Friday 11th March

Thursday 3rd February
It was a tense 2 days waiting to hear that both my girls were ok and the rest of our families in the Cairns to Townsville area with Cyclone Yasi looming.  It was said to be the worst cyclone in many years to hit the area.  Waiting at Dad's place in Gympie until this morning when we heard from both Sylvia (which is where Monique was staying) and Tiarna in Townsville was so awful.  But they are all ok, were a little scared during the night but all good.  Thank goodness.  This is one very relieved mother, let me tell you. 
Dad and I headed to Bundaberg yesterday to spend some time with my grandparents as Grandma is not very well.  She is refusing to eat anything and has lost so much weight.  I just wanted to gather her up and feed her, but you can't force feed anyone.  It was great to see them both and we wandered around the gardens for ages. 
Today I am on the train to Brisbane and then through to Varsity Lakes at the Gold Coast to spend a couple of days with my sister Tamara and her family.  I saw them in November at Yolanders wedding but haven't really spent too much time with them for ages so I am really looking forward to the next couple of days.  Samantha and Dillon are growing up really fast.  Isn't it scary how fast the years go.  I was just thinking yesterday about how Tiarna is turning 20 this year and I can still remember when I fell pregnant with her and it certainly doesn't seem that long ago.  Monique has only three more years of school left and I'm sure that will fly also.  Where has it all gone.  But it has been an incredible journey to get here.  Lots of laughs and good times which I am ever so grateful about.   When you start looking back over how your life has gone, its wonderful to remember such great times.
Yes there has been some shocking and sad times also but once they are done, and you get on with life, they fade away.  After all the years of working hard, Steve and I are on a fantastic adventure for the next couple of years in a fascinating place.  I can't wait to get back and continue exploring the incredible county and people. 

Friday 4th Feb - Wednesday 16th Feb
Well I had 2 fantastic days with Tam, Steve, Sam and Dillon.  Laughed lots, wandered around the shops and watched incredible movies.  Tam and I found a really fabulous little shop called "That Shop"  on a corner at Coolangatta.   Gorgeous old fashioned 50's type dresses, skirts and togs.  So very cute.  But not cheap, so I am going to go back and get something next time when I have saved up a bit.  Sam and Dillon are delightful, very energetic, kids who drove their mother mad (which is the case for all children and mothers - I know mine
did and still do) and it was great to see them both for a bit.  Yolander and Mark came and picked me up on Sunday to go back to their place and I spent 2 days there, going for walks and getting lost, but eventually finding my way back home.  It was good to spend time with Yo, especially as last time she was getting ready to be married and getting married, so it was calmer and lovely to catch up.  I still can't believe how much Yo has grown up into a really lovely woman.  I guess I was still thinking she was the little girl that I used to look after.  Not anymore.  As Yo and Mark both work, I had to get a taxi and then a train to the airport this time to fly back to Cairns which in itself was an adventure.  It certainly takes ages to fly anywhere.  I left Yo's house at 9.30am and arrived in Cairns at 4.30pm.  Long waits between transports, but still good.  I had a book and my ipod with me so I read or slept most of the way.  I also had a stow away travelling with me.
Mark's stuffed animal "Barry Quokka" had decided that he wanted to go to PNG and have a look around.  I wonder what interesting adventures he will get up to.  I spent the next four days catching up with Syl, Brenton, Keetah and Jamie again.  There was lots of rain in the cyclone aftermat but it was nice.  And so very hot and sticky.  Yuck.  On Friday 11th Feb, we picked Monique up in the afternoon from school, and then picked up Steve from the airport, eventually.  His flight was delayed three times and he wasn't sure if it would be fully cancelled until the next day or not, but it wasn't and at 9.30pm, he finally arrived for a 4 day R & R.  I had booked him in on the Saturday morning to get a new tattoo that I had designed especially for him.  He got that done and really liked it, thank goodness.  There would be nothing worse than getting a permanent tattoo and not liking it.  The guy who designed it was like "so man, it's all good" and told Steve that "your wife is so excited for you" in a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure tone of voice.  Very funny but he was brilliant at his work. 
On Sunday we drove Syl's car (Syl told us to take it so that she had an excuse not to work - they had called her in everyday for about a week already and still wanted her to work the next two days as well) to Townsville to see Tiarna briefly.  We found her new place though sheer blind luck because as Steve says, getting directions from one Pomroy through another Pomroy is asking to be lost.  Oh well, we did find it eventually.  Tiarna's new roomy is a 25 year old drama teacher named Todd.  He was lovely and as he
enjoys cooking, he makes sure that Tiarna eats better than what she has been doing previously.  I really think that her mood swings were all about the crap food she consumed everyday.
But, I can only nag (as I am known to do on a regular basis to Tiarna and Monique) and hope that she eats better.  Anyway, we booked into a motel for the night and then met up with Tiarna and her new boyfriend Malachi and went to a lovely French restaurant for dinner.  Steve wanted to try the snails, so he ordered that while the rest of us ordered not so scary meals.  Tiarna and I tasted the snail meal and it wasn't bad.  It was cooked in a vol - o - vont (is that spelt correct) with mushrooms and gravy, so it wasn't like eating it out of the shell which i may not have tried.  We had a great time and laughed heaps.  Malachi is lovely and it was good to see Tiarna happy.  She was on stress leave from her job while we were there and soon after, she ended up resigning from the job to look for something else where hopefully the boss won't be so nasty.  We picked up our car from the repaireres the next morning.  The front end was looking very nice and shiny and they had done a great job.  The gear box still needs doing but it does drive in the meanwhile, so we will wait a bit to get that fixed.  We drove the car back to Cairns on the Monday and then had a couple of days to chill out before flying back on the Wednesday morning.  Monique was allowed to
come out of school on Tuesday afternoon for the night so that we could spend time with her before leaving.  We won't see her again until the April holidays now.    And so the next part
of the adventure begins........

