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April 2006

Jim's bit
The wet season is here and the road from Wewak to Lumi is very bad. We needed supplies for ourselves and the gardening courses we are going to conduct. There was also a lot of photocopying that needed to be done. I flew to Wewak on the Cessna 206 and spent a week doing all the shopping and the usual running around. Fortunately, our friend Philip had given me the use of a vehicle. Driving around Wewak in an air-conditioned car makes things so much easier.

Jean's bit
While I was in Lumi waiting for Jim to return, I was busy organising everything for the next three weeks of gardening training.

I was getting a bit concerned about having enough food for everyone because the only plane operating in the area was becoming more and more unreliable. Fortunately, Jim managed to get a heap of food onto the plane on Friday which would cover us for the next month or so and feed all of the people who were about to stay with us during that time.

On Sunday, the two trainers and about 14 people arrived to attend the first gardening workshop. Three people from each village were invited to attend. Some villages sent 2 - 3 people while one decided to send 5 people (they thought it was 3 males and 3 females) once again "chinese" whispers rear their ugly heads and confusion sets in. As it turned out, one village only had one representative so we had space for the extras.

Mathew Waisi and Andrew Saimbu from Rawete village were invited to conduct the workshops due to their expertise in nutrition and gardening. They were great trainers, using local language and really relating to the people and appealing to their needs at the village level. Something we cannot do as ex-pats working in the area.

Throughout the week, Mathew and Andrew showed the participants how to choose an area of ground to establish a garden and they dug a large garden for us at the house in Lumi. Later they sterilised the soil, planted seeds and made home-made pesticides. The garden area they made will be maintained by us in Lumi and later the foods harvested for our own use and also for supplementing the rabbits diet.

Jim's bit
I flew back into Lumi on the Saturday. All of the cargo I'd sent had arrived safely which was a huge relief. Now I had to organise things for the construction of a bush house to accommodate all the villagers who were come to Lumi for meetings and training courses. For the past three years we've always had people sleep on our verandah. This has caused tight squeezes especially when we've had twenty five or so guests. We are having a bush house built which will accommodate about thirty people. I had to make sure we had enough materials to see the carpenters through until I got back from my next patrol.

I have to travel to Sibilanga to officially open the Weimang Program/Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo Program. If all goes well I should be back in Lumi in eight days or so.

Jean's bit
Jim was only back in Lumi for a couple of days before he headed off again to start the Golden-mantled hunting moratorium in Sibilanga. I had the second lot of workshop participants arrive on the following Sunday night with 2-3 reps from all of the Fatima villages.

Once again Mathew and Andrew did a great job and related even better to this crew because they are also from the Fatima area. One great initiative the participants decided to follow-up on was to establish their own gardening group which would work together and seek help in marketing their garden produce to ensure the sustainability of the project. Sounds great in theory, but probably not practical with the current road and plane problems.

After Jim left Lumi, there was a dispute amongst locals and the MAF agents that resulted in the closure of Lumi airport indefinitely. The bridge problem also meant that no car can access the Lumi area. These two problems have caused great concern for us as well as other locals in business, public service, schools, health sector, etc. Hopefully, all will be resolved in the near future.

Jim's bit
As I was boarding the plane in Lumi, there was a huge drama. One of the businessmen was very frustrated with the plane company MAF because his cargo had been sitting in Aitape for three months. Instead of hitting a pillow he decided to hit the MAF agent instead. He did this in full view of myself and the pilot. Subsequently, MAF closed the Lumi airstrip. Oh my goodness! I would now have to walk back to Lumi if this dispute was not resolved within the next week or so.

The plane was only travelling as far as Angugunak which meant I would have to walk all the way to Sibilanga again. I stayed a night at the guesthouse, found two carriers and began the long walk to Sibilanga along the highway. We stayed a night at Wasisi and made it to Sibilanga the next day. The carriers and I were exhausted.

Sibilanga is a beautiful spot and the view is just amazing. I had a couple of days before the official opening of the Weimang program which gave me time to recover and to talk about conservation awareness at the school.

The culture of the Sibilanga area is quite different from the Lumi area. I felt very comfortable with the people here and one family in particular took really good care of me. Sibilanga has an old guesthouse with a flushing toilet, a fridge, stove and lights. The only thing was they didn't have was fuel for the generator. Not to worry, the good ol' kerosene lamp will do. The family down the road cooked all my meals which was fine by me.

