Latest Adventures - August 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 February 2008 to August 2008. We’ve been very busy so our apologies for not getting an update on the website sooner.

Jean’s bit
We arrived back in Lumi on the 22nd of February. The place looked great with manicured lawns and pretty flowers decorating the house. Patrick had done a marvellous job maintaining the TCA base and project without our supervision which was a promising signs for the future of the organisation.

The inside of the house was rat infested as usual so I spent a great deal of my time cleaning up. Following this we got stuck into the rural water supply and sanitation program (RWSSP) paper work. There was a lot of it!!!

Jim’s bit
I was most impressed with our Project Officer Patrick Ikon. He had met the challenges of running a non-government organisation. We will aim to strengthen his and other Project Officer’s skills a lot this year.

Our mini zoo at Lumi was well looked after. The tree kangaroos were in especially good condition. The animals we take care for were all orphans which we have hand-raised. Although not directly linked with any one program they have proved an essential part of our organisation. Everyone who visits TCA Base-Lumi makes the connection between the programs we manage and the animals. The saying “seeing is believing” is so true in Papua New Guinea.

Jean’s bit
We had our first TCA meeting for the year on the 16th of April. It went very well and we talked mostly about the RWSSP. Most villages had completed all the tasks they had set out to do but some still had a lot of work to do and we felt like we were down to the wire a bit because we had only just received the second payment from the European Union (EU). The entire project had to be completed and reported by June.

We also met with the facilitators and they had done a great job implementing the Health and Hygiene Education Program while we were away. There were over 1600 people that had been involved in the Health and Hygiene Education Program from the 18 Tenkile villages. That is nearly 30% of the population so that was a great effort we thought. We also had 95 people come to Lumi and learn how to make a VIP toilet, tippy tap and how to install a Tuffa Tank.

After the TCA meeting we met with the HIV/AIDS trainers who conducted a patrol to each village and gave a talk to everyone about HIV. We delivered posters, brochures and condoms to each village and about 780 people attended. This was a brief one-day awareness for communities. Most people had heard of HIV but many people commented that the distribution of condoms would promote promiscuity! We hope to put a bit more effort into this during the second phase of the RWSSP if we get it.

Jim’s bit
There really is a much better understanding from the Tenkile villages. At the end of the Tenkile meeting I felt more determined to have this project succeed. The concept of conservation and preservation is now really reaching the people and they can see the connections and benefits within the community. Expectations are now more realistic which of course make our job a lot easier.

The employees of TCA, the Project Officers, Trainers etc, are pulling their weight and taking on more responsibilities. Jean and I are doing less and less micro-managing which I think is a contributing factor to overall good management. This means that we are less stressed and able to hit the ground running. TCA has real traction now.

Jean’s bit
While the HIV/AIDS patrol was going on the Facilitators and Project Officers visited each village and assessed all of TCA’s projects. The RWSSP had easily the most impact on the villages. It’s amazing what a bit of extra money can do!

In the end our results showed that the community’s health had improved dramatically, e.g.:

There were 148 cases of Diarrhoea recorded before intervention and only 8 cases were recorded after implementation of the project.
There were 94 cases of scabies recorded before intervention and only 16 cases recorded after implementation of the project.
There were 95 cases of grille recorded before intervention and only 29 cases recorded after implementation of the project.
There were 102 cases of eye infections recorded before intervention and only 18 cases recorded after implementation of the project.

However Typhoid and Dysentery cases remained the same with 4 cases recorded before intervention and 5 cases recorded after implementation of the rural water supply and sanitation project (RWSSP).

There have also been major improvements in sanitation facilities such as VIP toilets, upgraded toilets, tippy tap and hand-washing facilities, animal fencing, rubbish pits and water supplies being built by the communities, e.g.:

There were no VIP toilets before intervention and now there are 60 VIP toilets and 156 upgraded toilets
There were only 23 hand-washing facilities recorded but now there are a total of 523 hand-washing facilities used including tippy taps, bowls, dishes and buckets of water.
Before intervention people used a variety of water supplies including water wells, streams, rivers and 17 existing tuffa tanks with a distance of 30-60 minutes walk to natural water supplies, however now there are 97 tuffa tanks (60 RWSSP-2007,8; 18 CDS 2004-5; 19 other) with a maximum distance of 10 minutes’ walk.
Before intervention most villages disposed of rubbish over cliffs and in piles, however there have been 363 rubbish pits built.
There are a total of 133 animal cages built since implementation. These house mostly pigs and chickens.

