Driving

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I have a new understanding for potholes since moving to Lae.  Driving through town is better defined as off-roading as the number and size of the potholes are as varied as the strategies for driving around them.  Many of the potholes are more than a foot deep and there are potholes that would eat an entire car, in one case the potholes resemble inverse speed bumps occurring every 20 feet.  I thought it would be weird driving on the left side of the road (or should I say riding as I am just a passenger) but with the potholes we are just as often on the right side of the road as we are on the left.

They recently redid the road from Lae to Unitech which used to be a dangerous 7 kilometer stretch of potholes.  If you drove slowly to avoid damage to car and self you risked being held up – so no one liked to go into town and no one from town would come out to Unitech.  I have been told multiple times that I am lucky to have this new road – definitely not something I would’ve thought to appreciate back home.

Shopping in Lae

Monday, October 12, 2009

I have an entire house and yard to buy for, including a bathroom mirror, as I have been getting ready with a compact.  There is a shopping strategy used here which means that you have to visit all of the shops, for instance if you are grocery shopping you go to all three grocery stores and possibly the market as well in order to find what’s on your list.  You also have to do this in a strategic order based on price as they often carry the same items but some are aimed at the Expats while others are aimed at the Nationals.  The stores aimed at expats charge more for the same items because many of the expats will only shop there.  In actuality most necessities can be purchased inexpensively when compared to the US; however, there are odd items that will suddenly be really expensive for no apparent reason other than that they are imported and there isn’t much competition.  The other oddity, for me, is that many things  simply run out and then can’t be found again for months or, so I’ve been told, sometimes never again.    

Initially I had these ideals about how well coordinated and cute my house would be, but in reality you can’t buy stuff that is not available.  Michael, who also just moved into his new house, and I start our trip at the extremely cheap ‘Chinese Import  Store’ where I think some of my best purchases come from.  I buy a mirror with a lovely gold frame, some very brightly colored towels and a beautiful shower curtain with purple flowers.  The next stop is Papindo, only slightly higher in price and home of the only escalator in town.  Directly beyond the plastic flower display I find some dishes and coffee mugs which are actually quite nice and shockingly muted in color.  They are unfortunately out of white fabric for curtains, and on this one item I really do not want to budge.  I refuse to have lime green or bright pink or any other color or floral/animal print for my curtains.  I hope it doesn’t take long for them to restock the white… 

At Digicell* I purchase a phone but all of the shops were out of sim cards, so I still don’t have a number.  Our next stop is the hardware store and then the Morobe Stationary shop to check for a book that was supposed to be in a few weeks ago – ‘maybe next week?’ the clerk informs us (you hear that phrase a lot here).  Next we went to Bryan Bell (this is the ‘over-priced’ expat store), where Michael purchases a large bush knife (for gardening of course) and my purchases include a Plunger, Aussie for French Press, so that I can start making some of the wonderful PNG coffee in the morning.  Our final stop for the afternoon is Andersons, for some groceries.  My favorite purchase is a scoop of the chocolate ice-cream for 1 kina** made by the local Swiss dairy mission – it is absolutely delicious!  At this point we have to stop shopping because there is no more room in the car for anything.   We drive home, me holding our new glasses and eggs in my lap,  hoping they won’t break as Michael navigates the many potholes.

*Digicel is the second cell phone company in PNG, a few years ago there was a war between the two cell phone companies and everyone had to carry one of each because the two phone companies phones weren’t compatible and you couldn’t call someone who had a phone from the other company. 

**1 USD ~ 3 Kina

Sunday

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Lae is quite a bit different than what I had pictured, as I had pictured something closer to an American city with a few taller office buildings downtown, larger apartment buildings, etc.  I had seen a picture of tall office buildings in Port Moresby on wikipedia and prior to arriving the majority of my knowledge was word of mouth and wikipedia.  In actuality Lae is very industrial, lots of corrugated metal warehouses, various manufacturing and shipping companies.  For the most part the city turns its back, architecturally speaking, on the water.   Most of the neighborhoods are surrounded by tall walls with barb-wire fence and non-armed security guards sitting outside.

