A Day in the Life Shaneel Pathak September 2002

I flew in to Moresby and it was not long before I realized how different it is from the rest of PNG. You have your shopping malls, restaurants, proper roads and bus system. It’s quite modern. It also has your share of crime. All buildings and houses have fences with razor wire; metal gates and bars on windows and doors. Expat’s have HF radios so you are always in contact with a Security agency while driving.

It’s common to hear random gunfire at night, armed robberies happen during the day so do car jacking at gunpoint. (It happened to our neighbour ½ hour before we arrived).

This is a first for me – being in the most unsafe capital cities of the world. The UN survey came out the day I arrived. Port Moresby was dead last at 130 – beating Johannesburg and of all places Kabul, Afghanistan!

In saying this, I must add the people here are very friendly, like the rest of PNG. One problem is the large influx of people from all parts of PNG in search of jobs. With the economy weak, they turn to “rascal gangs”. Add the tribal nature of PNG; the clans have their own turf, causing heated battles. Ex-pats are caught in the middle and are fair game.

This is different from most cities in PNG, as ex-pats are left alone while clans’ battle it out. (I am not being sarcastic, tribal warfare is still going on in parts of PNG).

The crime didn’t deter me from going out in the evenings. I probably ate at every Asian restaurant in town and had my share of homemade curry; there is only so much of canned tuna you can take.

The two weeks of Moresby was enough to appreciate the safe cities of Canada.

At the WWF office, I met the regional director for the South Pacific program, the country manager and the local staff. I gave a talk on best practices for computer management, expanded their computer network and rebuilt a few machines. The main objective was to have all computers and printers on the network. Even though the office had 15 people they had 2 scanners, 3 CD-burners and 5 printers! After showing them the benefit of shared resources on a network, I convinced them to distribute the extra equipment to other project offices.

Two days before returning to Wewak, I heard an earthquake hit the town. Damage was not bad, but some power lines were cut, more importantly the water mains to the city were broken. It took two weeks to restore the water, and I must admit having no water is probably the hardest thing to live without. When you here that millions of people don’t have clean water – I realize now how it feels.

Shops and businesses closed at 3pm during the water crises. This allowed people to head to the depots where fire trucks would dispense river water. My ration was half an ice cooler/day. (You don’t realize how heavy water is until you have to lift it!). You loose motivation to cook as you don’t have water to do dishes, and toilet use has to be rationed.

Thankfully there was no outbreak of disease or civil unrest. For a 7.9 earthquake casualties were very low. It was impressive to see local businesses and government services set up an emergency response team and water and health services dispatched promptly.

Luckily water was restored prior to the Dutch Embassy’s inspection of the WWF Sepik Land Care project. Another adventure which will come in my next journal!