Past Adventures
February 2008
Hello all, Thanks for visiting the TCA’s website and reading our updates. The feedback we receive from you about the updates is most encouraging and often is the boost we need to keep going. So please keep them coming. This update covers September 2007 to February 2008.
Jim’s bit
The grant from the European Union has left little time for relaxation, there is just so much to get done. Since procuring a vehicle last May I have spent a lot of time on the Sepik Highway. Making sure that I always have at least four strong fellas with me we have moved a lot of cargo from Wewak to Lumi. I try to travel during daylight for security and safety reasons but there are often delays. One time I was coming into Wewak and it was about 8pm, so very dark, and the engine just stopped. Luckily we were walking distance from the Windjammer Hotel. We ended up having to push the car to the hotel, finding a bandaid solution to the problem and then sleeping in the only room available. There was six of us sleeping in a small room with two single beds.
The dry season is having its moments, however trips from Lumi to Wewak and back again are taking less time as I’m learning the road with it’s several pot-holes, landslips etc, etc, etc.
Our Distance Sampling research is well underway. This year is going to be the first year in which all of the teams will work independently of myself. I have a lot of confidence in our Research Officers and Distance Sampling Officers. There is such a feeling of pride amongst the teams that not only is it worthwhile from a research perspective but it forms a part of the glue that binds the organisation.
Jean’s Bit
During October I was busy conducting lots of capacity building training with the TCA Project Managers and Facilitators in preparation for the Health and Hygiene workshops and rabbit training.
During the first week of October I conducted a training course for the rabbit trainers which helped them prepare for the Ningal and Sibilanga rabbit training workshops. We talked about how people learn and emphasised that learning by doing is the best way for people to learn how to farm rabbits. I also wrote a step by step instruction manual in pidgin English for the trainers to use while they were on their own. Jim would be there to assist for some of the time but ideally a training manual was the way to go for the long term.
The rabbit trainers Sebi Baiwe (Wabute village) and Vincent Kelele (Wigote Village) were both very experienced rabbit farmers themselves breeding about 100 rabbits between them since they have been looking after rabbits in the village. After the training sessions we had together they seemed to feel a bit more confident and the manual was a relief for them too.
Jim’s Bit
Sebi and Vincent are really great guys. I enjoy their company a lot. We now have our own little sayings and jingles which is really cool. Now they were about to embark on their first ever rabbit course. I was going with them to supervise and step in if necessary. We were conducting the rabbit course at Ningal for some of the Weimang villages. We loaded up the car with food, rabbits and cages and drove to Ningal. The start of the course had the usual hiccups but got going only two hours late. Sebi and Vincent were great. They don’t need me here! ..I’m off to Wewak to move more water tanks.
Jean’s Bit
While Jim was at Ningal a couple of people from Tolgete had returned from doing Distance Sampling at Bibane. They had told me they had caught a Tenkile and had it in their village. To begin with I was a bit upset because we had always asked people not to catch them in case they were killed accidentally or injured during the capture. But then it became a bit of a blessing in disguise.
I rang Jim and he had already heard via bush telegraph, Chinese whispers or the radio that the animal had been caught. When he came back from Ningal he drove immediately to Fatima and picked up the live female Tenkile.
Jim's bit
Does it sound silly to say “Words cannot describe…”?
A live Tenkile I could not believe it. I first got the news in Ningal late in the afternoon (11th October) on the two way radio via Tolgete. The rabbit course had only just finished so I grabbed Vincent and we took off to see the Tenkile. It was getting dark, started raining and the fog lowered into the valleys. We got as far as Kafange River when we realised we could go no further. The river was in tide and so impassable. We had to wait another day.
I couldn’t sleep. There were so many “What ifs” going through my head. The next day was one to remember, “the 12th of October 2007”. We drove back to Lumi, dropped off the equipment, gave Jean and Tadji a kiss and pretty much drove straight to Fatima to collect the Tenkile.
The Tolgete Research Officer Pais Melik was with me and we made arrangements that would be beneficial to both TCA and Tolgete village. We agreed that TCA would look after the Tenkile in Lumi for approximately one month and then we would release it back in the mountains. Representative from Tolgete would be employed by TCA to look after the animal in Lumi.