While the population is estimated at around 150,000+ the town appears to be much smaller.  I had been wondering where the rest of the city was and then Roger made a very good point.  The shops are used to support mostly expats and the wealthier Nationals while the majority of the population exists only in ‘temporary’ settlements and surrounding villages and eat off the land and from the farms in the highlands.  Some of the members of the families or tribes will grow the food while others will go and get it and sell it in the various markets.  As Vero and Hennie had told me the first day on the way from the airport the land ownership rules here are very much in favor of the tribes.  The government doesn’t own any of the land and it’s very difficult to buy it from the tribes.  They said that even if the government does manage to get a contract and buy land the tribes, another tribe might come along and say that it was their land and reclaim it as there aren’t land surveys and titles.  This means that the majority of the land seen while driving around is still owned by the tribes (~97%).

What I think is unique is that while there are differences in wealth here it doesn’t appear that anyone is starving – the land is so rich in food that it seems everyone can find plenty to eat.  Granted I have not been to the poorest areas yet nor up in the more rural villages so only speak of the tiny area I have seen in Lae.  Maybe it is because of this that there doesn’t seem to be the extreme upper and lower class differences that I have observed in other countries.  Again, I have only been here a few days and so speak from a very naive point of view.

Students

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I had my first introduction to the students and some of their work yesterday as I sat through reviews for First, Second and Fourth year students.  The fifth year students are busy getting there thesis done which is due in a few weeks.  It’s nice to know that architecture students don’t get sleep anywhere in the world…

The first year student make very nice models of the traditional housing which is still being built around the country for their Vernacular Architecture Class.  For the vernacular models the students go outside to get their materials from the many varieties of local vegetion.  There is a big emphasis here on preserving and continuing the long tradition of cultural designs that have been used here for thousands of years.

Today there was an end of the year BBQ at the Milani’s, most of the students showed up 2 or 3 hours late, also known as ‘Melanesian Time’.  Talked with a few of the students and staff but many of them are very shy.

My House

Friday, October 9, 2009

After an afternoon of student reviews Roger came up to me with keys – keys to my new house that he had gotten from the University.  It’s a raised duplex house on a corner lot.  I have three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room downstairs – it seems especially huge after living in New York.  The university has just renovated the house so appliances are all new, including a new washing machine 🙂  It is very open with lots of windows, ventilation and partially furnished with a table, some chairs and beds.  The walls are, well, quite yellow, and as is typical in PNG all the doors are blue.  Part of this new renovation includes the yard, which means hacking down all of the trees and plants.  Stuff grows here so quickly that this seems to be a typical standard.  It’s nice for me because it gives me a clean palatte to grow all sorts of flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Living Room

Living Room

The minute I walked into my house my neighbor, Carla, came and introduced herself, she is the 23 year old daughter of a professor on campus and immediately offered to help me.  She went home and brought me sheets to hang in my windows because as she put it, I am ‘quite exposed’.  Which is true, I am sort of like the accident on the interstate, everyone who walks down my street looks up at my house to see the new resident.  After Carla two more neighbors came to introduce themselves and check on me.

I will post pictures later as the Unitech’s web browser is not allowing picture uploads.

Thursday

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Attempted to get a few things done today, and in true PNG fashion, I don’t believe anything was fully accomplished.  Did not move into my house, did not open a bank account, nor get a phone.  I did go into town with Rahim and Marsha to run errands and see the town, but many of the stores and banks were closed due to a tsunami warning earlier in the day.

Part of Lae is nicknamed ‘Top Town’, because it sits higher than the other part, (just in case that wasn’t obvious).  Unitech is even further away from the water and a bit higher so there is no cause for concern about tsunamis.

Marsha showed me the ins-and-outs of the markets and the best place to buy fish, all sorts of vegetables and fruit that are grown locally and that I’ve never heard of before now. I had dinner at their place, fish with coconut milk, soup, cauliflower – all from scratch and entirely locally grown or caught!  Needless to say it was absolutely delicious.

In Lae

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Port Moresby to Lae

My first glimpses of the country from the airplane are beautiful, we fly right over villages cut away from the jungle and then towards the bay that the port city of  Lae was built around.  The flight is over before it has really begun we deboard in the stifling heat reflecting from the tarmac and wait inside the airport next to a window with plastic flaps hanging down.  A truck backs a flatbed trailer up to the window and then a man begins handing the 10 or so of us our luggage through the window. I am picked up by Hennie and Vero, both Unitech staff, the drive to the University is about 40 minutes and passes small villages before going through the ‘City’ of Lae.

