„I went to Papua New Guinea with Mining giant Conzinc Rio Tinto in 1970 to work for a year in their Bougainville Mine, and fell hopelessly in love with the country, and its people. This book follows my journey through the thirty six years I lived in country. Teaching in an Agricultural College, Vocational Training Centres and the Fisheries College. I attended six to six dances deep in the jungle, hid under a table in a tavern that was attacked by warring tribesmen during a tribal fight, helped remove the Apartheid system, and lived for weeks at a time in the Villages of the idyllic Tropical Duke of York Islands.“
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I had observed the locals did not like Automatic cars, because if the battery went flat you could not push start them, push starting of cars being quite common in PNG.
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Fortunately there was a code that the school Principals used, which allowed us to read between the lines, regarding student character. For example “Tries Hard” means pretty hopeless, “Has overcome his discipline problems” means bad news, for girls “she is a mature girl” means big breasts, and “pleasant, and helpful” means not good academically.
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By Wednesday we were allowed back into town, and joined the looters at Ling’s freezer to get some frozen meat. Due to the lack of power the meat was starting to thaw, and a policeman was distributing the meat. We then drove down to Ahtam where some kids had made a hole in the wall of a liquor store, we gave them our order for Meri Buka rum, and beer, which was promptly handed out to us.
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I told Victor one night how I was displaced from my job by a volcanic eruption, he after living so long in Bali, had adopted the philosophy of the Balinese, if it had happened, it was meant to be. You can’t complain about something that was meant to happen, just get on with it. I decided that I would take this philosophy on board myself…
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I did not enjoy my flight back to Cairns and found Australia had changed so much since I had left. I had trouble settling in to the very selfish white lifestyle, of a somewhat racist redneck country.
