More news

Bit by bit I hear more and more news, and start to put the jigsaw puzzle together....

I had a long talk with my in-country Manager yesterday who is a great person. He has been to Bougainville over the last week visiting my employer (amongst others). The news is exciting....

Firstly the comment was that the facilities and living quarters were more basic then they expected - the big thing is that I dont have running water - however there is plenty of water over there and its fine to drink. GREAT. We have a HUGE veggie garden and thats part of the income of the centre selling the flowers and veggies. There is a piggery and chooks - there is a small office, but when work runs out and things slow down, I go and garden - which I love the idea of. Its warm, much of this would sound more uncomfortable in the cold, but in the hot, this sounds amazing... There is generated electricity - 4 hours in the afternoon - so we are not dependent on mains which is great (volunteers have been without electricity for weeks!). The centre is focussed on sustainable living - and it is indeed completely sustainable itself. It grows all of its own food, catches its water - its basic but its impressive. The focus is also at the grass roots of the community and tackling some of the tougher issues such as domestic violence and substance abuse.

Rick described the surrounds as breath taking... Getting in there - a 20 boat ride from the capital - you have to navigate through islands.... Sounds amazing. And the crocs, well they dont sound like anything to be too concerned about which is great! I will hopefully pick up a canoe or surf ski so I can do some paddling in the area.

SO basic and beautiful!

I am going to try to cut and paste an article into this post, which has pics and was from the in-flight magazine that Rick picked up. Gives a good picture....

OK - so it seems the article cant be attached - look out for it on my front page. I will pop it up there.

I hope you are all well and looking forward to some time off over Christmas - have a safe and relaxing Christmas period - and heres to one hell of a 2008....

B

OK after the fact - it seems that my knowledge of attaching PDF files to a blog page doesnt extend that far! If you want a copy of the article, email me! Bec