Gaulim Teachers’ College

Take a left out of Kokopo and you begin to wind your way up into the hills of the Gazelle Peninsula, quite quickly the landscape changes from a small coastal town to rural villages hidden amongst masses of vegetation, roadside market stalls and a consistent flow of people going ‘walk about’ on the roadside. After about 20 minutes you have climbed your way up onto a ridge which looks over to the Baining Hills (See background picture of blog). The view is stunning; on a clear day you get a 180 degree view of the valley and the mountains stretching right up to the sea in the north. You slowly make your way up to 4 Way Junction, so called because it is one of the only ones on East New Britain, and after taking a left you descend down the other side of the ridge and across the valley passing over Toli, Taulil and Baining land (3 main cultural groups of ENB) until the sealed road ends and you begin the last few kilometres down a bumpy dirt track to Gaulim Teachers College.

The view from our balcony

 Gaulim from the air

 

Our college is one of the more rural locations for primary teacher training in the country. The student population has increased dramatically this year, in response to the demand from the government for 5000 new teacher graduates each year. The diploma course takes two years of full-time study, but it’s often mentioned in conferences and workshops we’ve attended that this is a very short time to fit the training within. Student teachers train in the core subjects such as Maths, Science, Language (English), Professional Studies and PE as well as other courses such as Community Development, Agriculture and Aids Awareness. The school curriculum over here serves two purposes. (1) To educate students who will go on to further studies or employment and (2) to equip students with the knowledge and skills to live a sustainable life within a village community. Life in PNG is still very simple (for better of a word). Many families live off their own produce and live comfortably within their means in a rural village. The curriculum acknowledges this and therefore aims to educate students in this way of life.

Gaulim Teachers College (GTC) was built in the 1970s, and by all accounts the infrastructure has not been updated since. Apart from a new (2003) ‘state of the art’ ICT room the facilities and buildings are quite poor and in need of some major renovations. The current administration seem to be putting some money into this with new roofs being added to some of the classrooms and a new generator installed which offers power during the frequent and often long lasting black outs. Our college is compact, with a classroom block (10), dining hall (mess) and chapel alongside the male and female dormitories.  It has a large sports field and staff housing scattered around the outskirts of the grounds. Gaulim is run by the United Church, originally it was the Methodists who acquired the land and set up the college, later to be taken on by the United Church (we think this is an Anglican/Methodist mix).

The classroom blocks at Gaulim

Some may say Gaulim is run down, and I guess it is, I did fall through the floor boards in my first week on the job! However, there is something quite charming about it that gives it a very pleasant character. It could be that it is situated among a local community which gives it a very ‘homely’ type feel, it might also be how isolated it is, making it very relaxed and peaceful.

The students at Gaulim are amazing; they come from all over the country and from all walks of life, with some coming straight out of high school, and others mature students. For many of the student teachers, following this path was not a choice they made independently with many being sent and paid for by their community, meaning the pressure to succeed is massive. Others have got scholarships and the rest are self-funded. Overall we have found that the students put so much effort into their work and take immense pride in their achievements as well as the college life. The effort they put into some of their projects in incredible, they had an art display last weekend and every classroom had been decked out in decorations and set up as market stalls holding all sorts of art work as well as traditional artefacts, it really was a spectacular sight. 

 Some of the students' displays at their art show

 Sports oval

 

Opening of the new boys pit toilet

 

The musical talent at the college is also fantastic. Students are often practising for church services and the songs they sing are wonderfully harmonised, and sung both in English and Tok Pisin. Several of the students play guitar or a band instrument, and everyone seems to get involved in the beautiful singing here. Our house is surrounded by the sounds of guitars strumming and groups singing, day and night. On a recent bus journey with students from Milne Bay we were treated to traditional songs of the province by an all-male chorus, as we wound up the hilly roads at sunset. It was magical.

Most of the staff live on campus, as we now also do, and there is a small local market which offers mainly bananas, betel nut, and local ‘packed lunches’ wrapped in banana leaves. Early (4am) on a Saturday morning the market grows and you can get a great variety of fresh fruit and vegetables there.  Living on campus gives us a great sense of community, the local people, students, lecturers and their families are all really friendly and always looking out for us. The other day I started digging a hole for our rubbish burning and by the end I had more people wanting to help me than I did shovels, and I eventually wasn’t allowed to do any of the labour. We have been given a patch of land to start a vegetable garden on, no doubt we will have plenty of helpers and advice coming our way.

Our humble abode

Living at a teachers’ college is giving us a great insight into an education community here in PNG as well as learning about the local community. We feel very privileged in our placement and the opportunities we are having.

