Back to Past Adventures

October 2005

Jean's bit
We have been extremely busy and have had serious technology break-downs in the past two months hence the very long delay in giving you all an update on our work. But now we are fortunately back on line again.

Since our last update in May, many things have happened so this is going to be a long one. So I suggest you go and get yourself a coffee, a beer or bubbly (depending on what tickles your fancy), sit down, relax and read our latest adventures.

Jim's bit
All of the cargo for the villages was in Wewak (Water tanks, cement, wire etc) and ready for the long journey up to Lumi. All I had to do was find a driver up to the task. I had seen the road and although dry, it couldn't handle a six tonne truck all the way to Lumi. This meant we had to transport all the gear as far as we could by six tonne and then ferry it by 4WD. A huge hassle but it was the only way.

It was now June and the dry season was upon us. There may only be a window of a few weeks to get all the equipment up before the next downpour. I found a driver (Sebi) who was reliable and knew the road well. He had driven me up to Lumi on a few occasions previously. We negotiated a price and I hoped that he would not try to increase it at a later date. I was wrong; the price was renegotiated before we left Wewak. This is one of the frustrating things about working in PNG, people will often ask for more money after a job has been done. When you're trying your best to manage a shoestring budget it makes things harder.

We loaded Sebi's six tonner with eight water tanks, 18 rolls of wire and lots of cement bags then sent it on its way. We left Wewak shortly after in a 4WD with many boxes of nails and food supplies. Sebi is a gun driver, which is a bit scary at times, and we arrived in Lumi in record time - seven hours and forty minutes. The road was dry and so I was not required to get out and push.

Jean's bit
While Jim was running around Wewak, I walked up to Fatima and stayed with the teachers and taught grade 8 for a couple of days. As always, this is my favorite school with some very keen and intelligent students. The teachers are lovely and the vibe is very warm and inviting. We played a new activity that is like a game of tiggy that represents predator / prey relationships but for us the predators were hunters and the prey was Tenkile. The kids found it very exciting and had a ball. I just hope that it showed them that too many hunters meant very few Tenkile!
XXXX
I also spent some time with the people of Miwaute village and conducted the educational side of the drama program but we didn't actually do any performance because the singing group wasn't in the village. So they now have heaps of time to practice and next time we visit the group will put on their drama performance. Also had a meeting with the community about the establishment of a conservation area. This is the first village that had not given us the OK to go ahead. They would like more time to think about it, which is fine. A great suggestion was made to train some of the local people to act as "rangers" but they would need to attend some kind of education or training course first. I thought this was a great initiative so have started thinking a lot about this and will endeavor to write a manual and training program for next year. It seems the TCA representatives of each community are not taken seriously due to the lack of education they have and they are said to be " man nating " (a man who has nothing - no status or respect within the community). This was quite an insight for us so we will try and do something about this next year's program.

I came back to Lumi with an old man called Mathew Waisi - from Rawete village. He is possibly one of the nicest men you are likely to meet. He has excellent knowledge and experience in nutrition, cooking and gardening. So I invited him to stay with me in Lumi and teach me how to develop a green thumb. We spent a few days in the garden until Jim came back from Wewak.

Jims bit
Back in Lumi and yet again I had to renegotiate the price for transporting the cargo from Wewak to Lumi. I'm getting sick of this I can tell you. At least the water tanks etc are on their way. I will be so relieved when all of this cargo has arrived in Lumi. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing goes missing on the road. I already fear the worst, as I'm not going to go on the road with all of the cargo. I've made sure that all small things, such as the nails, bush knives etc come to Lumi first as these are the items most likely to disappear.

The next few days saw all the small items arrive. There had been some rain and many of the boxes of nails had got wet via transit. This meant that the cardboard boxes they were in were ruined and they had to be put into plastic bags. When they all finally arrived we calculated that we had lost six boxes of nails.