The majority of people in the project area are very happy and grateful to TCA and the EU for their support in implementing the RWSSP. A few individuals have bad attitudes and continue to question the reasoning behind the 10% community contribution and expect things for “free”, but the majority (>95%) are very supportive of making change in their community and would like to see more services and development as soon as possible.

As for other projects such as chickens and rabbits the communities need a lot more training and financial support to purchase more materials and of course the livestock. Although we have distributed around 50 chickens we need about 700 more! One village is doing extremely well with the rabbit project and now they have bred 150 rabbits. This is fantastic. It also means that TCA can purchase the rabbits from them providing the village with an income and giving the rabbits to the Weimang villages to establish the rabbit farming in that part of the project area.

Jim’s bit
We now needed to make contact with the 21 Weimang villages. I set dates for meetings and sent four of our officers on patrol to these villages. Because the 21 Weimang villages are so spread out it is impractical to have a meeting at one venue. I had to schedule two meetings; one at Weigint village, which would include five villages from the western side, and one at Sibilanga, which would include 16 villages from the central and eastern blocks.
Our officers for this patrol also monitored the progress of rabbit farming which began in most of these villages last year. There were some new people I engaged for this patrol who had previously expressed interest.

The road, the Sepik Highway, had broken yet again. At a place called Karoka, about 25km from Lumi, the road had collapsed and needed serious attention. Just throwing down a few logs and covering them up with gravel wasn’t enough. This area needed a new culvert and a lot of work from an excavator.

I was now dreading having to walk on foot to the Weimang villages for these meetings. We were in the middle of the wet season which restricted our movements anyway. Now we were stranded in Lumi only able to get out by plane.

Jean’s bit
At the start of May we had the Project Manager, Richard Gillett, from the RWSSP come to Lumi to inspect our progress. We all walked to Maiwetem village including myself, Tadji and the girls (Ruth and Josephine – who looked after Tadji and cook for us). I had ‘ummed’ and ‘aahed’ about going to Maiwetem for about 2 weeks. “Should I take Tadji out into a remote area of Papua New Guinea with no airstrip, unreliable communication, etc etc?” I decided we all had to go because we had worked so hard to see this project succeed and at the time I needed a “win” or some kind of reward for all our hard work and I wasn’t going to miss out. So we all went for a “big walk”.

As it turned out Tadji was fine. Ruth and Josephine were fantastic carrying him (Tadji weighs12 kilograms, equivalent to a big bag of rice) for 4 and half hours up and down muddy hills. When we arrived at Maiwetem there were hundreds of people and Tadji was included in all the speeches and ceremonies. The people were very happy to see us all in their village and were grateful for our hard work. As Mathew Akon, TCA Project Officer, put it “he saw us reach a point that our heads were going to explode from stress!” So I am glad we went in the end.

Jim’s bit:
The reception in Maiwetem village was overwhelming. Easily the best celebration ceremony we’ve been a part of. There were lots of sing sing groups, a PA and generator were organised, there were speeches and we officially opened the six water tanks Maiwetem had received from the RWSSP. We stayed two nights in Maiwetem before Jean, Tadji and crew took off to Lumi without Richard and me. We were inspecting the water tanks of three other villages: Soulete, Waunulu and Yongite.

Richard stayed with us for a little over a week due to the road being out and MAF not flying in due to bad weather. This meant he was able to assess the water tanks, toilets, rubbish pits etc of nine villages. Overall Richard was very impressed with the success of TCA’s RWSSP program. The majority of villages had really made an effort in transporting the materials from the drop off points, building tank stands and toilets and building water catchments.

Jean’s bit:
Back in Lumi I worked on the Conservation Area Training with Maiwetem village followed by Yomoum and Lilal villages. This was great! I needed to do something conservation focused. The participants were very enthusiastic and the talk of carbon trading came up each time. As it turns out these courses are more beneficial than we thought because we are able to answer some very topical questions.

