http://YellowShiv.net

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Travelling in to Hauna on a Canoe

When I landed at Hauna Airstrip, Sampson, the Hauna MAF Agent, met me with some others, he sorted the pilot's paperwork, kindly took my bags and the Eski full of vegetables, and loaded me into the canoe.  Once the MAF plane took off, leaving me behind, we headed upstream to the village.  We sailed through wide expanses of water, reed-beds more than 2.5 metres high, past posts holding fishing nets and past the top branches of trees as it was the end of the rainy season.

The journey only took about 15 minutes and brought us through half of Hauna Village, ending at the Mission House where I stayed.  This video is a short glimpse of that journey, but what a way to see a village for the first time, from the Sepik River which they depend on for their very lives.

My week of Bush Orientation - Hauna, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

During the 1st week of April, these lovely women, Marilyn, Shirley & Cristina, looked after me whilst I experienced the real PNG with the people of Hauna, a remote village, 80 minutes flight time from the nearest MAF base, in the hot & swampy lowlands. 

The "Bossmeris" who run the Mission and the Elementary School

Hauna is located on a tributary of the Sepik river, where the people learn to row a canoe on the crocodile & piranha infested waters when they are only 5 years old; where Maleria is rife and floods constantly threaten families' crops.

I spent a week talking to the people (in both English & Tok Pisin) learning about how they live off both the river and the land.  Life in the remote villages of PNG is very hard, I never fully appreciated the many blessings and conveniences of my modern, western world.

To find out more about the work of Kids Alive International and Sepik Christian Ministries who work in Hauna and hosted me, please check out their websites.  They are currently looking for someone to take over running the Elementary School from Shirley who is approaching retirement at the young age of 79!  Shirley is from Indiana in the USA and has been working in Hauna for over 35 years!!!

1 - Hauna Airstrip       2 - Arriving in Style, on a dug-out, out-board canoe        3 - The Mission House that I stayed in

Dinner at the Highland Hotel

Today was my friend Elissa's Birthday so a bunch of us went to the Highland Hotel for dinner.  It looks just like a Premier Inn, it's so weird to be driving past piles of rubbish, over massive potholes then through a barbed wire fence with security guards and feel like Lenny Henry will be behind the concierge desk!

Me & the Birthday girl eating pizza. 

Tok Pisin Language Class

My teacher, Nicki, and substitute teacher, Lauryn, have both been very patient.  It's relatively straight forward to read Tok Pisin and understand the gist.  The challenge comes in forming coherent sentences and understanding native speakers.  Hopefully after my week with the remote tribe next week, I'll be a bit better!?

Nicki teaching me Tok Pisin in my house

A little piece of the story of My Life

When I was on the MAF orientation course in Cairns last month, each of us was asked to stand up in front of all the current MAF personnel from that area and tell a little part of the story of our lives which lead us to joining MAF.  This was rather scary, telling 100 strangers about my personal life.  But as they all know, I thought I'd share it with the rest of the world!

Find the clip on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/rCqUJ2OBEX4

Sat 15 Mar 2014 - Telling part of my story to MAF personnel

If you would like to ask me any questions about what I talk about in this clip, please email me on YellowShiv@gmail.com. 

My 1st Dinner Guests!

Catherine & Luke were staying in Hagen waiting for a plane to be fixed so they could head back home to Rumginae in the Western Province, they were supposed to be here for a couple of days but it ended up being over a week so they agreed to come and brave my slightly experimental Stirfry!

Luke is a MAF Pilot and Catherine is a Speech Pathologist (Therapist) who works in the hospital near their base and helps in the local bush community.