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Friends I worked with years ago in PNG put a hook in my ear and said- come up and see what life is like when you walk for 30 minutes to get your clean water. They failed to tell me it was also a 10 minute drop down to a ‘dirty’ creek for showers… They also failed to tell me that showering is a very public event- blokes need to check whether a white body is the same as – well, theirs. Seems it might be but those who needed a close up view got wet. My revenge!!
My first photo- below.
Here’s the welcome after church with a few of the congregation. Pineapple season, rather obviously! That’s lunch by the way. There’s only one proper meal each day. They have had 9 months of really dry conditions – a prelude to a real drought, I fear. So no sweet potato coming out of gardens presently, some greens and a lot of people living on very little. Overweight isn’t a feature of life in this landscape.

I will put more photos on the web site we are pulling together as part of the community development workers initiative, but here’s a photo of gardens on the way to their clean water. ??????? ?? ???? ????? ????? It was a climb up, then slow down to a bridge, then a climb up and up to the main water take point.

Here’s a woman we met at the place most people come for relatively clean water. Note that overweight doesn’t feature in this landscape. Its up and down everywhere you go, and one main meal a day is the order of the day. No meat encountered – just fresh vegetables, either from gardens that still show effects of long (9 months) without good rains. They were not eating much or any sweet potato as it had died during the dry. ????? ?????? There was some corn and other vegetables and purchased rice.

So what’s our plan?
We have had a series of meetings up and down the almost 3 km of road/track that is the main ‘run’ for a village water supply pipe. ????? ??? ??? Some years ago a pipe was laid and our intention is to make use of what is there, repairing and replacing and extending. They are putting their cash in, and lots of hard work. There are no bulldozers to drag a pipe in. This ain’t kiwi or aussie land!

Transport is an interesting challenge. Here’s one families solution for getting pineapples to market. Its the main cash crop, other than coffee.

Little wonder soils are infertile- fallow like this doesn’t build fertility.

The photo below shows a woman with very little. Look at the size of her one pineapple. She isn’t going to make much money selling that. Managing soil fertility with improved fallows is part of our plan with this community- in other words we have much more on our minds than just a pipe and water and tanks.

Interested in helping- please talk to Ginny or me. We’d love to gather up some dollars to help make it happen. We are pursuing more standard funding options also. Many thanks, Dave and Virginia.