After the amazing time we had in the Watut area it was a harsh reality returning to Lae. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of Lae and the reason for this is that we were actually worried about our cameras being stolen if we took them out. But I will attempt to describe it to you... 'Roads that have been neglected for twenty years that now have pot-holes demanding even Landcruisers to slow down to 5kph, security guards standing at the doors of all the respectable or semi-respectable stores, litter scattered through all the public spaces as a result of poor maintenance and lack of rubbish bins and most notably people everywhere'. Apart from a colourful display from a 'long-long' (crazy man) while we were eating at a dodgy Korean restaurant, we never had any bad experiences in Lae. Everywhere we walked we had people extending their hands to welcome us, people smiled, waved, offered us rides, gave us advice and were, in all honesty, nice people. Yes there were people that thought because of the colour of our skin we had plenty of money to throw around, but I guess as our faces became more familiar around town and we learnt a few gestures people realised that these 'whitey's' were actually just hanging out in PNG and looking for some adventure.
Our first day back to Lae was what we called a 'Lae - Day', pretty much wake up because of the heat, walk around town and realise there is nothing to do, go grab a 10Kina Beef Burger at the Yacht Club, walk up to see Murray, go buy groceries and then go home and flick through Murray's library of Papua New Guinea books looking for pictures of rivers and waterfalls! Simple. The next day, however, was going to be the first major breach of our risk management assessment, we were going to be guests at a mass gathering. As mentioned, the Union for Watut for River Communities were having a public forum to which they invited the people affected by the siltation of the Watut, local members of Parliament and members from the National Mining Association. Unsurprisingly the people who were really being called before the people didn't face up, but it was an amazing sight to see with a turn out over 5,000 people. So to get things going we went and brought a soccer ball and got a bit of a game going with the kids. Needless to say after a solid 20minutes of play we were all beet red, dripping with sweet and slowly moving off the pitch towards the shade. Then all of a sudden this turned up... (video below)
After this procession of supporters arrived we were into the formalities with counselors of the union addressing the crowd and voicing their grievances. Passionate speeches about the degradation of the river and the negative effects that it has had on their villages. One women, although she was speaking in Tok Pisin so I could only understand a bit, made some very astute points that it is only through legislation that their grievances will be resolved and in order to achieve this they need to work their way into local government and eventually national government. Something I guess I never would of expected from a villager in PNG. The next guest speaker, an ambassador of Gradient and Water, Sparc and New Zealand, was Barny Young. Here is what he said...
After this we heard from the local member of Parliament the Honourable Sam Basil and another man who used to be a member of parliament. Reuben then addressed the crowd and the forum had come to an end. A well organised, civil and safe mass gathering... not something you would expect to see in Papua New Guinea if you based your judgement solely off travel advisory's and mass media.
With our next mission in mind we were quick to leave the forum, well as quick as we could shaking every second persons hand, and made our way back to Murray's. The next day we were planning on doing the Upper Busu, something we knew nothing about except Murry done the last 20km in 3 hours and that he had seen a 20km gorge above this when flying over one time... update coming soon
Our first day back to Lae was what we called a 'Lae - Day', pretty much wake up because of the heat, walk around town and realise there is nothing to do, go grab a 10Kina Beef Burger at the Yacht Club, walk up to see Murray, go buy groceries and then go home and flick through Murray's library of Papua New Guinea books looking for pictures of rivers and waterfalls! Simple. The next day, however, was going to be the first major breach of our risk management assessment, we were going to be guests at a mass gathering. As mentioned, the Union for Watut for River Communities were having a public forum to which they invited the people affected by the siltation of the Watut, local members of Parliament and members from the National Mining Association. Unsurprisingly the people who were really being called before the people didn't face up, but it was an amazing sight to see with a turn out over 5,000 people. So to get things going we went and brought a soccer ball and got a bit of a game going with the kids. Needless to say after a solid 20minutes of play we were all beet red, dripping with sweet and slowly moving off the pitch towards the shade. Then all of a sudden this turned up... (video below)
After this procession of supporters arrived we were into the formalities with counselors of the union addressing the crowd and voicing their grievances. Passionate speeches about the degradation of the river and the negative effects that it has had on their villages. One women, although she was speaking in Tok Pisin so I could only understand a bit, made some very astute points that it is only through legislation that their grievances will be resolved and in order to achieve this they need to work their way into local government and eventually national government. Something I guess I never would of expected from a villager in PNG. The next guest speaker, an ambassador of Gradient and Water, Sparc and New Zealand, was Barny Young. Here is what he said...
After this we heard from the local member of Parliament the Honourable Sam Basil and another man who used to be a member of parliament. Reuben then addressed the crowd and the forum had come to an end. A well organised, civil and safe mass gathering... not something you would expect to see in Papua New Guinea if you based your judgement solely off travel advisory's and mass media.
With our next mission in mind we were quick to leave the forum, well as quick as we could shaking every second persons hand, and made our way back to Murray's. The next day we were planning on doing the Upper Busu, something we knew nothing about except Murry done the last 20km in 3 hours and that he had seen a 20km gorge above this when flying over one time... update coming soon
Accurate description of Lae! :)
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