It took two and a half weeks for all the equipment for the villages to come up to Lumi. It was such a good feeling having got this part of our work completed. The cost was significant but under the circumstances was the best we could do. Now all we have to do is to get all this equipment to the villages. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Jean's bit
Prior to World Environment Day I was invited to give a talk at Lumi Primary School. I suggested I would do better than that and so I taught the kids in grade 8 the drama program, which we had been conducting in the villages. The students then practiced for a few days and performed on the day. It was a great day with lots of kids producing posters and pictures on the environment. We also had a fellow Australian Volunteer with us (Gerry) who thought it was great. The kids came up with some great songs. But the best thing was a quote I read on one poster which a teacher had written and it said " we do not inherit the land from our ancestors we borrow it from our children." I thought that was great and I will definitely use it in our education program in future.

Jim's bit
The 18 villages in our program all have to pay 10% of the value of the cargo they are receiving. This is a condition of most granting bodies and it is a way of showing the funding agencies and us that the villages are working together and not taking things for granted. When cargo is supplied free of charge history has shown that people don't respect it and that it is often misused and broken. To date only six villages had paid their 10% which shows me that there is still a lot of skepticism and misunderstanding despite all of the cargo sitting in our front yard.

The first village to come and collect their equipment was Wai'eli. This was quite an ordeal with about twenty people carrying all the cargo. It was great seeing a water tank going to one of the villages where it will no doubt help the community. Wai'eli were most appreciative of the work we've done and there were many handshakes exchanged. We now hear that this village has built their tank stand and is using their water tank. This makes us feel good.

Jean's bit
On the day of Jim's birthday we walked to Sarbute village. They organized a surprise drama performance for us, very much based on the drama we have been conducting in the villages. That was nice. We then got settled in and I had a look at the rabbit enclosure and sat down with the community to get a feel about how they were going with the rabbits. Unfortunately rats had gone into the cages and killed the babies twice so people had started to "give up". I encouraged them to not give up and wait for the new cage wire so they would secure the mothers and young from rats in the future.

Jim's bit
It was great; we were heading back into the mountains to the habitat of Tenkile. To me it is always a break heading up into the hills despite the walking up and down mountains. Up in the Torricellis you're completely away from it all. I wish I could do it more often. This expedition was to the area called Bibane. The workmen from Tolgeti and Sarbute carried all the food and supplies and we headed up to the basecamp. Bibane is a long walk from Tolgeti village and it can take anywhere from five and a half to seven hours. We were in the dry season and luckily today was a rain free day. It was a great walk in which I saw many Vulturine Parrots and a Long-tailed Buzzard.

Jean's bit
In Tolgeti I spent the day teaching the drama group. They were very keen and enthusiastic which was good. I also spent a day meeting with the community talking about the conservation area and talking to the women about various things, mostly what projects they wanted to establish in the community. It was great to see they identified a real community need, which was access to clean water. Most women will focus on moneymaking projects such as bakeries and sewing. So this was very refreshing.

I then walked to Hapseim and was not feeling so refreshed. The community was very unimpressed by my arrival. I didn't get the usual wave of handshakes or "it's been a long time since we've seen you". This was quite odd. Normally people smile from ear to ear to see you but at Hapseim people just waved from the distance and gave me a little nod. I thought something's up here. Sure enough that afternoon when I held a meeting the truth came out. One man with his finger pointed in my face demanded that TCA provide more services and goods. He had been to Wewak, Aitape and Vanimo and had heard we had heaps of money and were miss-using it etc etc. I had to laugh because it was just so ridiculous. At the same time though I was angry and felt unappreciated because we had and are delivering a great deal of services to all 18 communities and no one else (including the government) is. It seems the people are very much like Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - they want more and they want it now!!! It is also very typical of PNG to start rumours, especially when people are successful. The jealousies have begun and unfortunately it is something we have to deal with now. The hard part for me is to deal with this without taking it personally and as an insult to the great work that I know we are both doing.

