Final crits

Monday, May 31, 2010

Remember the days?

We have 2 guest crits from the Forest and Research Institute (FRI) in Lae as the project was a research lab / visitor’s center at the Botanical gardens run by the FRI.  Since they don’t have a program yet the students were partially responsible for coming up with a program that might get the FRI thinking about what elements they would like in their future center.  It is nice for the students to get someone’s opinion, besides mine, on their projects.

I forgot my camera so all the pictures are from one of my students, different students took turns taking pictures on it.

un-bbq

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Tonight I’m hosting a bbq for around a hundred or so of the architecture-building students.  Pretty much that means their food from the mess hall will be brought to my house and served there.  I think that they will provide the meat un-cooked and we will grill it.  It’s actually probably the easiest event I’ve ever hosted.  Chairs and tables are dropped off at my house and the only thing I’m doing is showing up, oh, and attempting to show a movie.  I want to show Ferris Bueller because everytime I ask a question no one answers so I say ‘anyone, anyone?’ and I know they have no idea what I’m referring to.  Around 5 I find out that we won’t even have to grill, the meat will already be cooked too.  That’s a little disappointing because grilling is half the fun.  Oh well, rolling with it.  The electricity goes off around 5:15, still rolling with it.  Students start showing up around 6 and pretty soon there are quite a few of them helping set up chairs, bamboo torch lamps (mmm…the smell of kerosene fills the air) and Vero brings the food.

The electricity comes on for a few minutes and then off again (re-lighting all the torches), someone is playing music from their phone, that helps, otherwise it’s just too quiet.  Students swoop down on the food and before you know it, it is all gone, yikes!  Electricity comes back on, Michael and I set up the projector but for some reason it’s not connecting and showing the computer screen- so much for a movie.  After ice-cream most of the students clear out, a few stick around to help clean up, they are always good about that.  Cain has been here the whole time to help and now he’s a huge help putting everything away.  The only problem is that he can’t get back into his compound as the gates will be locked.  He has some family he says he can go stay with on campus, so that’s good.  So by 9 pm everything is put away and it’s over…some party…

just another day

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Susanne and I are running errands in town around noon, we have just had brunch with the Lae Lionness club and have dropped off Karen, a New Zealander at her home.  We are stuck behind a pmv and potholes, she is focused on the road.  I happen to see someone running out of the corner of my eye and look over to see what is going on.  At first it appears he is just running parallel to the car on the other side of a ditch, but then I realize he’s focused on us.  In Susanne’s car the passenger window is the only window that works (in Wendy’s it’s the driver’s side window that works).  I don’t want to jump to conclusions but in a split-second I realize he’s aiming for us.  I start rolling up the window, lock the door and shout go to Susanne.  Just as he reaches the car the PMV is out of the way, we get out of the pothole, the window is shut and the door is locked.  He swings at the car barely hitting it with his hand about a foot from my face.

My adrenaline is pumping and we are both freaked out by the near incident.  I’m not sure what he was attempting to do, to scare us, to grab a purse through the window, to jump in the car?  He obviously saw an easy target in us and if his goal was to scare us it worked.

Our next stop is the main market, which is a great spot for pick-pocketers.  Susanne needs to go to get fruit for her brunch tomorrow.  I’m wishing we could just skip it…I really don’t feel up to another incident this morning and that definitely put me on edge.

Finals…

Friday, May 28, 2010

Delayed, almost nobody is completely ready to present, and I had kind of figured this would happen.  Last Monday nobody had accomplished much over the weekend.  I decide to delay their presentation until next Monday, I’d rather they have better projects and more complete drawings in the long run.  At 1pm (when their presentations are supposed to start) only about half the class is around, apparently the rest are sleeping?  or printing?  I’m not sure but I give them 15 more minutes to sweat it out and then tell those who are there that they will present on Monday.  I also lecture those that are there one the point of being on time to your presentations…why?  Because I can’t tell those who aren’t there.  I hate giving those lectures, but I do it anyways.  Hopefully they will be fully prepared by Monday.

Wendy gets her ‘stuff’

So much stuff!

…and only 4 months after dropping it off in Virginia it arrives in Lae…(don’t use the company she used!)

I can just see the fun we’re going to have 🙂  (I help – part of the deal since I’m going to be getting a lot of her clothes that she no longer wants …)

Look she’s so happy – like a kid in a candy store…

…waiting for the sugar-high to wear off.

Last lecture!!!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

I made it!… well, at least for this semester…

I just finished my last history lecture in regional architectural history.  I thought when I started teaching I was done with the late nighters…  unfortunately this history class proved to be a challenge but I definitely learned a lot myself, which is sort of the point.  I’ve never taken an architectural history course on Eastern arch history so trying to teach one on the topic…well…interesting and now I really want to travel to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia (I could keep going).

I taught from the origins of civilization forwards and at the Hagia Sophia, instead of turning left like all of the classes I have taken have done, I turned right towards the Dome of the Rock.  I made up the structure of the entire class, I didn’t have a book I liked, so thanks to the internet (when it worked) and many other people’s photographs (so happy people share that stuff on the internet) as well as mega amounts of scanning, I managed to get through it.  I did use Banister Fletcher’s, very technical and extremely dull book as a reference but decided it was better for the students, and my own knowledge to structure the class based on various influences of architecture.  So after a brief overview of Eastern Architecture my topics include ‘Philosophy and Religion,’ ‘Environment & Climate,’ ‘Materials & Construction,’ ‘Landscape & Building’ etc.  What I really want them to grasp is an understanding of why architecture has evolved in different ways and secondly to be able to identify where a building is from based on traditional forms, materials, etc.

