On snakes, pigs and babies…

Papua New Guinea has been very generous to me. The 18 months or so that
I have lived and worked here I have slowly fallen in love with the
country and its people. I do not use the word “love” lightly, something
has happened for in PNG that is difficult to put into words. The level
and quality of human interaction around these parts is a sheer contrast
to what one would find in my home town – Sydney. See, Sydney looks great
- in fact, Sydney is a beautiful city… to look at. Go deeper down and
this beauty all but disappears. Between the violence, mental health
issues, the senseless running around in a hurry, the stress and the
isolation of human beings – I think I'm over it. I was over it a long
time ago – it just took me a little longer than expected to cut my
losses so to speak.
Life in the so called west leaves much to be desired. The sad thing is
that we are lead to believe that life in the west is normal – we grow up
thinking that that this is how it is meant to be. Our leaders – yes our
leaders – guide nations and mankind towards what? Towards fuckin what?
Yet we elect these so called servants to implement our mandate – we get
what we deserve by the way. If there is something that typifies the
western thought it has to be apathy and ignorance. Our leaders are happy
for us to remain in this state – as long as we continue to ignore and
not give a rats arse about whats “really” going on – mankind will
continue to spiral towards a big pile of shit.
Papua New Guinea has been generous to me because it has shown me how
people on this planet once used to interact and care for each other. Not
only has this country shown me these human qualities, it has also
allowed me to participate and to learn about these things. There is
still very much a westerner in me but given time I will grow and evolve
into the man that I have only ever dreamt of being. Unfortunately for
PNG, it has decided to adopt western thinking and action instead of
coming up with its own model of society. The proof of this lies in the
fact that all that is nice about the west is in a process of decay in
PNG and all that is ugly is gushing into PNG at a rate of knots. And to
think that with the elections just around the corner – PNG will probably
end up with pretty much the same leaders: corrupt, ego-centric, greedy
and full of rhetoric.
Hang on there… just getting of my soap box now.
That's better.
Now back to snakes, pigs and babies…
- Last night around 9pm – I was in the backyard and I spotted a 1.5
meter brown snake. It was crawling along the razor wire and I did manage
to snap a few photos (from a distance of course – thank god for the
zoom!). PNG folk like killing snakes (out of fear) – I reckon there's
enough space for all creatures to co-exist.
- Pigs are doing fine. Yesterday afternoon I discovered that boy pig is
much more stubborn that girl pig. It probably doesn't know it's a pig
and probably thinks its a donkey or a mule or something. They certianly
like to be scratched – on the back of the head and the stomach too. A
burden but at this stage an enjoyable one.
- Now regarding babies – Eli's adopted son : Isaac (or Boss) stayed over
last night – I think this is the 2nd time that he has done this. Guess
what? The kid as started to call me “Dada” – all those that hear and see
him do it seem to think its hilarious, I'm not sure what to make of it.
Eli and “Boss” come as a joint “:package”. As I say: anything for a
weird life besides – I got a heap of catching up to do.
(Interesting where life starts to take us when we just let things flow!)
- Lastly, it looks like my first job offer is on its way. I was notified
yesterday that I'm the preferred candidate for a position in Goroka.
Can't say more than that at this stage.
Looks like I might get to spend another couple for years (at least) in
this beautiful place.
Have a great one!
NB: Still waiting for people to come and visit me!