Governor General's Visit

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!

Welcome to Kavieng.

Malagan Masks... The big one on the left was presented to the GG

Mai Mai's performing for the GG as he comes off the plane

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!

Me and Willie going for a walk on the beach

Cultural dances at the GG welcome dinner

More dancing for the GG

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.

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.

Photo bomb!!

This man welcomed the GG to the Council of Elders

This was the group with the man above

The GG presenting medals

Bruce receiving his medal

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.

Scott, Will, Glennis, George, and me.

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.

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.

Sunrise in Tanga

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.

Glennis throwing up some hand signs with locals

Teaching a kid how to work my camera

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.

The GG was greeted by Mai Mais running toward him with spears

Me making faces at kids

Some of the kids I provided afternoon entertainment for

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.

The scheduled entertainment

Elizabeth... she looks fierce but was a big jokester

Dance lessons

Dancing with a Mai Mai man who joined in on the fun

My hips don't quite move like hers

Sanding in the midst

Post sanding

Kika and Marcus

A gun from WWII left by the Japanese at Huris

A lovely Huris rainbow

Sunset at Huris

Bruce, George, Glennis, Scott, Sir Julius, Monica, Will, and me just before we left Huris