The Governor General recently came to town. Up until about a week to the Governor
General’s arrival I had no idea what a Governor General (GG) was. Just in case you’re in the same boat a
Governor General is the Queen’s representative. Each commonwealth country has one and they’re above to Prime
Minister… or so that’s my understanding.
Preparations for his visit began weeks in advance, however, I was only
around to see/help with the final week leading up to his arrival. My role was to help Monica with the
money. So around 120,000 Kina passed
through my hands as I counted, distributed, and tracked who got how much, when,
and what for. At the same time
another event, Council of Elders, was taking place and I did the same thing for
that event which had a 200,000 Kina budget. So basically I around 300,000 Kina passed through my hands
in a week. Pretty cool!
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| Welcome to Kavieng. |
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| Malagan Masks... The big one on the left was presented to the GG |
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| Mai Mai's performing for the GG as he comes off the plane |
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| Another cultural group performing for the GG |
After all the hoop-a-la of preparations the GG finally
arrived. This was all very
exciting, but I was far more excited for the arrival of Willie (Bruce and
Monica’s son… my pseudo cousin who is more like a brother to me) who just so
happened to be on the same flight as the GG. George (Bruce and Monica’s other son), Glennis (George’s
then girlfriend and now fiancé), and Scott (Glennis’s brother) were supposed to
be on the same flight but missed it because they were waiting for Will, who,
ironically, was on the plane. So Will,
my partner in crime, had arrived, and I was stoked! I do wish everyone had made the flight together, but I
enjoyed my day alone with Will.
That evening was the welcome dinner for the GG which involved lots of
long speeches in a warm banquet room.
Will and I were both very grateful for each other’s company that
evening. It was really cool to see
the cultural performance, but made for a long evening. The next morning Will and I attended
the guard of honor and an assembly meeting where Bruce summed up what the
province has accomplished in the last 5 years. The guard of honor was cool to watch, but the assembly
meeting was eye opening. For 5
years I’ve heard about what Bruce and Monica have been working on, however,
seeing a list of what has been accomplished all at once rather than hearing
about each project individually was shocking. They’ve been really busy in the last 5 years!
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| Me and Willie going for a walk on the beach |
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| Cultural dances at the GG welcome dinner |
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| More dancing for the GG |
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Singing the National Anthem and the provincial anthem.
The provincial anthem is super catchy and gets stuck
in my head for hours... sometimes days... after I hear it. |
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Bruce presenting a brief synopsis of what the provincial
government has accomplished in the last 5 years. |
That afternoon the rest of the troops came in and the next
morning bright and early at 5:30am we were off to Namatanai for the opening of
the Council of Elders Conference.
The GG made an appearance and opened the conference with the
presentation of medals to outstanding members of the community for their time
and service to the New Ireland province.
Bruce received a medal.
Woot Woot! And he so very
much deserved it because the man works non-stop.
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| Photo bomb!! |
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| This man welcomed the GG to the Council of Elders |
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| This was the group with the man above |
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| The GG presenting medals |
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| Bruce receiving his medal |
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I don't know this man but his outfit is rad
and I thought I'd share it |
Immediately after Bruce got his medal and we shoved some
refreshments down our throats we were in the car again and off to Huris with
Kuni Bert. Huris was not our
stopping place though, just the location of where the boat was docked that
would take us to a group of islands off the coast of Huris called Tanga. The seas were a bit rough for the first
half and smooth sailing for the second, thankfully, because I get seasick and
was extremely nauseated.
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| Scott, Will, Glennis, George, and me. |
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| Kuni Bert, me, and George on our way to Tanga |
The New Ireland province has two districts – Kavieng and
Namatanai – and Kuni Bert is the district administrator for Kavieng. He is also from Tanga and came with us
on the trip. Well, it’s more like
we came with him along with the Deputy Governor and the Church Rep for the
province. The following day the GG
took a chopper over to open a high school which was the reason for our trip out
there. The first night was
chill. Glennis and I made dinner as
we were instructed to by Kuni – rice and bully beef (canned corned beef). At dinner I shared my giant spider in the bathroom story with
everyone. We had a good laugh then
headed off to bed. Glennis and I
walked into our room and guess what is waiting for me on the wall above my bed? If you guessed anything other than a 7-legged
giant huntsman spider you would be wrong.
This time I some how managed to keep the screaming of profanities in my
head and only a quiet “Oh my goodness” escaped my lips. Had the same f-bomb (among other choice
words) that uncontrollably leapt from mouth last time made an appearance this
time in front of all the big people in the provincial government including the
Church Rep, well, that would not have been good. Deputy Governor came to the rescue and killed the 7-legged
spider that was haunting me. I did
feel a little bad about it being killed but not as bad as I would have felt
about the loss of a limb (by the way these spiders are not poisonous and I
believe not harmful to humans but they still scare the bajesus out of me). After lots of pep talks I managed
to fall asleep.
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| Classic "Scary White Lady" look |
The next morning Glennis and I awoke bright and early at 5am
and decided to go for a wander along the beach to watch the sunrise. Off we went and were soon joined by
about 20 village kids. We played
with them, took photos, showed them how to take photos, and then headed back to
our guesthouse to get ready for the day.
