Last week of teaching…

This week is the last week of teaching here at UNITECH. Next week the
students have a study week followed by a week of exams. Two weeks will
follow with marking and departmental meetings to discuss results.

There is talk of a staff strike which could end up seeing exams
boycotted. This means possible more disruption around the corner. PNG
certainly is the Land of the Unexpected. Sometimes it amazes me how
anything of substance gets achieved around these parts at all.

In fact, there are times when I get that frustrated I feel like I'm
going out of my mind. Like today…

I had run out of gas last night. Now, keeping two pigs is hard work as
it is – having two pigs and not having any means (gas) to cook food for
them is double hard work. The way it goes with pigs… they get hungry
and they squeal. The grunts, snorts and oinks I can put up with – in
fact… I rather like some of those “piggy” sounds they make.

So back to the empty gas bottle…

Six phone calls later and K10 worth of mobile credit down the drain I
finally get a gas bottle delivered at 5:45pm. Why is it that in PNG –
things have to be followed up… not once, but two, three, four or more
times. Sometimes I get the impression that unless one follows up
something multiple times – people think that it was never a genuine
request to begin with.

Another example: to date I have written and forwarded a grand total of
30 memo's to the campus Housing department to get some things fixed
around the house. Both the Pro Vice Chancellor and AVI have both been
copied in. To date… one thing out of about 10 issues resolved, one
written response from the Housing Manager and no response whatsoever
from the Pro VC.

Then again…

The gas bottle did get delivered… not in Rob's time but according to
another type of time that runs here in PNG : “PNG time” or sometimes
they refer to it as “rubber time”.

The melanesian way of life.