This is the end …

I’m sitting in  Manila with the best internet access I’ve had since leaving England and here’s the final blog entry – done really for a sense of completeness (mainly for me as you will read).

A great walk from a while ago.  For quite some time Jeff had wanted to walk out along one of the ridges you can see overlooking Kundiawa.  As we climbed up a route we know well, we were joined by a number of kids who decided to come with us.  We walked along a path along the top past “matmats” ( graves).  Typically they were in the form of small rectangles with a wooden cross placed in each one.  Several of them had the perimeters marked by up-turned beer bottles placed in the ground.  Some had a favourite cup on top of the cross.  We then got out on to the ridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked by myself up to the graves on the anniversary of Lorna’s death.  I thought she would have been amused by the beer bottles (although she would probably have said they should have been bottles of wine).  I also wanted to do something to mark the day (10 years) and as I couldn’t get to Golden Cap (where her ashes were placed) a different sort of climb was called for.  It was stunningly beautiful up there and I remembered how her friend from Australia had visited two days before Lorna died.  The friend came out into the kitchen and told me that Lorna had said she thought I would go travelling again.  Well, I suppose she was right!

The last bit of my time here has been pretty frustrating because of being pulled out of Kundiawa.  Okay, it led to some interesting things – a walk up to a volcano; the extraordinary sight of 200 or so dolphins by our little boat; a trip to a beach that seemed like paradise and an encounter with some sand flies which I don’t want to meet again.  However, it stopped me doing the work I came to do for quite a time.  In the end it was agreed that we could go back up to Kundiawa and so I was able to take up assessment booklets which teachers have worked on (and which were much easier to get run off down in Madang than in Kundiawa).  But, I didn’t have time to take them into all the schools and am concerned that they may sit there and further work may not go on.  But the whole question of sustainability would have, I think, hung over my head , however long I stayed.

What else to say.  Just that I think that I have been incredibly lucky coming up to Simbu.  It does not suit all volunteers but it has been great for me.  Oh, and there would have been more pictures in this blog entry but I dropped my camera in the sea.  (However, there is some video I’m bringing back which Jeff put together if anyone is interested)

And a snippet from the last night in Kundiawa. I had asked Mama J if she could get me a couple of bush chickens.  On the final night she and one of her daughters cooked a very good meal using them (but without any wine or beer to go with them – the liquor ban is still in place).  We talked to Mama’s other daughter and her husband.  Earlier in the year she taught down in Karamui – until she got malaria and came back home.  Katamui is the school that I went to for 4 days – you have to go by plane (or walk for 4 days). They told us that the tradition is that when a man’s wife dies he marries the eldest daughter …….  It was a rather good final reminder of still how little I really understand about the culture here