Unfortunately…

My office at home is going to be relocated.

I had a tradesman out this afternoon to install a lock on the door of
one of the spare rooms. The office and anything else of value is going inside and guess what? There's only going to be one person holding the key: yours truly!

Unfortunately some money went missing from my bedroom - a relatively large amount - by PNG standards and certainly by volunteer standards. Also need mentioning is the fact that the money was not mine - it was given to me by Mum, during her visit last year, on behalf of a friend of hers from Downunder. The money was intended to be given/donated to person or persons in need - eg: education fees, clothes, medicines etc…

The money went missing some time between Mum being here and two weeks ago - the time I found out. And it can only be someone that has not only been inside the house but has had the time to “snoop” around. This basically cuts the list of suspects to a very small list. And unfortunately it has to be one of Eli's family as the number of people we actually allow inside the house is very very small.

As far as I'm concerned when trust is broken - it's broken. I'm not
really angry just sick in the stomach. To think that it's someone that
we invited into our home on good faith and family to boot!

I intend to draw up a list of names, which I will give to Eli, and only
the folks that have their names on the list will be allowed inside the
fence - let alone the house! It's very unfortunate but it's the way it's
going to be from now on. I am beginning to understand why it is that
long term residents in PNG end up isolating themselves from the families of their partners.

The thing with trust is that our two cultures see it very differently.
In PNG, trust can be broken by someone, eg: a clan member, but then afterwards regained. In fact, there doesn't appear to be anything that a clan member can do to permanently lose the trust or support from extended family - a clan member will never be ousted from the group no matter how heinous the crime or violation. With us folks from the West it works slightly different - or at least for me anyway.

There's talk about getting the Bamboo man involved. We'll see. He never found the old man's torch and I'm reluctant to hand out more cash that will probably not lead anywhere.

Some days are “corkers” !!!

NB: Interestingly and worth noting that the three years I have been in PNG I have not had one cent stolen from me by a pick pocket, street boy or raskol. In the end it was “clan” that beat them to it!