After this tense meeting I went right back to basics and asked the community if I was welcome in their village and if they wanted me there. The community decided they were happy for me to be there; they just had to get these rumors off their chest I suppose. We managed then to discuss the drama program and conservation area as well as do a little follow-up rabbit training. It seems the rabbits had failed to breed in this village because they were attempting to mate two females. I suggested they take the females to a male rabbit in Tolgeti village - which they did. The community also paid the rest of their 10% community contribution for the rabbit project and will conduct the drama performance when we return to their village.

In the meantime, Tolgeti had been practicing their drama performance and when Jim came back from the mountains we had a day of drama. It was a great day with the guys playing their songs on a full on Yamaha keyboard all battery operated, a little traditional story we hadn't seen before about healing spirits and we ate fruit salad and Tapioca Cake for lunch - Yum!

Jim's bit
The search for Tenkile and its poo at Bibane was challenging. I am now conducting tests to see how successful the workers are in finding scats. By taking the scats of our captive Grizzled Tree Kangaroos up into the mountains and then placing them at known distances at transect points I am recording the probability of finding scats. The results I have collected so far tell me it is very hard to find tree kangaroo poo. On average the workers will only find the scats 25% of the time. As this experiment develops I will hopefully be able to incorporate the results into the Distance Sampling work.

Unfortunately on the second day we were hit by heavy rain and the base camp became flooded. It became quite hectic trying to keep all of our clothes dry. The workers came down from the mountain and we spent the rest of the day sitting around the fire telling stories and thawing out. The next day was much better and we were able to complete most of the transect work. We collected more scats than I expected. I had thought that the rain from the previous day would have washed everything away but perhaps the scats found were fresh ones. An interesting find was the skull, bones and some fur of what appeared to be a young Tenkile. This animal was probably killed by a bird of prey (probably a Harpy Eagle). I collected the remains and placed them in a plastic snap-lock bag to be taken back to Lumi.

We spent five days at Bibane and when we finally made it back to Tolgeti I was absolutely exhausted.

Jean's bit
We had been in this village area for a week so I went to the local creek and had a great wash in the "bungal wara" and did our laundry. Unfortunately with the suds and soap we managed to kill all of the water striders that were hanging around at the time. That's the only problem with using soaps here - you see the direct impact. Ignorance is bliss!

Then I had a fresh set of clothes for the next stint - Wigote. I stayed in the village and walked to the school each day and taught the conservation education program to the grade 6 students. They were OK but still very shy. They had learnt a lot since last time I saw them I think. Also did some more rabbit training. Unfortunately this village too had issues with the rabbits, mostly mis-management reasons. Dogs, one of which had young, had killed two rabbits. This caused a complete division between the village (the division has always been there but this incident was seen as an excuse to re-ignite issues). It was decided that a second rabbit enclosure was to be built to accommodate the other clans. Whatever works? The community contribution was also a problem for the same reasons, mostly how they could distribute the goods without causing problems and I suggested the water tank (which is not able to be split) to go in the center of the village where the church is and that way it is on neutral ground. The community thought about this and had a discussion and decided that they will pay up and agree. Phew!

Sunday was church day so we sat around and didn't do a great deal. I noticed one small child had a caterpillar in his hand. It was absolutely amazing. Bright yellow with a small purplish triangular mark along the back and a little whitish squiggly tail. After looking at this for a while I couldn't help but think it looks just like a juvenile Green Tree Python. Perhaps this caterpillar was trying to use it as a form of mimicry. Unfortunately I had no camera because Jim had taken it into the mountains - so I am unable to show you pics. But I will try and find another one for a photo.

Back into Lumi and stuck into the gardening, boy how those weeds grow!

Jim's bit
This patrol was a double stint in the mountains. I had recovered for a few days in Tolgeti and Wigote and felt surprisingly fit. Edainiou is only three hours walk from Wigote. This means we can finish all the work within four days instead of five. It is also the site where Tenkile has been spotted twice before. I was feeling confident of finally seeing one.