Wednesday 16th Feb - Wednesday 2nd March
Well, we arrived in Port Moresby without any delays which is unusual but nice, on a very small plane which I wasn't sure I wanted to get on.  Steve tells me that some of the planes that go to the other places in PNG are smaller so I am not looking forward to that (even though I really want to go and visit other places - I wonder if I can row a little boat?????).  The "Govnour" (Warren) picked us up from the airport and drove us back to the compound.  We  walked into our new house (the other one has to get the floors fixed so that we don't fall through any more) and I burst into tears.  I was so tired from not sleeping well the night before, overwhelmed about having to unpack everything again, missing the girls and also relieved
to be back in my own space after a month travelling.  So after Steve calmed me down and told me to just unpack as I felt like it, I started to enjoy being back.  As it was a Wednesday, we went to the Yacht Club for the key draw, dinner and drinks.  I ordered the vege balls with a spicy sauce.  They were yummy but not a good choice for me as they were coated in bread crumbs.  Not a good start.  I baked my first loaf of bread using Dad's recipe and instruction the next day and guess what.  I have bread that looks and smells good, doesn't fall apart and is really yummy.   So toast every morning now is not a battle, deciding whether to put up with aching body or not.  I can now have my toast and eat it........ha ha ha. 
Gettimg back into the swing of things was slow.  Lealah (I was spelling it wrong before) is great and we spend lots of time out exploring things, watching movies and swimming.  I have asked Maggie (our house mary) if she can come on Tuesdays also and we do some cooking - she teaches me and I teach her, I show her how to do beading and she shows me how to make a billum bag (which is so bloody frustrating and hard but not hard at all for her).   Maggie takes Lealah and I to the local markets to get fresh produce and I take Maggie tothe supermarkets and we have icecream cones.  It's all good fun and interesting.  Maggie is also slowly teaching me how to speak pigeon english.  It is difficult to remember but I am getting there slowly.
Here's a recipe that Maggie taught me.
Ingredients
4 bananas - make sure they are really solid bananas - just ripe or they will fall apart
4 white sweet potatoes (called kai kai)
local greens - whatever you like eg spinach, bok choy etc - up here we use pumpkin vine ends - so interesting
4 - 8 chicken pieces on bone
coconut milk - fresh if you can get it
onions
garlic
salt
Method
Peel the potatoes and cut them in half (you need big pieces as this is cooked for a long time).  Put them in a large pot.  Peel the bananas and add to the pot.  
Sprinkle in diced onion and garlic.  Wash the greens and put them on top of the potato and bananas.  Place the chicken pieces on top of the greens. 
Pour in enough coconut milk to come up about 3cm in the pot (If you use coconut cream - mix it with water to make it a bit diluted).   Season with salt.
Place the pot on the stove and put it on medium to low heat for about 2 hours or until everything is cooked nicely.  Place a potato, banana, greens and chicken
on a plate and pour a bit of the coconut milk over for moisture. 
I found this recipe to be very much back to basics.  All the ingredients are what can be found locally or can be grown.  I also found the tastes to be very mild which was interesting,
especially as I like my food to have a bit of a punch to it using herbs and spices.  Both Steve and I liked this meal, but if I did it again, I would probably add herbs / spices / curry paste
to it.  See what you think...................