 

 

East New Britain

East New Britain

Hi all and sorry for the delay between posts, we have been busy absorbing and learning (and battling terrible internet access)!

We’re now living in the province of East New Britain, which is one of two provinces (the other being West New Britain) on the island of New Britain. New Britain is the largest Island in Papua New Guinea and sits east of the mainland. East New Britain has a bit of everything: colonial and war history (info to come in later blog post), exciting wilderness and a great local culture.

ENB flag

View on the drive to Gaulim

Local bay

 Being based on East New Britain has been a blessing. ENB has two main towns, Kokopo and Rabaul which are linked by a coast road littered with smaller villages. Behind these leads to the Baining Mountains which has some smaller towns and a vast amount of small villages (including Gaulim where our college is based).

Kokopo and its surroundings is known as being one of the cleanest and safest places in Papua New Guinea and it does have that feeling about it compared to other parts of PNG. During the day we can move freely around town on foot and feel safe doing so. There is an awesome market in town, huge amounts of fresh fruit and veg and the rest can be purchased at the supermarkets. Kokopo itself is a relatively small town, built in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in 1994 which destroyed the neighbouring town of Rabaul. As a result, a lot of the infrastructure is quite new and well maintained, and generally the town has an opportunistic feel about it.

The majority of locals on East New Britain come from one of two cultural groups, the Toli and the Baining people. The Tolis are known for being a matrilineal society, where land and power is handed down through the women, they are a very recognisable cultural group because they have beautiful golden blond hair which is unique to the Toli people (particularly women and children). The Baining people were the original inhabitants of ENB, they generally  live further inland in the Baining mountains and are known for their fire dancing ceremonies, which we’re very interested to see eventually!

The view from our guest house

The Caldron from the air

Geographically, ENB has to be most famous for its active volcanoes and its world class diving. Rabaul (capital of ENB) sits at the base of an extinct volcanic caldron. When it erupted it created a large bay which is lined by five smaller volcanoes which are still there today. Our current accommodation sits on the crest of the cauldron looking out over the bay and the volcanoes, quite often we look out to see Mt Tavurvur billowing with smoke and when it is having a good puff you can hear the eruptions which sound like a gas torch going off. Although it is quite exciting and special to be living in such an active place, a quick trip to nearby Rabaul gives you a good insight into the destruction the volcanoes can do. In 1937 and 1994 massive eruptions (Mt Tavuvur and Mt Vulcan) destroyed local towns and changed the landscape dramatically. Since we have arrived, Mt Tavuvur has been spilling smoke with a couple bigger eruptions, these have closed the local airport but were nothing to be worried about beyond that. Another geological wonder is the frequent earthquakes. Our biggest so far is around a 5.0 which shook the house in the middle of the night and was a bit frightening but exciting at the same time. Mary and I are always amazed and bring it up with locals and colleagues who don’t seem to think it is anything special. 

The 5 volcanoes in view



The little one to the left is Tavuvur which has been errupting lately



Before arriving in PNG it was a common joke from our friends that we would be living on a diet of sweet potato, yams and more sweet potatoes. One of the nicest things about Papua New Guinea is the range of fresh foods. For a country which is very low on the international poverty scale, PNG certainly does not have a food shortage and with a quick glance in any direction you will see trees laden with fruit or small vegetable gardens bustling with produce. Papua New Guineans enjoy their food, they are very self-sufficient and extremely generous in sharing their crops, we are often visited by our neighbours bearing gifts of freshly grown fruit and veg .

A highlight of our week is always a trip to Kokopo’s town market. Every town has a market as well as smaller ones popping up on the roadside next to each village, once again we are very lucky that Kokopo’s is one of the best in the country. Because it is relatively new, the market is well laid out, clean, organised and offers a great range of local fruit and veg. Peanuts, mangos, pineapples, bananas, pawpaw, coconut and citrus can all be found in the fruit section while the veg has a range of almost everything including greens, aubergines, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and lots more, before you even make it to the staples section. This is a favourite section of ours including every sort of sweet potato you can possibly imagine, as well as taro, cooking bananas,  yams and other root vegetables. Visiting the market in PNG is an interesting adventure, and gives you a good insight into the local produce and climate. The food you will find there is totally organic, seasonal and only what is grown in the area. When you fly around PNG, locals are often carrying a bag of fresh veg that they cannot get back in their home markets. A favourite for most to travel with is broccoli and cauliflower from the highlands which we do miss and will probably start collecting when we travel.

