First day in Lae

This computer isn't letting me post photos. I'll try again tonight....

Yesterday we met with the Department of Environment and Conservation. We’ll see what will happen with the Conservation Area. Seems very unlikely that this will go down before elections, but it is on the right track. All necessary parties are on board. We are still optimistic but now focusing on the upcoming field work.

After the meeting we got to the airport really early because we had to change our tickets and possibly pay for extra baggage. We had over 100 kgs total and each person is allowed 16! Yikes. I’m so happy to not be traveling with these gigantor bags anymore. We looked pretty absurd saying “oh we are just going trekking”. In the end they didn’t charge us for the extra bag which was nice. Sad to say, but being white gets you a lot around here.

We took a flight that went through the Highlands – Mt Hagan – to get to Lae. Toby got me excited for 4-foot tall people as the highlanders look very different from the coastal folks, but aside from a couple of hats on some “old geezers” nothing too different. It was great to see the area as we flew in. The people have gardens everywhere. Imagine driving along Hwy 80 in the CA hills and seeing little patches of garden way up on the brown hills way above a housing development. That is what Port Moresby is like. The highlands also have gardens everywhere but they are much bigger than those in the city. The rivers and mountains were gorgeous from the air and the sun was setting as we flew down from the highlands to Lae. At the airport, I saw the plane we will be taking to the bush. Wow – super small!!!!

The drive from the airport to Lae was pretty nuts. It was dark by then because our flight was late and it involved 45 minutes on a two lane road (no bigger and no shoulder for sure!) with massive pot holes and oncoming traffic to negotiate not to mention all the people walking along the same road. In the dark it was a bit crazy. As we got closer to the city there were slowly more and more electric lights in the settlements and more and more people walking along the road. Everyone walks everywhere here. Very few bikes. There were also more and more fires as we went along. The predominant smell here is smoke.

Lae is the manufacturing capital of the country. That coupled with the fact that there is a road from the highlands to Lae (not the case for Port Moresby) means more people come down looking for work – and often don’t find it and still hang around. The beach kind of shows the manufacturing history – not a place to swim and only pretty from far away.

Toby’s apartment/office is really nice. It is one of about 8 two-story apartments that is managed by and enclosed in a hotel complex. We had breakfast in the hotel today and we can use the business center and other accommodations as needed. Pretty nice to have my own room and a working kitchen for a bit – oh yeah, AND a washing machine. Today we did some shopping for the field (and for cooking for the next few days), and now we are working at the kitchen table. It is super hot and humid here – I’m not sure if I’m making it up or if I can actually tell that we are closer to the equator here than we were in Port Moresby.

Critters of the day: huge spider hiding in the apartment, giant millipede outside that Toby brought in, birdwing butterfly dead and mounted in the hotel restaurant (biggest butterfly in the world – put your two hands together each one as a wing. For real. Hence the name).

Oh. We also stopped in a DVD/CD store and Eminem was playing. EVERYONE has a special place in their heart for Detroit. I wanted to tell everyone that I was from the same town as the guy on the radio, but I’m not sure what sort of reaction I would have received.