Independence Celebrations!

 Independence Celebration!! Just fantastic to be involved with this. My group were great at kitting me out with custom dress and were uber keen to learn a haka (I don't really know any hakas....). But was great fun teaching them to sing Pokarekare ana and then changed e te ariki into a haka and whammo! Maori item in the middle of a PNG culture night. (As one group member said "We longer eating flesh and are glad that other countries are safe to come here now so we celebrate their culture too"...!)

 Akia painting us up...

 And spot the white girl....

 I swear I'm not actually this white but it is an extreme flash photo!!

 Following the cultural night we had a day of sport which started well. Classics such as Coconut shotput, and then this relay of running to collect a coconut, husking it and then scraping. Despite my practicing at husking and scraping I was still added to the kids race (kids and foreigners) and then delegrated the running leg. I completed this complete with an epic slide finish as I delievered my coconut to the scraper person. Running in mud isn't a problem but stopping is!

 Firelighting and bow and arrow competition were followed by the not-so-traditional tug of war and limbo. Tug Of War would have made a southland easter camp proud as it was torrential rain and nothing but mud to stick your feet into, and much yelling and yahooing!!!

Finally it was flying fox time, which everyone LOVED! Certainly wasn't OSH approved and I lamented that I have been corrupted by OSH safety standards but then thought it was ok as Im still alive....anyway, no-one died and i only had to look away a few times as kids fell off the ladder and dropped into the creek below.

Heading out to Port Moresby in 2 days time to wait there for a few days until i fly to Australia. Have had a mission trying to organise this but are thankful that we have just found out we can go. The other option was a 4 day boat trip! 

Th story of Wowobo Village

I recently had the priviledge of heading to a small village called Wowobo about 4hrs away from Kapuna. It was a great boat ride, going from one major river system to another through a network of narrow waterways and different size rivers. Our mission was to support a group of mothers who have started teaching the village children. 15 years ago the government run school was closed down and the village told they were not allowed to build any new buildings or get any new services. The village is the proposed site for the end of the new Highlands-Gulf highway and deep water port on their front doorstep. Hasn't happened yet. So, in true spirit of when you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, these mothers have marched down and lit the light themselves, offering a new enthusiasm for school along with new opportunities.

 Our first activity was a very entertaining game of mud soccer. One of the favourites in this province!!! Fantastic to watch and I wished I had joined in, although i don't think the kids would have been so into it if there was a white female adult playing with them! I stuck with paparazzi photography.

 Evening the whole village turned out for a game of Volleyball which was a fun way to spend the rest of daylight after meetings and the days work.

 The next day we had about 30 kids in the village long house for school. They were excited to show off their alphabet, numbers, shapes, colours and singing to us. Those who didn't have paper got a stick and drew their letters in the clay ground. We only had to turn a few 5's around and get them doing some letters in the correct way. On the whole though very good and a few bright kids!

After about 4 hours of songs, games, alphabet, maths and reading we were ready to call it a day (us more than the kids probably) and we wandered back home for some lunch and to wait for our dinghy to come and collect us. 

I loved being in the village and will remember it as a highlight of my time here i think.

Swamp day and Children's Day!

 Thursday was a school field trip up th river to the swamp! Great fun!! This is a fishing camp on the bank of the river. So not a permanent village but people will spend time here fishing before returning to their village.

 How many men can you fit in a canoe? Apparently this was a rugby team going downriver for a game! They didn't have much freeboard!

 Some of my students (from left Ken, Issachar, Abel and Shem). I think the favourite part of the trip for them was seeing of they could shot birds with the slingshot.

 Exploring up a river into the swamp. Great fun, with crocodiles, creeper vines, funny looking Dr Suess trees and torrential rain.

 When it wasn't raining it was lovely. Saw a few crocs poking their heads up in this spot.

 Saturday was a kids day for the surrounding villages which was good fun. Here te older kids are doing some bible quiz games and getting ready for some relays.

All the kids learning "Jesus got heaps of lambs". I didn't teach them the verse about ninja turtles as they had no idea what ninja turtles are but we made up a few verses that were more relevant to PNG. Went down a treat.!

Off the a village for a few days this week to check out a school. Should be great.