Local Grub prepared by our neighbous

Kokopo local market

Two weeks in Madang- our first taste of life in PNG

Four months after accepting our placement (and having overcome a few visa hitches) we have arrived in Madang, one of the larger towns in Papua New Guinea. We’ve been here doing some training at the country office, which has been a great opportunity to meet some of the staff and volunteers working here. Staying at the very lovely Madang Lodge hasn’t presented too many opportunities to experience local life in town, but with a culture and country this diverse and wonderful you can’t help noticing a few things as you spend your time here.

So, our top ten first impressions of PNG (and Madang in particular!):

1)      Tok Pisin

We’re already very fond of this language as it makes a lot of instinctive sense to the English speaker- ‘Nem bilong me Mary’, anyone? The language a hybrid of English, German, Portuguese, Malay and other local languages and is the lingua franca of the country, although with another 800 odd Tok Ples (local languages) it seems to have a differing status as a used language in different communities. It goes without saying that we’re hopeless at speaking it but there’s a lot of comfort in being able to decipher what people may say to you, or to read it aloud and work out what some of it may mean.

2)      PMVs (Public Motor Vehicles)

This is the way most locals get around, usually an old van of some description, not overcrowded and really cheap, not wise to travel them alone though so we tend to catch them in groups, as we become more confident and known around town a bit we will be able to travel a bit more freely. They’re a different experience when in conjunction with 3) below, and walking alongside the road you need to be careful as flying balls of Buai spit (10) come flying out quite regularly.

3)      Potholes

The road outside our office requires a ‘zig-zag’ approach as it’s fairly impossible to drive in a straight line due to the condition of the roads. I noticed our driver had to shift back a gear to get out of one of the potholes! If you did get stuck only a 4-wheel drive would rescue you. It can be quite the adventure travelling as drivers tend to just swerve the potholes which tests both oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

4)      ‘Apinun’  

We’ve found the local people to be incredibly friendly, our walks around town are accompanied by constant calls of ‘moning’ and ‘apinun’ and smiles from people we encounter. You will find small children follow you out of interest and people will yell or wave hello to you from passing vehicles or across the street. This has made us feel very welcome and possibly given us a slight false sense of security. You still need to be very alert and aware of what is going on around you at all times.

5)      Expatriates

There is a sizeable ex-pat community in Madang, and having been for nights out at the local Country Club we can see that quiz nights, casino and DJ battles are popular with local families as well as the expats who dominate the venue. To be fair there haven’t been too many other social outlets suggested to us, after dark there are limits to where you would go to in town, particularly as newbies.

6)      Second-hand stores

We’ve heard PNG called the second hand clothes capital of the world, and the few stores we’ve seen in Madang attest to this. A huge range of clothes and bargains such as 80toia t-shirts (about 30p) to be had. It kind of represents a shopping nightmare to me, like a massive and heated TK-Maxx. It is a great place to pick up cheap unwanted rugby jerseys, the first store we went to had 2 All Blacks, a Welsh and French rugby Jersey!

7)      Markets

The food market is astonishing, so many varieties of fruit and veg and enough varieties of sweet potato to keep you happily cooking for months. Lots of the smaller veg, nuts etc are sold in heaps and there’s etiquette about stepping over or near the produce.

8)      Coconuts and their dangers

Walking across the local golf course on the way home a coconut fell from a 30ft tree and thumped down next to us. They didn’t mention this in our safety briefing as they are mainly focusing on tsunami and earthquake warnings however James remembered hearing once that falling coconuts were one of the main causes of death on Pacific Islands!

9)      Flying foxes

In Madang, you look up to the sky to check out the flock of noisy black birds, and it turns out there are hundreds of bats flying over you instead. There are bats everywhere from the afternoon, hanging out in the trees and flying to the feeding grounds. They have to shut the local airports during these times because of the dangers.

10)   Buai

One of the first things you might notice here is the brilliant red-stained teeth and lips of the local men and women. Betel nut, or what the locals call buai [boo-eye] is the cause. Buai is the cultivated fruit of a local palm tree with a seed inside. The husk is peeled away and the seeds are chewed with mustard (daka) and lime (garden lime), chewing it is meant to give a mild stimulant. Some people will chew and swallow, and others will spit the resulting red mess out (often indiscriminately) on the footpath.

We were wondering what we will blog about and we think we will aim it towards other volunteers or people travelling to PNG. We will try and limit personal things and try and make it more informative about the diverse and wonderful culture PNG has to offer. If people want to know more in particular post a question on here and we will try our best to get them answered.