Have bilum and will travel

Its been a very strange week, a week of emotions that I havent experienced before. Being away from home, the place that is the most familiar to me and seeing it splashed across CNN in my hotel room is well, shocking. I have found it a rough week but feel guilty feeling anything compared to those of you in the thick of the fight against the raging waters and mud and silt and tragedy.

So in typical escapism I went bush PNG style and headed for Chuave, a town in the remote Chimbu province of PNG.

The team here arranged for me to travel to Goroka (an hour flight from Moresby) . So I set off at the crack of dawn to catch my flight at the domestic terminal. A terminal that is fast developing a reputation of being unsafe...again it was fine. The security was phenomenal, much better than the domestic arrangements in Australia. Firearms are to be handed to security and they lock them up on the plane for you...how thoughtful.

Here is my new briefcase...I like it much better than my faithful black Tumi case.

My Western Province Bilum is the pefect size for my laptop, radio, phone, wallet, paper, lunch....

Coming in to land at Goroka...it is like the rest of PNG, breathtaking. My camera phone just doesnt do the magnifence of the mountains, waterfalls and the valley justice. The striking thing is that all farms are small family plots. There is almost no corporate farms left in PNG and thus most farming is what I call subsistence plus...food for the family, pigs and what is left goes into the local market for sale to others. One of the many reasons why formal employment is so low.

Welcome to Goroka...indeed.



The trip from Goroka to Kongo Coffee at Chuave was supposed to be 30 minutes...slight miscalculation, it is 90minutes, going very fast in a twin cab. But my driver Rex is legendary and everyone got out of his road. I would too. This was my view for 90minutes doing 100kms most of the time but slowing to a crawl frequently to navigate where the road is long ago eroded. The grill was on the front, the sides and the back to protect us from "enthusiastic locals" who like to throw big rocks!



I ended up at Kongo Coffee and met one of the most inspiring business people, Jerry Kapka and his wife Lilly. Jerry has developed PNGs largest processing facility (taking coffee bean and converting it into green bean ready for export) right in his home village at Chuave. He buys directly from small farmers who produce around 8 - 10 bags a year of some of the world's most sought after coffee.



There was something extra sweet about drinking Kongo Coffee with Jerry & Lily in the middle of the processing facility. Coffee will never taste so good. It was strong but not bitter and a little bit chocolaty.



Possibly the luckiest dog in PNG having a rest, obviously has a nose for coffee too!

The trip back was nerve racking...not enough room width ways for everyone...I admit I shut my eyes (tightly).

There is not a clear photo but we even saw some green, leafy material for sale. The driver told me it was K1 about 35cents for a small joint.  The ladies below were simply selling the equivalent of a Maccas burger and minties for the road trip.



We went through three police checks to make sure we were travelling for all the right reasons.



I had another two meetings in Goroka and then headed back to Moresby. All in a days work. The check in at Goroka is not high tech but it works. My plane up and back was perfectly on time. Better than a lot of flights in Oz.

Here is one of the three guys who were my personal protection for the day...maybe a bit extreme but I felt safe and was able to power through my work without having to worry. The only problem was they are all blues supporters.



My apologies the images are poor quality but I was supposed to be here for 3 days and so far its day 13 and counting. I didnt bring my camera just using the camera in the Blackberry Torch.

Take care and big hugs and smiles to all those back home. I wish I was there to pitch in.

Carolyn.