away. I could tell factual stories about life there (with no embellishments) even to local people about my previous experiences in PNG and they were amazed.
On this assignment it was arranged with a local bank for all the staff to open new bank accounts and their wages would be paid direct to their accounts. The bank staff efficiently arranged everything at the club using little tablets and portable machines to garner all the information; PIN numbers, take their photo and their signature on the tablet and give them a print out. Then they set up software on the office computer and - viola: complete automated new payroll procedure that they could also access on their mobile phones. We could not have done that with 'my' staff in Porgera where over half the staff were illiterate.
While I was closely involved with the business, office, systems, service and services aspects of the country club - I skirted clear of the actual golf shenanigans - of which I have absolutely zero knowledge. Just what is it with all those ornithological references by golfers - they seem to be always referring to exterminating strains of bird life. How can you 'score' a penguin (or whatever bird it is that they are currently victimising)?
So, the 'fun' flight/s home ..... Out of bed at 04.30 and head to the local airport (where it was all dark - no lights or movement). Eventually, was able to check in: standing in a queue behind one other guy, but with four local women in front of him with multiple luggage, then several of their friends would turn up later and join them at the head of the queue to be checked in. First up was a short 1 hour and 20 minute flight. Arrived Port Moresby domestic and walked up to international where I had been requested to wait to be debriefed by the volunteer organisation. So, waited on a hard and uncomfortable chair for ninety minutes - amid an enhanced ambience as they were renovating the terminal with lots of drilling, hammering and the screeching of power tools cutting steel and over 35c and no air conditioning. I was collected and taken to a local hotel for a relaxing coffee and the debrief. Back to the airport where they had not opened the departure lounge, and stood around with about 100 others for over an hour amid the raucous construction and sweating profusely with no air con until they deigned to open the customs and departure lounge. Then a three hour wait for the flight to Brisbane. Next was a long flight right across Australia to home.
For the return trip to home - not counting getting to and from airports each end - I was actually 'travelling' for 17 hours (7am to midnight) - 10 hours and 10 minutes of which were actually 'in the air' on 3 flights, for a total of 4,035 miles Rabaul-Port Moresby-Brisbane-Perth....Lordy me, I loathe flying (especially 'cattle class')!!! Still, I suppose I could consider that it represents a few more frequent flyer points in the 'bank'?
I had an interesting comment from the club manager that I think I take as a compliment: He said to me: You are not like the other 'experts' you are more like one of us"!
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