If we can, we'll make Sibilanga our base for this program. I spoke with the station manager and the community leaders about us staying at the guesthouse in the future. They were only too happy to support the idea. The guesthouse just needs a few renovations, - oh, and fuel for the generator of course.

The Sibilanga school has nine teachers who teach up to year eight. I spoke to all year levels about all the work we do, conservation and of course tree kangaroos. The official opening of the Weimang program went well with many village representatives attending. Some villages did not make it due to the poor weather conditions - but overall it was a successful day. I took a lot of photos and sent them with a covering story to the PNG newspapers.

I stayed in Sibilanga for four days. I had done what I had to do, had made many more contacts and felt really good about the start of this program. Now I had to walk all the way back to Lumi. MAF were still not flying to Lumi and the pilot had not yet been accredited to fly into Sibilanga.

The carriers I hired in Angugunak (John & Anton) had stayed in Sibilanga the whole time and the three of us walked back to Lumi. This trip (footslog) caused me to collapsed for a few days when I got home.

Jean's bit
Jim was present for the last gardening workshop during March 20th - 25th. This workshop was a disappointment with only 3 out of 7 villages represented. It is not really known why people did not attend. It could be because the river was too high to cross on the Sunday, a land dispute between 4 of the villages and a death in one village prevented the representatives attending. Unfortunately, these villages have missed out on a great opportunity to develop garden foods. Perhaps if TCA gets more funding we can run similar workshops again. People have already expressed interest in receiving more training.

Jim's bit
It was so good to be back home and to stay in the one spot for a while. The bush-house was progressing well and we had a new pit toilet built for the guests. This meant that the old one, which we used to use, could be filled in. Hopefully, we won't get as many mosquitoes in the future.

Jean's bit
On March 28th we held a women's meeting and a brief training session on water tank management and maintenance. The female TCA reps were great and listened attentively to a local plumber (Leonard) who was invited to conduct the water tank training. The women were very vocal at this meeting which was a good sign. They had been very quiet at the previous meeting so I was glad to get a lot of feedback and discussion going during the meeting.

The women talked about the water tanks and how they had made a difference to their lives, reducing their workloads and even cutting down on problems with "pek pek wara" - diarrhoea. This was great feedback and unexpected in such a short time. Women from some villages that had not erected their water tanks complained about their men being lazy and not showing enough initiative. Hopefully, by the next meeting in May they will have influenced their husbands, brothers and fathers enough to get their tanks up and running.

The women also acknowledged TCA, the Community Development Scheme (CDS) and both Jim and I for all the hard work we had done helping them "develop" in terms of rabbit farming, gardening and water tanks. They said they had not received any help like this from their own government and really appreciated the services we were providing. Thank-yous and acknowledgements like this make it all worth while.

They all wished me luck with the birth and were looking forward to seeing the new "white pikinini" back in Lumi when we return.

Jim's bit
I was starting to worry. My wife was seven months pregnant, MAF weren't flying to Lumi and cars couldn't use the road due to the wet season and a broken bridge. I wasn't too keen on Jean walking over Mt Somoro to Aitape. We had also heard that the Aitape airstrip was closed. We couldn't wait for much longer.

Each morning for about a week I was using the two way radio at the Catholic Mission trying to find a plane to take us out from Lumi. If worse came to worst I was going to hire eight guys to carry Jean out on a stretcher..all the way to Wewak. Fortunately, I didn't have to go to such extremes. I finally contacted Dovair in Vanimo. They usually don't fly to Lumi but made a special flight for us. They flew us to Vanimo, where we stayed for a few days, and then we flew with Airlink to Wewak.

In Wewak we found out that Matt West and Michelle Cleary have been signed on as Australian Volunteers and will work for TCA for three months whilst we are in Australia. Fantastic news!. I'll meet Matt and Michelle in Wewak on my back to Australia in May. Jean leaves for Australia on April 9th.

Well that's about it for now. The next update will be written by Matt and Michelle whilst Jean and I are in Australia having our child.

All the best,

Jim and Jean Thomas
Tenkile Conservation Alliance