On Monday 21st Feb, I called Ali who is the contact for Buk Bilong Pikinini - which translates to Book Belong to Children - and organised a trip with her to visit two of the libraries they had set up in a couple of the villages around Port Moresby.   Ali is the Director of the organisation and is an incredible woman doing an amazing job.  When she started working with the organisation in 2008, there were about 3 libraries set up.  There are now 7 and they have local teachers in each, teaching those children who can't afford to go to school, how to read and write.  It is so very inspiring.  We went to the Koki library which is a permanent 2 story building beside a local market.  It has been completely renovated by a big company,
is fully fenced, and landscaped to be a pleasant place for the local children to go and read, and access books that they wouldn't have the opportunity to do otherwise.  I had a great chat with the assistant teacher who was telling me that the local schools don't have libraries in them, so the children lucky enough to go to these innovative libraries are very lucky. 
At the Koki library, there were two groups of kids, the younger lot sitting on mats under the trees outside and listening to a story being read by the teacher, and the older lot in the upstairs room playing with playdough to make numbers and letters.  There were about 70 kids all up and the head teacher said that they can get up to 80 kids there.  What an incredible opportunity for those young minds.  Ali had also brought along the head teacher librarian from the Goroko region who had flown in for the week to see what was happening in POM.  He has an incredible 365 children at his library and was thrilled to see what the teachers here were doing.    I find this so encouraging to see young children reading and so willing
to learn new things.  I had made a committment to Ali to become involved in this group doing whatever they need me to do.   I was supposed to go on a trip with another lady Yvonne to the 6 mile library yesterday but had to cancel due to another commitment.  Next week, they are having a committee meeting, so I will go along and get started.  I intend to contact libraries and school in Australia and get old books donated and sent up as there is so much need for it here.   Ali wants to branch out the libraries so that adults can also borrow books to take home and read eventually, so there is that also.  Luckily, one of the huge transport companies up here gives the organisation free transport of books and Hastings Deering have put up a shed with an aircon in it on our compound for the books to be stored before being sorted and distributed.  Lots to do. 

Lealah and I went to our first All Nations Womens Group meeting yesterday.  It is an group set up for women from every country, living in POM to get together and raise money to donate to local charities and such like.  It is also a great way to meet other women up here.  It is so important to get to know others as it can be rather isolating not getting out and about.  I was able to get an activities list at the meeting and now plan to do all sorts of activities to meet others.  It should be good.

The workmen have arrived today to start fixing the floor in our house.  I hope that they finish fairly quickly as I miss my back verandah.  The house we are in now is good but not the same.  I shifted Steve's orchids to the front verandah and they are not doing as well because of the morning sun.  It is too hot.  But I have planted more seeds and they are coming up nicely.  I also bought some herb plants from the markets on the weekend, and they are sitting on my front steps until we can organise a vege garden.  The senior accountant is moving his family into the big house in the compound - where Robyn used to live - because one of their neighbours where they live now was held up and it scared Lisa, so they are moving here.  Mark likes a vege garden too so we are able to get him to build a really big one so that we can all put in veges.  Lealah and I had a lovely time the other day looking at all the vege seeds at Brian Bell.  We had to go there and get a heap of stuff for the haus wing (I have been spelling that wrong too) so that we can keep it clean.

The last two weeks has been an emotional roller coaster.  I am enjoying the time Steve and I spend together, but miss the kids.  I am enjoying the freedom to do what I want during the day, but find myself getting a bit down at times.  Overall though, it is a good experience.   I have to say that the exception to that is PNG belly which I have gotten again.  And it hurts.  I have been told to expect that from time to time, so that's life. 

Thursday 3rd March - Friday 11th March
The workmen have been working from 8am to 4pm everyday.  Constant noise, hammering and sawing etc.  But the first part of the floor is almost done.  Tiling to go down and the bathroom door to be fixed and then we can move back into our house.    But in the meanwhile, it has been good in this house.  I have put all of our gear out so that it feels like home here.  All the houses in the compound are being painted on the outsides, so there are other workmen here now doing that.  It's a busy little place at the moment.
The last two weeks has had some exciting things happening. 

