Sepik adventure, Malolo mayhem

Last time, the story left off with us about to travel to the Sepik. We got on the boat to go over there on Friday (Apr 17th) around 3pm. Lisa and I got there early to reserve our cots; Lutheran Shipping notoriously overbooks their “tourist class.” Here’s a picture of Lisa proudly laying claim to our prime real estate.

The ship left Madang around 5pm and spirits were high as the boat cruised out of the harbor.

Here’s a picture of Karkar island from the boat just as we came out of the harbor. If we can see it from Madang, then it’s a pretty clear day.

The seas were calm to begin with, but Lisa and I decided to take some Dramamine early in the trip, just in case. I’m glad that we did because there were a few times in the middle of the night when I woke up to some wretching. Lisa said that she heard a loud “SPLAT!” coming from top bunk at some point. Yikes!

After a sweaty night on a vinyl-covered piece of foam, I woke up to a really nice sunrise.

About three hours later (Saturday 9am), we pulled into Wewak harbor.

Notice how long it took us – definitely NOT 9 hours as we were previously told. Try 16 hours. And the best part of it all – and I wish I had gotten a picture of this – just as we pulled up to the dock, an Air Niugini plane from Madang lands on the Wewak airport runway. Turns out that flights weren’t cancelled at all. Rather, they were only limiting the number of passengers on each flight so that they could stop in an appropriate amount of time (ie before they crashed into the construction equipment on the far end). Oh well! The boat ride really wasn’t too bad, and it was a good experience. Not something I would be excited to do again though.

The IMR transit house in Wewak was quite impressive. Here was a view from the large back deck.

There was even a whirlpool tub in the downstairs bathroom – and mirrored walls! Whoever lived in this house before must have been a playboy. A playboy who loved RATS!!! Seriously, there were rats everywhere in this house. Lisa and I both had close encounters with these furry creatures at some point (they ran across our feet – on separate occasions). I think that they made their nest in the ceiling above the master bedroom – where we laid down to rest that night. We heard scampering all night long, but I have to admit that it was better than sweating all night on a ship.

From Wewak, it is about a 2.5 hour drive west to Maprik, where the IMR laboratory is. IMR has three stations: one in Goroka, where we went our second week in the country, one in Madang, and one in Maprik. The Maprik station is quite small compared to the other two, but they have all the essentials: lab, living quarters, and kitchen. We only stayed there for a few hours before we went to Drekikier, another 1.5 hour drive west from Maprik. Our project has a field house there on the grounds of a Catholic church. Here is a picture of the Sepik river basin from the front yard.

Unfortunately, this was the only picture we took on our entire week in Drekikier. Sorry!! During the week, we traveled out to our study villages to take part in the monthly mosquito collections there. The project also involves a large human epidemiology component, so I spent a few days updating our census in these same villages. It was really nice to be able to get out and see all of the villages that everyone we work with has been talking about for so long.

At the end of the week, we went back to Maprik, stayed there for one night, and continued the next day back to Wewak. Lisa and Melinda (one of the entomology graduate students) were able to get confirmed on an afternoon flight back to Madang on Saturday. Unfortunately, the pilots decided that they didn’t want to fly back to Wewak that day. Instead, after their morning flight, they hopped on a plane to Port Moresby and didn’t look back. Lisa was stuck with the rats for one more day. On Sunday, we actually did say goodbye – she went back home, while I stayed in Wewak. I had to attend a meeting organized by the provincial health dept. to discuss the national bednet distribution program.

The meeting was to be held in Ambunti, a small town on Sepik river, which is inaccessible by road. We (myself, and two coworkers: Will and Manasseh) traveled from Wewak back to Maprik, spent one night there, and early in the morning we traveled south to a village called Pagwi on the Sepik river. Here’s a picture of Manasseh on the banks of the river.

The canoes they make there are really quite impressive. They are carved out of a single log, and can be really long! I guess the health dept. didn’t want us to venture out in one of these canoes, so they sent another dinghy to come get us. You never know when it’s going to rain, so we packed up all of our luggage in plastic bags before getting on the boat. Here’s Will loading up some luggage.

The boat ride up the river to Ambunti took about 1.5 hours on this speedy little boat. I would imagine in a motorized canoe it would take much longer.

The landscape during the entire river trip was pretty flat. Ambunti, however, sits at the base of a small hill. Here we are coming up to the town.

We intended to stay in Ambunti for about four days. The purpose of the meeting was to train all of the local health officials on the procedures and policies of the bednet distribution in their area. Calculating how many bednets go to each house, procedure for distribution, etc. However, when we got to the meeting, we shortly learned that the actual training had been postponed for another two weeks. Everyone was going back that afternoon. So, we hopped back on the boat after about two hours and were one our way back to Pagwi!

One interesting thing that happened, and which may give you an idea of the demeanor of people in the Sepik (and perhaps throughout much of PNG): When we arrived at the Ambunti lodge, we were talking with the owner to try to find out where the meeting was actually happening. The son of the skipper of our boat came in and said that a loaf of bread had been stolen from their boat! The skipper quickly got up and ran to the boat, grabbed his bush knife (machete) and ran off to find the thief! Making a big fuss, asking people if they had seen anyone suspicious, etc. Turns out that a local dog had grabbed the bread. I wonder if blood would have been shed if it had been an actual person…!

With the meeting postponed, I tried to get back to Wewak ASAP to catch a flight back to Madang. It took me about 3 days, but I finally made it, safe and sound.

With Lisa and I both back home, we decided to take advantage of our newly purchased vehicle! Yep, the day before we both left, we acquired a Toyota Hilux Surf (exactly like a Toyota 4runner).

The first weekend I was back (now the 3rd of May), we decided to take a trip up the North Coast to the Malolo Plantation Lodge for lunch. Malolo is a spendy resort, about 45 minutes away, with black sand beaches (it’s across from the volcanic Karkar island). We were the only ones there and we enjoyed the great views.

We really enjoyed getting out of town, but this adventure came at a price. On the drive back we passed through a street-side market where highlanders had come down to start a fight with the local sellers. The highlanders were really drunk and in the mood for trouble. A few cars (including ours) had pulled over until the ordeal was over and the streets started to clear. As we drove through the dispersing crowds, we realized that the highlanders were totally out of control and they jumped in front of our car to try to stop us. We made it through the mayhem okay, but our car sustained a few injuries. The guys were wielding golf clubs and pipes, and they took a few swings at us as we passed.

We were a little shaken up, but realized that their anger wasn’t directed at us. These guys were drunk and riled up after a fight. It was a good lesson in defensive driving, and now we know to steer clear of the craziness!

We had a pretty busy week at work. Lisa spent a day visiting some villages that we do monthly collections at. At one of the villages they noticed the community members were all away. It turns out they were holding a community meeting to determine the fate of a suspected witch in the village. Whenever we get accustomed to our work here, something crazy comes out of left field – like the witch trial. You never know what the day will hold!

You know, after looking back on this – and other – posts, I realize that with every exciting and fun thing we do comes a total downer. (I forgot to mention, our new car is now leaking diesel and we can’t drive it without fear of exploding). Not to worry though! We’re rolling with the punches and enjoying it. I think that this is just the way it is in Papua New Guinea.