Edainiou comprises the villages Wigote, Hapseim and Yomoum. I had been debriefed by Jean of the treatment she had in Hapseim and I really felt like cracking some skulls. After calming down I realized that the best thing to do is to ignore this village and not pay any visits to them in the future. Why should we waste our time with a village that doesn't see how hard we work and doesn't appreciate the services we are providing. I mean it has been nearly three years now.

Once in the mountains my mind focused on Tenkile. The smell of Tenkile was obvious on the first night. The next morning it was still there and I decided to try and find the animal with two of the workers. This was an exciting time as I thought if we just followed the smell we would definitely find the Tenkile. My heart was thumping, as the smell of Tenkile was getting stronger. "You bewdy" I thought. Bang came the sound of thunder and down came the rain. How typical! Of course at this point in time I said a few things worse than "How typical". We had walked a long way and it took three hours to walk back the base camp in the pouring rain. I was shivering and my hands had gone numb. All this suffering and I still haven't seen a Tenkile. The next morning I could smell the Tenkile again. It's like this species is playing games with me.

Jean's bit
After this long patrol into the villages we went to Wewak to meet our next visitor Michael Shelton. We also had a day on the boat with our good friend Phillip Tjoeng who is a good contact to have in Wewak. We saw a pod of dolphins playing which was great, went snorkeling, the guys fished didn't catch anything (good) and the hot springs of Victoria Bay which is by far one of the most scenic and enjoyable places to be.

Just before catching the plane to Lumi, we caught 4 Common Spotted Cuscus which were previously owned by friends of ours (Richard and Sue Baker) who have since gone "finish" and left us to take care of them. They had also donated their 2 Grizzled Tree Kangaroos last year. The cuscus did fine in the hessian sacks and traveled well. Mick and I released them in their enclosure and gave them heaps of fruit to get them settled in.

Jim's bit
It was great having another visitor from Australia come up to PNG. I used to work with Michael at Healesville Sanctuary so it was good catching up. Jean and Michael flew to Lumi whilst I took more equipment up by road. The road was a lot worse than last time and it took a good 20 hours to complete the trip. I arrived in Lumi at 2am Sunday July 3 rd. I had great pleasure in waking everyone up and making them help with the unloading.

On Monday 4 th Christine Harris (from Australian Volunteers International (AVI)) flew into Lumi for a visit. This was the first time a person from AVI had come up to Lumi to see us. It was good showing Christine around. She was able to see first hand some of the work we do with the villages. During her stay we were given a young male Ground cuscus and we gave Christine the responsibility of feeding it for a while. I think it deposited a few things on her pants. Christine only stayed a few days despite having her flying schedule changed a few times.

Jean's bit
After Christine left we drove to Angukunak, which is about 45 minutes drive away. We stayed overnight in a relatively good guesthouse. We then organized a vehicle to drive us as far as they could to Laingam where we interrupted the local soccer match. When the soccer was over we walked to Mupun Village. I always love that walk. Great scenery. I spent the next week conducting meetings on the conservation area, rabbit farming and gave a talk to the local school. With Mick in town it was an opportunity to see all kinds of creatures. The kids were out catching insects, frogs, lizards, birds and snakes. This was good in one way but bad in another because often the frogs would arrive close to death and reviving them was useless because their back legs were broken. When we asked how the legs broke the kids would say they broke the legs to stop the frog from hopping away. They would also bring the golden orb spiders, which are beautiful, while sitting in their webs but totally freaky when being held by their bodies with all 8 legs flicking around frantically. Gives me the heebie jeebies.

The Sikel visit was disappointing. Not many people arrived and no warm and friendly welcome - a bit like Hapseim. We managed to discuss the conservation area but without the majority of people there it was pointless really. I also heard there is talk about Gas and Oil exploration that is going to occur in the area. Perhaps people have already made up their mind to exploit rather than conserve their land.