I have been to the markets with Maggie most weeks.  This has been a good experience since the first time going and I am feeling more comfortable here in POM now.  I have been a bit more adventurous while making sure that I am taking all safety precautions. 

I have finally succeeded in doing the first part of the billum bag.  This is only after much time doing the necessary rolling of the wool, having it pulled apart, then starting again.  It is alot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I am determined to do one bag.  I don't know if i will do another one after that, but I know that I will finish this one eventually.

I have done three trips to help out Buk Bilong Pikinini and am enjoying that.  Two trips were to libraries and the third was for a book sort.  I think i have been roped into being one of the supervisors for the book sort but will find out more when I go to my first committee meeting.  The book sort is being shifted to our compound so this will be much easier to do from here.  The second library trip was on Tuesday, and as Tiarna was here, we both went.  It was a little container room on the police grounds at 6 Mile.  The day we went there were about 90 children stuffed in like sardines into the container and they were singing away very enthusiastically when we arrived.  They were separated into two groups,one of which was sent outside, so Tiarna and I sat down on the tarp under the tree and read to the kids.  Well, it was actually more like watching them elbow and push each other out the road trying to get close to us while pretending to listen to the books that we were reading from.  They were so cute and were so happy to have access to great books.  Everytime we asked for another book to read, 10 - 15 books were thrust into our faces.  It was such an interesting morning.

I joined a craft group on friday mornings and have started my first quilt.  It is actually more rewarding than I thought it was going to be and I have been busy quilting most nights.  I am also meeting a heap of new friends, all of whom are very interesting and have a wonderfully exotic lifestyle that we are slowly becoming accustomed to.  Everyone here flying in and out of the country regularly, and it's not uncommon to hear that "so and so are out of country".  All the groups that you join have different people at them each time you go because of this really transient lifestyle.  I love it. 
 
I won K21,500 at the Yacht Club in the weekly key draw.  It was totally unexpected but such a blessing.  Apparently it hasn't been won in almost a year, so I was totally shocked to hear my name drawn out.  So much fun, but boy did I pay for the next two days afterwards.  I really shouldn't drink so much when celebrating.   I plan to save some of it, but also am going to plan some trips up to the islands and highlands so that Steve and I can see the rest of the country.  So very exciting.

I went with Claudie to her family home which is one of the houses that sits over the water in the bay.  It was rather scary getting there because the board walk out to the house is rather wobbly and some of the boards were missing, but what an amazing experience.   Her family were there and we were introduced to them all, had to shake hands with everyone and sat down on the lino in a circle to talk.  The house was the last one in the row, facing out into the harbour, gorgeous view, really cool air.  It was quite small, with the main room being the lounge / kitchen / etc room.  I think there were two small bedrooms, and a little verandah which is where all the cooking is done.  There were at least 20 people living in it. It's such an eye opening to see how lucky we really are.  Steve and I live in a three bedroom house for just the two of us, and Claudie's family all live in that tiny house together.  They do have electricity which surprised me, and there was a television in the room, but I don't think they have beds to sleep on.  Everyone sleeps on the floor on a mat.  I would love to go back and cook and eat with everyone, but I have to find out from Claudie whether this is possible.  Michael (Claudie's husband) has invited us to go and visit when they have to change one of the logs that hold up the house.  Apparently it is a big event and worth seeing it happen.

Tiarna has been here for a week and it's been great spending heaps of time with her and showing her around my new stomping ground.  She has been having fun experiencing the different way of life and I must admit that I have been spoiling her a bit.  We went to the spa today and she had a pedicure spa done while I had a manicure.  It is the ultimate in luxury.

Life is incredibly busy but I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Tiarna flys back to Cairns tomorrow and Steve flies to Lahir on Tuesday for a couple of weeks again, so I am going to be on my own for a bit.  I plan to keep busy during the day and have my quilt to do at night to stay occupied.  I will also be going canoeing twice a week which is something Steve and I tried out on Tuesday and just loved.  We went out in a 6 person canoe, right out into the harbour, past huge container ships.  There was a water spout twirly thing just in front of us which looked spectacular, and there was a storm hanging around so the wind was wild and the waves were rough but it was so very exhilirating.  

We went to the Australia Week concert last night at the Lamana Hotel which was put on by the Australian High Commission and because Hastings Deering was one of the major sponsors for the show, we got front row seats.  The music was INCREDIBLE.  There were Aboriginal dancers, PNG singers and bands and an Australian band.  What a great night.   

Stay tuned for the next edition which will be stories of my time alone here in Port Moresby.