I have to say that the lectures started off a bit rough, but there is always next year to improve and hopefully next year I will have some better resources.  There is a problem with choosing your own topics for teaching a class and not having resources that back it up in a straight forward manner, it just takes a lot more time.  I did realize after a few classes that I could ‘simplify’ the lectures, these are 2nd year students so they are still learning the basics, that helped me a lot.  I also learned that if I asked them questions I could tell when they understood what I was talking about (haha, yes, that should have been more obvious).  Often what I thought was a fairly simple concept was not understood because the background knowledge I would assume they had wasn’t in place.

While there is major room for improvement on my part in this course I think it has a good structure and the projects are interesting.  Today they present a contemporary building (chosen from a list I provided them) and analyze it based on the topics taught in the class.  Most of them do a good job (they obviously had some internet help themselves – but who am I to judge?)

So now I can take a huge sigh of relief for a moment before I start looking at what I will be teaching next semester…

comings and goings

Monday, May 24, 2010

People are always coming and going here, some for short stays, some for longer but there always seems to be someone ‘going pinis’ and someone new coming to stay.  Today Sarah heads back to Australia after being here about 6 months doing research in the tree tops.  (Apparently some very good research as Harvard has contacted her for post doc work).  We say goodbye, then as Susanne and I drive back to campus she tells me she’s probably leaving next week, oh and Michael is probably leaving soon too.  He was planning on staying longer but is battling his 7th case of Malaria in less than a year and the current one has been really bad.  It’s just not good for your liver nor worth the longterm health risk.  So many people leaving!  Hope there are some new ones coming soon.

POM

May 21-23, 2010

Friday

So my only glimpse of Port Moresby (POM) was back in October when I spent less than an hour in the airport.  I had flown from New York, to Los Angeles to Hong Kong and then POM and finally to Lae.  The POM airport, the planes, and everything appeared pretty tiny to me at the time, and the Lae airport, even tinier.  Amazing what 7 months can do to one’s perspective.  Now even the Lae airport doesn’t seem sooo small and the POM airport, well it’s downright ‘normal.’  I think it’s time to get out for a few days.

Tribal wars

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Just received this email that was sent by the Lae Chamber of Commerce to its members regarding some fighting that has been happening in Bulolo which is a town about 2 hours drive from here:

The Bulolo fight which raged on Tuesday and Wednesday this week was a particularly nasty affair. Whilst the initial fight was due to the death of a local youth by a Biwat youth in a drunken brawl, it wasn’t long before the local villagers and Morobe settlers, used the death as an excuse to get rid of the Sepik settlers altogether. The main battle took place on Wednesday when over 2,000 villagers from Watut, Bulolo, Mumeng and Morobe settlers from Garaina and Waria overran the Bulolo station and burnt down over 200 Sepik homes. The Police did not have time to amass their troops in sufficient numbers to be a deterrent and so they had to watch whilst the villagers raised Karanas and other settlements to the ground.

A special Provincial Law & Order meeting was held yesterday and important decisions were made:

1.     Recommendation for a declaration of the Bulolo District as a Fighting Zone

2.      Select members for a “Peace Mediation Committee” to mediate on the fight

 

The Police have been able to bring in more troops today:

Mobile force members from Mobile Squad 4 (McGregor Barracks POM) arrived 5.30pm yesterday (9pax)

Mobile force members from Mobile Squad 4 (McGregor Barracks POM) arrived 10.00 am today (9 pax)

Total police strength on ground 10.30 am today (70)

 

MP Sam Basil arrived at 10.00 am today and has spent the entire day mediating with the villagers.

 

The battle scene was quiet today.

 

There are an estimated 1,000 displaced Sepik people (men, women and children) who have lost everything – houses, clothes and all personal belongings. It is not clear what the future of these settlers will be but what is clear there is a desperate need for support initially, and temporary shelters will need to be erected. What is required urgently is:

1.     Food

2.     Tarpaulins

3.     Bottled water

If any member is able to help by donating necessary supplies please advise this office, or even better deliver the relief goods direct to the PNG Forest Products Voco Point yard, from where they will be transported to Bulolo.

Crying rat

Tuesday, May18, 2010

There has been this smell in my house for almost a week.  At first I’d just get a whiff every now and again but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.  It is getting worse by the day and I still don’t know what it is.  Then this morning I walk by the fridge and smell it.  It’s not coming from inside the fridge but from behind it.

It dawns on me -it’s probably something that has died inside the back of the fridge, I really hope it’s not a rat.  I go home at lunch and it is getting much worse, it’s so bad that even thinking about it makes my stomach curl.  The more I think about the more it has to be something rotting and it’s most definitely a rat.  I have images of the decomposing body I’ll find when I open up the back of it and I feel sick.  I just cannot deal.

I leave with Wendy to go to the debate team where she suggests I offer 5 kina to whomever will get rid of it for me.  The students look at me like I’m crazy (so maybe 5 kina isn’t enough?  I don’t know, what’s the going rate for dead rotting rat body removal?)  I still think I’m gonna be sick.

We have a speaker giving facts on HIV in PNG for the debate team (the debate team debates HIV related issues).  In 2008 there were nearly 25,000 people who tested positive for HIV and it has been increasing since then, that’s out of a population of about 6 million.

Back to the rat – the meeting ends about 15 minutes early so Wendy tells everyone to come help me dispose of my dead rat.  (I love Wendy!)  We pack 6 of the guys into the POS and head to my house.  The smell has gotten worse!  They pull the fridge out and unscrew the back cover.  There is no rat, no decomposing, rotting body of any kind in fact.  Just ‘viscous,’ rotting water from when I didn’t have electricity for 4 days.  One of the guys says it’s not that bad, he deals with a lot worse in chemistry (what are they working with in those labs???)

So once again I am the girl who cried rat…