Classes here at UNITECH resumed Monday this week. I have been busy preparing for 2x subjects that I am presenting. “Project Management” to 3rd year students and “Management Information Systems” to 4th year students. As there was minimal prepared material I have had to “throw” a structure together. This has been a lot of work but has also given me free license to put together teaching material of my choosing.
My 1st lecture which was Monday morning, 2x students turned up ! I find out that it is quite common for students not to turn up to classes in the 1st week. Must be one of those PNG things !
As part of my classes I have decided to introduce a few team building excercises, basically fun learning games. I don’t really support the pass/fail system as I believe learning can be a fun, relaxed activity. The teaching side of things I am really enjoying. I can see that it is an area that I am going to have maximum impact during my stay here as a volunteer. PNG has many challenges ahead and I firmly believe that the students here at UNITECH are in a position to have a direct and positive impact on some of these challenges.
Monday night I met and had dinner with a baptist pastor by the name of Keith Piper. Keith is in PNG for a number of weeks visiting a few of the rural areas and is also here to provide monetary assistance for the construction of tin roofs and water tanks. Interesting thing is that Keith’s congregation is in Cherrybrook, a suburb of Sydney located within the Hornsby Shire. When I was working at Hornsby Council there were three “blokes” I used to have lunch with regularly : George, Bill and Russell. It turns out that Russell is a member of Pastor Keith’s congregation in Cherrybrook !! What a small world it is indeed !!
I met Keith through Peter (also a baptist) and Monday night we troddled down to the Lae International Hotel for dinner. Pastor Saka from the local baptist church at Tent City and Dominique were also present. I have become good freinds with Pastor Saka and we always hug and have a joke when we meet up. Pastor Saka was recently in Australia for a baptist conference and also for a brain scan (no brain scan machines in PNG). Dominique has a business in Lae specialising in Communications and 2Way Radios. Anyway, we had dinner at the Lae International and shared some stories and also some laughs. The talking was mainly left to Keith. Keith is fervent baptist who holds very “strong” convictions around his beliefs and spent the night trying to make me see the world from his perspective. I do not understand how anyone can claim to have a monopoly on the truth. As a buddhist I equate this fervour and fundamentalism to suffering. Many people and paths hold a valid view of truth. Why can’t people share these views of truth ? Why this need to convince others that I am right ? Is it fear perhaps ? Is there really such thing as right or wrong ? Can the intellect understand truth ? What is truth ? Is there such thing as truth ?
“To truth or not to truth, this is the question”
Before I head of to my 10:10am class I just need to share one more thing. Goasa my office mate lost his mum late last week. This morning he is on his way to his village (Ihu) which is situated west of a town called Kerema (Gulf Province). Goasa flies from Lae to Kerema (1hr) and then from there will try and catch a banana boat to Ihu. The only access to Ihu is via boat, there are no air strips or roads leading into Ihu. Apparently the seas are very rough at the moment and Goasa mentioned that if the seas were too rough for a boat trip he would walk from Kerema to his village (about 1.5 days). All Goasa’s immediate family have also left the village to work in places such as Lae and Moresby and their Mum’s death is seeing them head back to Ihu for the funeral and other related family matters. My heart goes out to Goasa and his family during this time of loss.
The best is yet to come…
Rob
NB: For photos of the dinner with Pastor Keith, Peter, Dominique and Pastor Saka please following the following link : http://gallery.trupela.com/thumbnails.php?album=72
tingting bilong yu…
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