Downtown Port Moresby – Hills, Hulls & H20
Today marks exactly two months since I landed in Port Moresby, so in honor of my lovely new home I thought I’d quickly answer the request from some of you for more photos of the town itself. All but one of these photos were taken this morning when I met a friend for breakfast at the yacht club (yes, I know) then had a lovely walk around the boat basin, watching sailboats come in and out, the scuba club getting ready to head out for some scuba around the harbor, and so on. As you’ll see, Port Moresby is situated in a lovely area with hills, outlying islands and coastline. Directly above are the two hills of the main part of town with the tall towers of the central business district (CBD: a common term in this part of the world) in between. Like most of the cities I’ve traveled through or worked in lately, POM is also a city of contrasts – lovely harbor and hillside houses for those who can afford them, and many less-expensive settlements which are more densely inhabited and with less access to services, etc. — e.g. below, if you look closely enough, you’ll see a lot of very low-rise shacks built out onto the water itself. If you’re facing outward toward the water from where I had breaky (that’s Australian for breakfast), the shot above was to the left and the one below was to the right. For reference, the office and home between which I shuttle day to day here are on the other side of that low spine of hills in the shot below. PNG has hundreds (usual estimates say over 800) of different tribal and ethno-linguistic groups; the settlements in these urban areas tend to be mostly inhabitants who’ve moved in from other areas, typically the highlands in the middle of the island, and don’t have any traditional family or clan ties, or rights to land, here.
It’s been an interesting week in Port Moresby politically – the drama of parliament, prime minister, high court, elections and so on has reached new heights this week; a quick search for PNG-related news this week will give you a better sense of it all than I could hope to here, but suffice it to say things are rarely dull here and this week did not disappoint on that score. Since we live in the Gordons area of town, just down the road from the House of Parliament, we’re close to where demonstrators sometimes end up when there are marches for good government, etc.; we’re also a long stone’s throw from where two different groups of police stood off one day recently though the situation did not, thankfully, escalate any further than that. In other work ways, it was a fairly stressful week but a productive one, and on the personal front I played some doubles (yay! thanks, Will!) and with a couple colleagues collaborated in creating a fine Thai curry for all of us here at base – as our finco commented it was the first time everyone in POM sat down to dinner together since he arrived in early April. And I actually got out for some socializing today as well…goodness, if I don’t watch out, I might begin to look like someone who has a wee bit of work-life balance! This is a new concept for me and not common among us long-term MSF field types, to be honest. Not quite sure it’s a thing I know how to do any more, but here’s hoping…
…I love this contrast: sleek boats & fancy apartment houses below; working tankers and ships, above.
…below, the containter port in the foreground, the towers of the CBD in the middle, and Ela Beach just off the frame to the right.
…below: literally what I see when I look out my window each morning. Our compound is shady and lovely – sometimes I miss the light, but I never miss the heat the sun brings with it. We’re in a hilly, green section of town about 10 or 15 minutes’ drive from downtown and the harbor.
Out & About in PNG
Before I came to Papua New Guinea I’d been hearing about it for years. I’m one of those weirdos who can stare at maps for hours, and I sometimes carry in my head a mental of image of where I would be, if I were represented by a dot on a map. The first time I ever actually knew someone who lived and worked here, she was a colleague based in Port Moresby as I am now, back when the current MSF mission was launched in 2007. I had this image that Port Moresby would be on the north coast of the island. But no. My dot on the map would appear on the southern side – pretty far to the southeastern side, though not at the very eastern end.That’s the town of Alotau. (Keep in mind, please, that the vagaries of colonialism and global power politics mean that the western half of this island is part of the nation of Indonesia.) So picture a big island – second largest in the world? third largest? check it out on Wikipedia – that’s pretty long east to west, and not quite as long north to south. The center of this big, rugged island is full of steep & dramatic mountains – these are generally called the Highlands. The coast has lots of mountains also, though there are parts I’ve not been to yet which have big coastal wetlands and valleys.
Unfortunately, in this post you’ll only see one photo taken in the Highlands – it’s the very last shot, of me standing in front the airstrip at Tari, in what is becoming Hela Province but used to be Southern Highlands Province.Most of these shots were taken around Port Moresby – like the one just above, taken just last week when I — finally!! — got out with the bushwalking group that does organized hikes round about greater Port Moresby. Some, like the one just below, were taken in Lae on the north coast – sorta where I originally imagined that Port Moresby might be, back before I sat down with a map and started trying to picture where I’d be living and working when I actually arrived here.
Our oldest project in PNG is in Lae — we work with the local hospital, running the Family Support Center which provides specialized care for survivors of family & sexual violence. For that reason, when we decided to hold our first-ever MSF field associative debate in PNG, we decided to hold it in Lae. People from our other projects, in Tari and on the island of Bougainville to the east of New Guinea, and also from the coordination teams in Port Moresby and Buka, all got together for some great discussions about our work here – focused on the topics of access and negotiation. You’ll see a few pictures of me leading discussions either at the main FAD in Lae, or at the mini-discussion we held here in Port Moresby on my second weekend here.
So yeah – I’ve been here nearly two months. I’m in a bigger city again so I can have a social life, and I’m slowly establishing some patterns. Mostly I’ve been working and I won’t bore you with that. Though I will encourage you to check out this link, which summarizes one of the main things we’ve focused on in our work here in PNG: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=5390&cat=special-report
The highlands are as beautiful as I expected, though I have to admit I’ve become spoiled – first Manipur, then North Kivu, now PNG: I just keep going to places that are amazingly beautiful. I have not gotten out quite as much as I’d have liked – one weekend I joined several colleagues for a road trip northeast of town to Crystal Rapids, which you see just above. I’ve been able to play tennis once with a colleague and hope to do so more often; just as I hope to join the bushwalking group as often as possible.
But for now I think I’ll just leave you with some shots of where I’ve been and what I’m seeing out my window, so to speak. Thanks.
(so much world, so little time....) 