Jim's bit
Waliapilk is the name of the Distance Sampling site in this neck of the woods. At this site we work with Mupun, Sikel and Lilal. Michael was allowed to come with us into the mountains. After a couple of nights in Mupun we headed up into the hills. Waliapilk is a good six hours walk and is on par with Bibane. Needless to say we were very tired when finally reaching the base camp. I had a stomach complaint and felt more tired than usual.

The Waliapilk base camp has a bush house so we don't have to erect a sail/canvas. This saved a lot of time, as there was already some dry firewood. We cooked up the usual tin fish and rice and then Michael and I went straight to sleep. The next morning we organized the workman into groups with one group just looking for Tenkile. Michael, myself and two workmen walked up the transect baseline which starts at 960m elevation and finishes at 1670m elevation. This walk takes a good two hours and you need at least two litres of water. On this occasion it took nearly three hours because Michael was taking photos every five minutes (where are my copies Mick?). The top of the baseline is the highest peak of the Torricelli Mountain Range - Mt. Sulen.

When resting at the summit the Tenkile workmen came and informed us that they had seen a Tenkile. I jumped up straight away in excitement. The Tenkile was seen about two hundred metres from where we were but ran down a steep gully when it saw the workmen.

The next day, as most of the Distance Sampling work had been completed, many of the workmen went out to find a Tenkile. I gave them the instructions to try and catch one or if high in the canopy leave it and then come and get me. Michael and I were very tired and so just went through the data collected at the base camp.

The workmen all returned late in the afternoon but with no Tenkile. They had all seen one, had tried to catch it but it had escaped from them. I was so angry at myself. If I had gone with the workmen I would have seen it.

The walk back from the mountains dragged on as we were all tired and I was disappointed from not seeing a Tenkile. This had been my 21 st expedition into the Torricelli Mountains and I still hadn't seen a Tenkile.

After a night at Mupun we headed back to Angugunak and then hired a car to Lumi.

Jean's bit
While Jim and Michael drove into Wewak I stayed at Lumi and worked in the garden and caught up on some paper work. I also got us prepared for the next TCA meeting. This was a good meeting with the local level government President Mr. Peter Filfi attending to present us with a cheque from the Minister of Aitape Lumi and also to acknowledge that the Governor had also acquired a cheque to help support the program. Fantastic. This makes the PNG government TCA's biggest sponsor this year. Tenk-yu tru .

Jim's bit
Michael had stayed for three weeks and now it was time for him to head back to Australia. I had to buy more items for the new toilet, bathroom and bedroom from Wewak. We found a car that was heading to Wewak and so traveled by road. The road had dried again so Michael got travel the Sepik Highway in luxury, that is he didn't have to get out and push.

Once in Wewak I said goodbye to Michael, bought the equipment we needed and then headed straight back to Lumi.

Back in Lumi we conducted a meeting for the men. This meeting went well but we were let down when we found out that one of our bed sheets had been stolen. It always hurts when something gets stolen, it's a real kick in the guts and we often feel like coming home.

Jean's bit
After the TCA meeting we went to Rawete. I left Lumi a day before Jim so I could spend more time in the village and to conduct all the meetings I wanted. I spent time in the Tiere Community School teaching grade 5 students - lovely, nice kids. Then conducted follow-up rabbit training. These would have to be one of the best-maintained rabbit cages out of all of the villages we work with. Very clean and well looked after. It seems this is due to the hard work from the families that live directly near the rabbits themselves because they are the ones that do all the cleaning and feeding. The community is not very forthcoming when it comes to the workload and helping out. The rabbits have all been given names, which is funny. 'Big Joe' the male rabbit, 'Jenny' and ' Alice' to name a few.

Unfortunately while I was staying here big Joe the rabbit was stolen and eaten by a man from the village. This was done out of jealousy because this particular "steal-man" was not selected to go distance sampling with Jim. It turns out this is the same man that broke into our house during 2003! (See "There's a man in there" update) This was terribly upsetting for the community, particularly the people who have been working so hard maintaining the rabbits. There was crying and yelling and screaming going on for 2 days. Again unfortunately this is the way of Papua New Guinea, jealousy is a huge problem. It really can cause the demise of any form of development big or small.