We reached Fatima and it wasn’t too long until the Tenkile came to us in a makeshift bamboo cage. Amazingly there before my eyes was a healthy looking female Tenkile. She didn’t seem stressed at all and she had been through an ordeal in the past few days.
The Tenkile was named Suna which is a clan name from Tolgete village. She was captured during Distance Sampling at Bibane. Pais Melik was working on one of the transect lines when one of his workers saw movement in the canopy. There were three Tenkile in the one tree which is the first sighting we’ve had of this kind. All the workers were called in by Pais. They formed a circle around the tree and encouraged the Tenkile to move from the tree. They scampered down the tree somewhat before all three making jumps to escape. Suna was the slowest and was caught by the tail.
Suna survived her capture unharmed. Her captors placed her in a bush material cage and walked her back to the village where they immediately contacted Jean and myself.
We got Suna to Lumi, word had got around and there were dozens of people there to get their first ever glimpse of a Tenkile. Suna was placed in a small wire enclosure overnight. She was eating well and only showed stress when you got too close to her. A guttural grunt was emitted by Suna if you were within her comfort zone. The following morning Suna was placed in our tree kangaroo complex in an enclosure by herself.
Jean’s bit
The following week I spent training the facilitators and project officers in the 7 step PHAST (Participatory Health and Sanitation Transformation Process) which was a RWSSP requirement for delivering health and hygiene education in villages. It is a great process which clearly identifies 7 steps that villages can take to strategically implement new changes in facilities and behaviour into their communities.
The Facilitators, Alison Kufa (Maiwetem village), Aileen (Tolgete Village) and Irene and Gerry Sobin (Yomoum village) worked with the Project Officers Mathew Akon (Maiwetem), Patrick Ikon (Wigote) and Clancy Sumei and James Oso were also trained as back up teams. The three teams made up of two people went to each village and implement a series of activities based on the PHAST process. I wrote another step by step training manual in pidgin English for the facilitators to use in field.
The activities involves a series of laminated pictures that are used by members of the community to form stories and discussion for each step. The activities promote debate, discussion and therefore an awareness on various health and sanitation issues within the village. By the fourth stage people start to identify where they are able to make changes and how they can go about doing it. This process places real emphasis on community ownership and participation and this then drives the motivation amongst the community to see the project to completion.
By the end of the week I was exhausted because I was training through the day and then writing the manual at night. On the Friday I was at boiling point and lost it with the staff. After a few tears and apologies all relationships were mended before the facilitators and project officers were sent out to implement the activities in the villages.
Jim's Bit
I really didn’t want to stray too far from the Tenkile. Suna was such a relaxed, easy going animal and was so different from the Grizzleds and the Golden-mantled. Her demeanour was unlike other tree kangaroos. She seemed to know what she was going through and was quite accepting of the fact that she was in captivity.
We were taking measurements and counting the number of scats produced by Suna each day. The data was going to help us with our Distance Sampling work and will add to the little information that exists on the life history of Tenkile.
Shortly we were having Chris Banks (TCA Board-Chairperson) from Zoos Victoria visit us. Of course his timing couldn’t be better; the road was dry and we had a Tenkile in captivity.
Jean’s bit
The rabbit trainers did a great job with their workshop. There was a huge interest and many people attended, 50 plus people. This was great to show us their enthusiasm but not too good for the rabbit trainers who had to try and cater and train everyone with limited resources. We only had enough resource for about 40 people! But the trainers managed to do it really well and we received some great feedback. Needless to say that many other villages now want to be included in the TCA program even though they do not have ownership of the mountain area and the tree kangaroo habitat.
Once the Health and Hygiene Education (H & HE) trainers were trained we had to make a quick trip to Wewak just to finalise the toolkits for the facilitators and some other paper work . Once the H & HE project was up and running in the field this freed up a bit more time for myself to catch up on some TCA housecleaning – termites had once again taken over our bedroom and the rats had been conducting rave parties in the bush house. So yet another clean up was done.
Tadji and I arrived back in Lumi via plane the day before Chris and Jim arrived on road.
Jim's Bit
It was now the end of October and I met Chris Banks in Wewak. We only spent a day in Wewak before tackling the Sepik Highway to Lumi. We made it back in about seven and a half hours which is pretty good time.
In Lumi a lot of people came to meet Chris to tell him what they thought about the program. Chris received mostly praise and compliments about TCA, however a few demands were made to him which was unfortunate. Some people feel they should be rewarded for all their volunteer work.
