Vincent the builder comes with his rule and level to start making framing for new, safe, even, permanent steps! The money for this is still being patched together from various sources, so it is not too late to contribute:
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/hausstorihelp
Thank you if you already have! Now why not lean on somebody else to do the same?!
Another lucky walk to a nearby village and its rather lovely waterfall. Remember you can't just walk anywhere here: the land and all the connecting paths belong to someone, or more accurately some village or clan. So if you get an invitation to walk just about anywhere, you grab it. A small fee is usually negotiated.
A 30 minute walk took 5 hours, but that is also standard: locals skip their way up slippery slopes and boulder-hop their way down rivers like mountain goats. We whities stagger and stumble doing either.
And this is what the Arawa Public Library looked like before the crisis. From a brochure describing all the facilities then on offer to new mine employees and their families.
At last, a trip to Panguna and the giant abandoned copper mine, cause of all Bougainville's problems. Depending on who you ask, re-opening it will either save, or destroy, the country.
A rare privilege: a decent bush walk with peerless views followed by a feast to mark the end of a period of a widow's mourning. Pig after pig after the biggest pig you ever saw were paraded through the village to various sites of slaughter. The video of a screaming pig being pinned on his back while his heart is beaten twenty or thirty times with the back of a felling axe is available on demand.
The Haus Stori needs some running repairs. These steps are exposed to the weather (alternating intense sun and torrential rain) and they plainly need replacing.
The catch is that nobody here has two ha'pennies to rub together - even the staff haven't been paid since November 2016.
Would you give something to an online fundraising campaign?
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/hausstorihelp
Kathleen Pearce (MFAT Development Adviser) and Annette King MP visit the Haus Stori. The latter was here as an election observer for the two week long national elections which end on Saturday.
But she couldn't leave without visiting the library, now could she?