Hennie and Vero explain to me that many of the highlanders come down from the mountains to sell their produce and build the very beautiful, temporary local structures that we are passing.  Lae does not look like a city, rather a town, maybe we just drove through the edge?

Apparently my house is not ready so I will be staying in the guest house for the night.  They think my house will be ready tomorrow, I am a bit suspicious that this might be one of those things that takes a while and ‘tomorrow’ may in fact mean next month.

I am so tired, but I don’t want to sleep.  I have been in my room for about half an hour when Roger, a faculty member, in the Department of Architecture and building comes by to introduce himself.  Roger invites me to an ex-pat social this evening.  A few minutes later Professor Rahim Milani stops by to welcome me.  We go next door where his wife, Marsha, fixes us lunch.  She serves pineapple and bananas which are both fresh from her garden and are absolutely amazing!  I walk over to the department where Roger shows me around and introduces me to a number of the staff who are around, including Rose, Anita, Andrew, Michael, Ken Pollan and a number of other faculty and staff members – my head is swimming with names and faces.

Port Moresby

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I sit next to Dave and his family on the plane to Port Moresby, the capital of PNG.  Dave has been living in PNG for 3 years on one of several of the Australian military bases and has been filling me in on the state of the country, from security to corruption in government.  I have to admit this makes me a bit more nervous, but it’s a little late to turn around now.  The airport is small, very small, their one shop is a duty free shop, which consists of a 15 foot wall with a few cartons of cigarettes, and not much else.   This, I realize, is the countries main airport…

Despite numerous warnings I have received I quickly find out how helpful people can be here.  Dave helps get me through the long immigrations line quickly and with relief I finally see my large suitcase on the one baggage claim carousel; I had last seen it in New York and wondered if it was even possible that it could make it all the way to PNG on three different airlines.  I watch as the customs agents go through every bag, unpacking entire suitcases article by article and think there is no way I will be able to repack all my suitcases, much less make my flight if they actually go through everything!  I tell the guy directing traffic that I had a flight to catch hoping I’d be able to cut again which didn’t work, but when it was my turn he waived me through. 

Once in the international terminal I approached a security guard to ask where I check in for Lae, he not only showed me, but helped me by escorting me to the desk and then to the domestic terminal (a five minute walk) and then through the security in the domestic side.  Somehow in Port Moresby, one of the world’s most dangerous capitols, I definitely had somebody looking out for me.  Maybe because I am a single, white female in a country that supposedly doesn’t respect females people go out of their way to lookout for me.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Airport

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Arrive at the Hong Kong airport at 7 in the morning on Tuesday, Monday was lost somewhere over the Pacific.  The Hong Kong airport is a very elegant, and graceful structure designed by Sir Norman Foster.  After passing through immigration, customs and a dozen warnings on the swine flu I follow the numerous signs to a facility offering rooms by the hour (not what you are thinking), showers and breakfast.  I pay for a shower, and realize that this might be the nicest shower facility I will use for quite some time.  Feeling human again, luggage in a locker and maps from the friendly tourist desk in hand, I take the very modern train to Hong Kong Center.  The views from the train of the land, sea and city are strikingly beautiful.

I follow a walking tour in one of the maps which leads me through ancient markets nestled in between the ultra-modern skyscrapers, selling every variety of dried fish, roots, mushrooms, fuzzy deer antlers, ginger and of course dinausour bones.  These markets are surprisingly not aimed at tourists as not a single English translation was to be found and the vendors grow shy, ducking behind their counters as I pass.  I was hoping to find some ancient cure, for what, I am not sure.

Hong Kong Street Market

Bus in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Temple

I spend the rest of the afternoon wandering aimlessly, stopping in a traditional temple filled with incense for the dead, taking the world’s longest escalators up the hill and walking to the botanical gardens.  The lack of sleep and aimless walking were catching up to me so after a quick meal of dim sum I head back to the airport to catch my flight to my new country.