On our way back I stepped in something squishy along the beach. I look down to see a pile of crap under
my shoe. There are lots of
critters running around and so I asked a teenage girl accompanying us which critter
the poop belonged to… dog, pig, etc.
She pointed to the pile and said “human being”. Uhh, I’m sorry whose poop is that? Again she pointed and repeated “human
being”. Oh, thanks, yeah, I got it
that time. The first time I was a
little unclear but now that you’ve explained a bit more I get it. In that moment, whilst scraping “human
being” poo off my shoe, I realized exactly how needed this sanitation program
I’ll be working on is. People need
toilets! Without toilets where
else do you conduct business? The
beach is actually a reasonable place considering the tide will come take it
away at some point. Unfortunately
for me, the tide did not come in soon enough.
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| Sunrise in Tanga |
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Chillin with some local kids. They all like to throw up different
hand signs . They don't mean anything but are
thought to be super cool so everyone does it. |
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| Glennis throwing up some hand signs with locals |
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| Teaching a kid how to work my camera |
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This little baby was a gem! It had the biggest smile on
its face and giggled while I shook its hand. |
At the beginning of the school opening later that day we
were offered seats under the “stage” area with the GG. We turned it down not knowing how many
people would be in his party and we’d hate to displace anyone and took our
place under a shady tree next to the stage. We were brought chairs and once the event began we got a
special mention, “The provincial planner, Dr. Bruce Harris’ family is sitting
to the left of the stage.” Holla!! And then the speeches began. Speeches here are long and when in
Pidgin I can only catch some of the things they’re saying. What do you do after an hour of
speeches in the sun that you don’t really understand? Find a group of kids and start making faces… very
entertaining! One kid saw me and
his initial reaction was shock.
Then after I did it again he allowed himself a small chuckle and told a
friend. Once the word had spread,
which was quick, I had a group of children roaring in laughter and a group of
adults reprimanding the children for their misbehavior. Do you think this stopped me? With several set of eyeballs starring
my way eagerly awaiting entertainment I couldn’t bare to bring myself to
deliver a let down. So I continued my face making and then showed Glennis my trick for getting in good with the kids. What can I say, I’m a model citizen.
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| The GG was greeted by Mai Mais running toward him with spears |
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| Me making faces at kids |
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| Some of the kids I provided afternoon entertainment for |
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| Great place to hold your parrot... on your head |
At one point the speeches stop and the planned entertainment
began. A group of traditionally
dressed signer/guitar players began their performance. At this point instead of faces I
switched to dancing in my seat.
This inspired laughter from not only the children but a number of adults
as well. One woman, Elizabeth,
even encouraged me to get up with the group and as a backup
dancer. I didn’t think Sir Julius
(The Governor) would have appreciated that too much so I chose to continue my
chair dancing. Glennis and I did a
great “sprinkler” together. We
were completely in sync. Epic! Not going
to lie, people were impressed with our amazing dance moves. No really, they were. At
the end of the event Governor and the GG went to take a walk around and music
was played over the loud speakers.
Glennis and I continued our chair dancing until Elizabeth decided to
give us a traditional dance lesson and we were on our feet doing something that
looks similar to the hulu, or it’s supposed to look that way but my hips don’t
quite move the way hers did. This
attracted a circle of a couple hundred people roaring with laughter and cheering
us on. At one point a Mai Mai
(cultural group) man came over and began dancing with Glennis. And out of nowhere a woman ran up to us
and rubbed sand all over our backs, necks, and faces. The crowd screamed cheers of delight when she did this. Me, having no idea what that meant,
decided the only plausible explanation for covering me in sand would be a sand
fight. Naturally, I grabbed
handfuls of sand and started covering the women who sanded me. The crowd lost it! They thought it was hilarious. Later I found out this is a way to show
approval. Usually people use lime
(ground up coral – it’s what they dip their mustard seed in and chew buai with)
but when lime is not available they use sand. Good to know for future reference. The women were simply displaying their approval. Thankfully, my ignorance and sanding
back did not offend anyone. While
all of this was going on George passed the Governor and the GG as they were
walking somewhere and overheard the GG say, “What’s going on over there? We’re missing all the fun.” With that being said we were the
greatest source of entertainment at this event and after the dancing ceased we
were presented with baskets of cow cow (potato/yam) and pig to take with
us. Sadly, we did not taste any of
this food because we were on a boat back to Huris and then off again, but not
before purchasing two baby eclectus birds for Monica – a girl named Kika and a
boy named Marcus.
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| The scheduled entertainment |
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| Elizabeth... she looks fierce but was a big jokester |
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| Dance lessons |
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| Dancing with a Mai Mai man who joined in on the fun |
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| My hips don't quite move like hers |
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| Sanding in the midst |
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| Post sanding |
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| Kika and Marcus |
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| A gun from WWII left by the Japanese at Huris |
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| A lovely Huris rainbow |
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| Sunset at Huris |
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| Bruce, George, Glennis, Scott, Sir Julius, Monica, Will, and me just before we left Huris |