Following this we flew to Aitape and stayed with our fellow Oz Vol buddy 'Big Gerry'.

Jim's bit
Distance Sampling at Sweipini. I had sent a few workmen from Wilbeite a few days before to try and find a Tenkile for me. It had been two and a half years and I still hadn't seen the elusive Tenkile. I arrived at the Sweipini base camp, it began to rain and then the workmen came down from the mountain with a Tenkile. What a beautiful animal! This was a big male weighing 13.5kg, which I think is the biggest on record. It was such a relief to finally see one. Words cannot describe.

After Sweipini we headed back to Lumi via Rawete. We recovered for a few days before flying to Aitape. We caught up with Gerry Melican (a fellow Australian Volunteer) to debrief. We stayed in Aitape for two nights before hitching a ride to Wewak. This was the first time we had driven from Aitape to Wewak. What a great drive. It took about six hours. There was plenty to see but the highlight for me was seeing a Water Dragon run along the road in front of us.

Jean's bit
Went to Wewak to meet my mum. Our friend Philip gave us use of his boat and we saw the islands off Wewak, no dolphins but great snorkeling and a great day. Then went to Lumi and conducted the TCA women's meeting. This was mostly to deliver the second hand clothing that was donated by friends and family when we last visited Australia. Thank-you to all those that contributed particularly those from Victoria's Open Range Zoo and my Dad and Veronica who volunteer at the Red Cross in Echuca. These clothes have been given to the women who have then sold the clothes in their respective villages (for a very small amount). This money has then been given back to TCA as a form of community contribution to help them pay for their 10% deposit for the rabbit farming equipment. Most villages were able to raise about K80-100 kina ($30-40 AUD). This may not seem like a lot to us white folk but for the local people it has helped a lot. Once again thanks.

During mums time in PNG the solar battery crashed, then the laptop hard-drive died and then the printer buggered up. Bad things come in 3's as they say. We left Lumi only after a week to make our way to the Australian Volunteer Conference in Goroka. We first went to Vanimo and picked up the government cheques - thank-you very much. Also had some follow-up reporting to do there with Radio Sandaun and CDS. Then to Mt Hagen just to have a look around - little holiday and then said good-bye to Mum and then hello to our AVI buddies. The Conference was great. Always great to hear what other people are doing in the country.

I also spent some time with Lydia Dori from the Research and Conservation Foundation to pick her brain on do's and don't while I conduct the teacher training program. The plan was to do this when we return to Lumi. She was helpful with great ideas and tips. She suggested we ask the newly trained teachers to help with the training next year so as to get the local people more involved and really start to build the capacity at the local level. Excellent idea and a great way to get the program sustainable in the future.

Jim's bit
When in Wewak we found out that the TCA Board had had a meeting in Adelaide. The Board has been re-organised. We say thank you to Peter Clark, Lisa Dabek and Chris Talie who have finished their terms as board members and we welcome Deb Wright, Graeme Gillespie and Chris Banks.

It was great having the mother-in-law over for a few weeks. Sue was the first person to use our new bedroom. Speaking of which the new toilet, bathroom and bedroom are progressing well and should be finished soon. The carpenters just have to finish all the fiddly bits like painting, putty filling etc.

As Jean mentioned we had some bad luck with our machinery. This is one of the reasons for the delay in getting this update on the web. Not having a computer really slows things down. We really need to have two laptops so that our sanity level remain at our normal level.

After the AVI conference (which was great by the way) we traveled to Lae and stayed with Jeremy Dunlop (another AVI). In Lae we bought many essentials that we could not get in Wewak as well as more rabbits, some Australaps chickens and Indian Runner ducks. TCA's poultry program is now starting.

