The Laurabada winds are blowing

Today the winds are blowing; they started on Friday heralding the change of the season here in Moresby. Port Moresby apparently has six seasons which are largely influenced by the way the winds are blowing. Jon remembers his father teaching him about them, when he was a child growing up here, although now he can only remember the names of two - Laurabada and Lahara.

I was pleased to find out that the Laurabada blows all the mosquitoes away, so I can go a bit easier on the Bushmans. They return during the Lahara when the winds come from the direction of the tropical rain forest.

The winds also bring relief from the heat, although for us southerners we would still consider it a warm summers day, whereas the locals consider it positively cold, especially at night and thus start pulling out the cotton blankets (or even a doona, as one local told me) to go on the beds at night.

Port Moresby from the air

It is probably time I started to describe Moresby for those of you who have never visited. It is actually quite a spread out city, with a number of suburbs that are mainly divided by the hill range which weaves through the city. Along with established suburbs there are an increasing number of squatter settlements, which are largely a result of the lack of affordable housing here.

Flicking through the newspaper during the week I read an article, which stated the average public servant salary was 500 kina a fortnight. Then looking through the rental section of the same paper the cheapest house for rent was 800 kina a week – which gives you an idea of the issue of affordable housing for the average Port Moresby resident. (At the moment the Kina = $0.36 AU).

As the name suggests Port Moresby has a very large and deep port, which is protected by a coral reef. The water is a beautiful aqua.

Looking down on the PM port

Ships waiting to dock at port

Pier on Ela Beach

The view you have when you come over the hill from Waigani

The area around the port is referred to as ‘Down Town’. It is the business and financial district. The American embassy is also located there. Like all ‘down towns’ parking is always fun, for example, on Friday we went in for a meeting and found a street park but when we came out we found we had been parked in by a number of cars double parking – so we had to go off for a coffee until the other cars had moved. It was our own fault for not parking in the street where street kids guide you into a park for a few kina and then ‘look after’ your car while you are away.

Down Town

Ela Beach is close to Down Town

The original villages around the Port Moresby were built on stilts over the water

Unfortunately schooling is not free in PNG and thus there are always school aged children on the streets eking out a living, which can be anything from collecting empty bottles to fill with water or selling newspapers to motorists. On the ‘Down Town’ pavements people have set up their little stores, which they call ‘mini market stalls’ (basically a piece of board propped up as a small table showing all their wares) selling almost anything from used shoes, mobile phones, cigarettes (sold by the cigarette not the packet) and of course betel nut. Now I think I will have to dedicate a whole blog to betel nut and its prevalence in PNG.

Mini market stall selling betel nut at a PMV stop

Selling shoes down town

The pavements are stained by betel nut, which is chewed and then spat out – leaving blood coloured stains wherever it lands. Apart from these stains the streets are very clean compared to other cities. The City Council employs an army of workers to sweep the streets – you see people in their yellow/orange vests sweeping along the sides of roads every week day.

Posters encouraging people to keep Moresby clean

You do get a sense the locals are proud of their capital city. Many of the roundabouts have beautiful sculptures depicting the richness of PNG’s culture.

Some of the roundabouts

Nevertheless, driving around you are aware that it is a city from the ‘third world’ given the size of the pot holes. No street is free of them and they do terrible things to a car’s suspension, so no wonder most motorists are driving huge four wheel drives or pick-up trucks, as some of the pot holes could easily swallow a normal sedan. Last night we dropped a student home – as soon as we turned into the residential streets the roads turned to dirt and the holes got larger. Nicky (the student) wanted to know if the roads in Australia were like those in Moresby – pot holes included.

Some of PM's infamous pot holes

Of course driving is for the privileged and the majority of Moresby’s residents get around on foot or travelling on overcrowded PMVs (small buses which are the extent of PNG’s public transport.) They have tried to overcome the overcrowding of PMVs by getting the NRL (National Rugby league – like the rest of the Pacific nations PNG is rugby mad but in their case it is League) on board with an awareness campaign about the dangers involved with overcrowding – with Australian League players speaking in Tok Pisin in the advertising campaigns. Many PMVs have large stickers on them shaped as a rugby ball stating ‘Road safety – it’s not a game’. You also see a lot of people travelling in the back of trucks and utes – whole families in some cases.

Truck with ‘Road safety – it’s not a game’

PMV which has seen better days

You see many trucks/pickups which are associated with Christian groups driving their members around

Not surprisingly the newspaper reported last week that PNG has the highest road toll in the whole of the Pacific. It is, however, hard to compare PNG with say the Cook Islands, the main island of which only has one road going around the island. PNG also has the largest population of the pacific islands with over 6 million, making it larger than New Zealand.

The area we are staying is called Waigani. You reach it from down town by going over and through a cutting in the hills that surround the port area. This is where the parliament, public administration offices and the university are located. Most of the building date from post independence (1975). This is also where the new RH Mega Mall Vision City is located.

The actual landscape could probably be compared to the hinterland of the Gold Coast; in that it is a bit scrubby but also has lovely tropical plants eg frangipani trees and palms. The hillsides are patchworked with farming plots – many locals still rely on subsistence farming for their food.

Wood smoke is a feature of the PM landscape

Throughout the city there are open air markets where the locals shop and as there is in ‘Down Town’ mini market stalls are set up along the roadsides. Last night when we were driving through the residential areas you would see these little stalls set up with a cut bottle being used as a lantern selling drinks, cigarettes, betel nut etc.