During Chris’s visit we trekked to the Amnembe Distance Sampling site. Chris got to see the workers in action collecting data. We didn’t get to see any tree kangaroos in the wild but the weather behaved itself and the view from the basecamp to the coast was most impressive.
Jean’s Bit
It was great having Chris stay with us and being able to show him all the hard work we have done first hand. It is very difficult to explain to people the complexity of this kind of grassroots development and conservation work. You really need to live it to appreciate the complexities and importance of the work we do.
By early November we were on our own again and continuing on with keeping tabs on the Health and Hygiene workshops. The Facilitators and Project Officers were doing a very good job out in the field with great photos coming in to Lumi to down load on the computer and stories to tell. Many villages commented that the activities taught them that what they were doing was not right and that they would now try and change their ways by building new toilets and start washing their hands.
Jim's Bit
Chris stayed with us for about two weeks. It was really important for TCA to have one of its board members come and see us in the field. We hope that such visits are more frequent.
After seeing Chris off in Wewak I drove back to Lumi and made a few more trips in the car moving cargo for the rural water supply program.
Now it was time to release Suna back into the wild. We placed her back into her small wire cage and drove all the way to Fatima station. We then walked all the way to Tolgete village where there was a huge welcoming committee. A big celebration took place the following day, songs were performed and of course there was a big feast. This was a big deal and there was a huge recognition of TCA’s work. Some women were crying saying “We’ve had no development until you came and now Tenkile has come back to us”.
The next day a small group of us walked to the Bibane Distance Sampling site where Suna was caught five weeks before. Suna became very excited the closer we got to the basecamp, she hardly ate the whole journey. Early the next morning she was set free. For some reason she ran to me, looked up and then scampered into the bush. The Tolgete’s said it’s because she knows you are trying to save her kind and she is saying thankyou. Whatever the reason it was a great ending to a successful event.
Having Suna come to us unharmed and then putting her back in the mountains is probably the best set of events I’ve had in my conservation career.
Jean’s Bit
It was nice having a Tenkile in our animal collection. But much nicer knowing that she was going back into her natural habitat and hopefully able to breed and build up the population. She was such a quiet animal. It was no wonder she was caught!
After Chris left for Wewak I got stuck into managing the “T” training. The carpenters and plumbers worked together to come up with a two day practical workshop on building Toilets, Tanks, and Tippy Taps. We had a huge turnout again with about 20 people and both men and women were involved which was great. The guys did a great job building the cement flooring for the new VIP toilets and the wiz bang tippy taps designed by RWSSP. The tippy tap is simple idea involving a 2 litre plastic container or bamboo filled with water and a string attached so that the water gently tips out when pulled so that it acts like a tap – hence the name “tippy tap”.
This could just be a bit of a gimmick and not last but it is a good tool to motivate the communities and get the children involved in hand-washing practice.
Back to the paper work again. I managed to get us up to date with most things by the end of November. Mid November the rabbit trainers returned from their second rabbit training workshop held in Sibilanga. Due to poor road conditions they went via MAF plane. We travelled with them and continued on to Wewak when I left for Australia. It was a great relief knowing we had completed all of the tasks we had set out to do and we ticked off all the boxes. The only thing that is on hold until next year is the conservation area training which will begin in early 2008 when we return to Lumi and by that time we will hopefully have an education centre or classroom which will be a much nicer environment to teach and train from.
Jim's Bit
Jean left on the 7th of December and I stayed a few weeks more to conduct our last meeting with the Tenkile villages and to hand over the reigns to Patrick Ikon. Patrick is by far our best Project Officer and took great care of the TCA Base in Lumi when we rushed back to Australia in May.
The TCA meeting went well although I missed Jean’s input and minute taking skills. There is much more ownership of TCA by the stakeholders which is great and exactly what we want to see happen. I feel confident, that in time, the majority of TCA’s work will be in the hands of the locals.
I left TCA Base-Lumi with Patrick in charge. He had access to everything except our bedroom. Every Sunday, network permitting, he would call me in Australia. All is well and he has done a great job maintaining the status quo and supervising some small projects.
We are now on our way back after some weeks in Australia. It’s been a good break for us, the best we’ve had since we started in 2003, and we are looking forward to getting back into the grind of our conservational development.
