Getting comfy

Hello!

This week has been great. We passed the one week anniversary of Dan's interesting episode on saturday, and he's all better now. The infection has completely cleared and he's back to normal (well, as normal as ever...). At least we'll know in future that he has the potential to crazy faint.

Everything else is ticking along nicely. Making new friends, networking, all that sort of stuff. Everyone has been great, inviting me along to stuff and showing me around... I'm so lucky! As far as play dates go, I'm finding it interesting that Biscuit is now one of the younger babies, and suddenly I have to deal with older kids hitting and pushing her over. I'm trying to be calm and remember that if she had an older sibling (or if she was the older sibling!) this would be happening all the time. But, it's still a shock to see someone hitting my baby, even if they are only little themselves.

This weekend we got out and about, and went to a great art market. It's PNG's 35^th Independence Day this Thursday, so a lot of traditional dancers are in town. Several groups were performing at the markets on Saturday, and it was great to get to see it! One group in particular was amazing, almost professional in their performance.

Internet is still a huge pain in the arse. Dan and I are both nerdy nerds (I'm sure you'd never suspected as much) and have a reasonably sizeable internet “habit”. Back in Australia I used it for everything from shopping to finding recipes to studying to looking at photos on facebook to reading newspapers.... We had a 50GB/month plan, which cost us $50 per month. That suited us nicely, and was adequate for our needs. Here in PNG, the internet is obviously not the Government's priority. Exactly what is their priority is a matter for further discussion, but back to the issue at hand. In addition to internet access being crappy and expensive in general, we are also living attached to a hotel, and as such are obligated to use their extremely crappy and extremely expensive internet plan. Approximately AUS$1000 will buy us 5BG. FIVE. In total. Not per month. Once we've used up our generous 5GB, we have to buy more. So, we're on an internet diet.

But, today, great news! Dan's company back in Adelaide have agreed to cover ALL our internet costs!!! Amazing! This is better than we expected. But at least we won't be forking out $10,000/year for the internet.

Something else that we've been trying to wrap our heads around is the massive gap in wealth, education, health and opportunity between the expats (us) plus a select few wealthy PNG nationals and the rest of the people in the country. Where I stayed in 2006 in the highlands, people are mostly subsistence farmers, and some supplement this with a small cash crop (eg coffee). For the most part they eat what they grow in their large gardens, which are a source of enormous pride. In the city, however, unemployment is high and people don't have land to grow food on. Food prices in the shops are insanely high, as most food is imported from Australia or elsewhere (the roads are non-existent, so even fresh cheap fruit and veg can't be transported from the highlands). I'm still understanding the health and educational systems, but from what I can tell they suck unless you can pay. I spend a good deal of time feeling like an arsehole, living like royalty when people are living in shacks just outside our gates. I found out that most of the hotel staff, security guards etc are getting 1-3 Kina per hour. That's around 30c - $1. Dan said that apparently the guards who patrol downstairs don't get to take breaks either on their 12 hour shifts, and they really appreciate food and cold water. I really don't like doing things (good or bad) that confront awkwardness directly, but I gave one of our nice guards some homemade pizza and a drink the other night. He was really happy, didn't try and refuse it or anything. Still, I felt weird kind of giving something directly to someone like that. I mean, it's not like he's homeless... he has a job! I left feeling a bit like a condescending arsehole rather than an indifferent one. Maybe it's the lesser of two evils?

Oh, I left Biscuit with the hotel “pikinnini meri” or nanny the other day, just for an hour. She's one of the girls who works at kindy club, so even though I knew her, I was anxious. Mostly because the club has that unfenced wading pool. Before I left, I stressed to the girl that if Niamh wanted to go in the pool, she MUST go in her inflatable swimming ring and be very closely supervised. When I returned an hour later, Niamh was walking around in the wading pool, the girl holding her hand, but without her swim ring on. I've since gotten an email from a longterm expat who says you really need to spell out what you want. “Put the baby to bed” isn't good enough, you really need to say “Put the baby to bed in her cot” otherwise you might be surprised where you find the baby. She did also go on to say that children are such a valued part of the culture here, and that no-one else will love your kids the way these nannies do. Still, the whole thing has put me off finding someone for a while.

Niamh is going really well, although she is determined to charge headfirst into tables, run off steps, tumble down slopes, leap from heights.... I'm wondering how many more knocks to the head until she turns into Mike Tyson. She is saying so so many new words now. It is just exploding, more and more every day. She's also started singing, which is so cute and sweet. She's getting used to the heat, and the idea that everyone has suddenly changed colour. However, she is SUPER clingy at the moment. Half the time she'll launch and grab onto one of my legs as I'm moving, and then is flung off with greater force when I try and stop myself from walking her into the coffee table! I'm struggling to wash the dishes or cook dinner without her having a total meltdown because I'm not on the floor playing with her. It's also hard not having my break days (ie the days I was at work!). I love her sooooo much but 24/7 is pretty full on. Particularly when Dan's gone 12 hours a day and often for the whole weekend too. Much respect to others who have no family support nearby, and have always had to go it alone.

Luckily, I think it'll improve when our freight arrives from Australia. At the moment we've been here for 2 weeks with nothing more than what was in our suitcases. We've got about 3 toys, 3 books and that is it. Bring on the goods!!

Well, that's about it from me. Dan's being a bit slack with his blog, so I'll tell you that he's going well, and is really enjoying the challenge of his new work. At times it's also pretty frustrating though, and he is working very long hours. However, he does come home with some great stories. I'm not really sure how much I'm allowed to talk about it on the internet, so some may have to wait until it's discussed over coffee back in Adelaide – we should be back for a quick visit in November.

Also very much looking forward to the 2 Grandmas visiting us. Helen arrives late September, and Mum arrives mid October. We can't wait! As for the rest of the family, Niamh is now quite good at naming everyone in her birthday book, and loves having it read to her.... at least once a day!

Missing everyone, but enjoying the good times. Sitting on the balcony in the evening reading stories and eating watermelon while the planes take off is especially nice....