We have learnt that some people have been talking a lot on the radio and giving people all kinds of crazy ideas and unfortunately giving the impression of big bucks coming their way which we have to squash down each week. We have also heard people trying to start their own ventures and they have been collecting “registration fees” for K300-400 kina per village which is a total scam and some people are falling for it. The old cargo cult rears its ugly head once again. Luckily our influence has been strong enough to stop people from getting involved in all this but some people are thinking too much about the whole thing as well. Only time will tell what happens.

Jim’s bit:
The road was not fixed and MAF was not flying. I had to walk to Weigint and Sibilanga and then back to Lumi in order to conduct the first official meeting with the Weimang villages. This was to be a 160km round trip on foot over eight days.
I was conducting this patrol with five officers and overall I was impressed by their involvement in the meetings. The meetings were held with approximately 70 people at each. As this was our first official meeting there was a lot of interest. Many people wanted to hear what we had to say. Both meetings went extremely well and I would have to say they were two of the most successful meeting I’ve had with Papua New Guineans.

TCA’s base at Sibilanga had been renovated somewhat and it was good to be back there looking across to Mt Sapau. There had been a previous disagreement with one of the villages and this had now been resolved. I felt as if TCA had now made a real connection with the Weimang villages.

The walk back to Lumi was the most challenging walk I have done. We were fortunate enough to get some small rides in different cars along the way back; however we ended up walking for more than 16 hours. Towards the end, near the Wenif River, I was so tired that I knew if I was to rest my legs would stiffen up and wouldn’t make it back to our house without being carried back by at least half a dozen Papua New Guineans. I hobbled back to TCA Base-Lumi at almost midnight and have never been so relieved to put my feet up.

Soon after recovering we travelled to Wewak and then to Port Moresby to finish the report for the RWSSP/EU. In the last 12 months we, as well as the 18 Tenkile villages, worked very hard organising and installing 60 water tanks and toilets. Now this work was coming to an end and we were to write our final report and submit our final acquittal. We handed everything in two weeks before the deadline. TCA was the first group, out of 34, to complete the project so we were very pleased.

My mother, Jenny, came to PNG again at this time-the middle of June. Mum is now making an annual visit to see us which is great.

Jean’s bit
Back in Lumi while Jenny was with us, I continued with the Conservation Area training workshops. Wigote and Tolgete villages. Both villages were very good.

I attended an unexpected meeting held in Lumi by a mining company. It turns out they have a licence for mining exploration throughout the entire project area (Torricelli Mountains excluded). They will be conducting aerial surveys etc to determine where to put in a pipe line or road. The company presentation was fine but the reaction from the local people upset me and brought me to tears.

People were clapping and cheering at the thought of “development” in the area. One man commented that “the company was welcome to do whatever it wanted”. Three out of the four people I heard speak came from the TCA project area and all supported the work of the mining company without any concern or questions about the environment. I couldn’t help but think we must be wasting our time here.

I reassured myself that we are doing a great job and that realistically we still have a lot more work to do. We hope to discuss the situation and our project with all concerned in more detail at a later date.

Jim’s bit
Whilst Jean has been conducting conservation area management courses I’ve been writing grant applications and acquittals and getting things organised for the construction of a community training centre at TCA Base-Lumi. The dry season has now set in so it is the best time of the year to start, and hopefully finish, big projects. I’ve collected many load of gravel form the Wenif River in preparation for the vast amount of cement that has to be mixed-by hand too, there’s no cement mixer up here.

Thankfully the road was now being worked on and when we heard it was nearly finished we took off to Wewak. At Karoka we discovered that the big new culvert pipe was nearly finished. We waited for six hours whilst we watched the excavator slowly move earth and gravel on top of the culvert. Needless to say we were the first car to drive on the new piece of road.

We are now making regular trips to Wewak via road and are ready to start our research and conservation area mapping work for this year.

We’re all still very happy with how things are progressing with the Tenkile Conservation Alliance. We of course have many difficulties; however the positives far out-weigh the negatives.

Tadji is now two years old and speaking more Pigeon than English. He’s a great little guy and loves running around with no clothes on.

Bye for now from Jim, Jean, Tadji, Patrick, Mathew and everyone from the Tenkile and Weimang villages.