I could not get on the plane with Jean, Gerry and the animals as it was full. I waited for the next plane to Wewak and then hired a car to Lumi. I've spent a lot of time on the road this year. I guess I'm getting to know a lot of people this way. I think I'm the only white fella who uses the Sepik Highway all the way to Lumi.

Jean's bit
Lae was good, lots of shopping and pizza!. Back to Lumi via Aitape with Gerry. Had a mini heart attack because the local plane service known as MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship), were not flying due to a radio problem and after several attempts to get the real story the plane arrived and I was able to board with all the animals. Thank-god otherwise I would have been stuck in Aitape or had to walk over the mountains to get back in time to conduct the teacher training.

We had a week of celebrations in Lumi due to the 30 th Anniversary of Independence in PNG. There were singsings, baby show and agriculture show. We put Kenny the Spotted Cuscus in the Agriculture show along with some rabbits and won 40 kina as a prize. That will help pay for the rabbits food for a week!

The following week I conducted the teacher training. The day before I was in tears because I had heard people were not coming. Their reasons varied from not being able to receive any holidays because the training clashed with their school holiday period and that other teachers had commitments with the local soccer tournament. It felt like I was having a party and no one was coming. Awful - but turned out there were 27 teachers from 16 schools. It was a great week and went amazingly well. Very smoothly run and during the week I was not stressed out at all. I was happy with the comments the teachers gave me as well - here are a few of them.

Ms Aileen Eiwai - Kamnom Communtiy School Grade 4
"I will now teach the activities and content in my classroom and also share and discuss this with my friends and to any age group anywhere at anytime. I have learned that all snakes are carnivores which I had thought they ate green leaves and now I know they are not vegetarians or green leaf eaters."

Mr Ainui Robin - Mupun Community School Grade 1
"The nature of living things was an excellent unit of work that really helped me to know the importance of nature because many times I use to say that nature is samting nating but the truth is that nature plays an important role in life"

Mr. Brian Samgur - Yaluwape Community School Grade 3
"I have learned many new things to which I thought of them as rubbish but through this in-service, I have found the ecology unit to be very challenging."

Mrs. Agnella Saweni - Fatima Promary School Grade 4
"I have learned many new things that I didn't really know before. I will try to use some of the activities that I gained in my science lessons and share the information with other teachers in the school"

Mr. Martin Raymond Saikou - Lumi High School
"I will continue to demonstrate and emphasize more group work and not individual work. It is very good because students can understand more when they are actually doing it instead of listening and observing from their teachers."

Mr. Mathew Makari - Mapul Community School Grade 6
"I now realize that PNG is a very unique nation because it has a lot of plants and animals that are not found in other parts of the world. I also learned that humans have had and will have greater impact on the environment and I have to assist one way or another to disseminate information regarding ways and strategies to conserve our most fragile species in the environment."

I am really excited about this aspect of our work because it really feels like we are making a difference when we do this kind of thing. We would like to invite some of these newly trained teachers back next year to act as the trainers and that will hopefully lead to a fully locally owned and run conservation training program for teachers. All we need now is the funding!

We were then ready to go Wewak to meet our next visitor Matt West from Melbourne Zoo who will be working with Jim for the next 6 weeks but we got a message that 3 polish people were coming to visit - this was confusing to us because we don't know any polish people and it turns out they were Dutch. The "dutchies" as we affectionately call them, came and stayed with us over the weekend. Karin works in Wewak as a physiotherapist and her friend (Anna) and husband (Sebastian) were here for a holiday. They really enjoyed their stay (as most of our visitors do) and really relaxed and enjoyed the animals and the surroundings.

We then all flew into Wewak on the small 6 seater 206 - great flight! Met Matt in Wewak and will be back in Lumi again by the time you all read this on the web. We will try really really hard to give you updates more frequently - next one due in December.

Em tasol inap long next taim

Cheers,

Jim and Jean Thomas
Tenkile Conservation Alliance