It's over and out from me as I returned to New Zealand this week. But you can follow the Haus Stori at
https://m.facebook.com/BougainvilleLibraryProject/
And the sak-sak roofs have been woven and two have been put into place.
Big thanks to Allan Gioni and his team for an amazing six months.
Tim
This week at the Haus Stori fellow volunteer Ann Green is exhibiting a series of paintings she has completed while living here. Here is the artist and some of her admirers.
Sago leaves are prepared for the new roof. A sharp central spine is torn away from the leaf itself - but carefully so the leaf remains undamaged. And the more people who help, the quicker it goes.
The Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance has its 2017 meeting at the Haus Stori.
...more a sign that today concrete will be poured, weather-permitting.
And there's just one day left...
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/hausstorihelp
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?
A lot of time and effort goes into shipping donated books to developing countries. But far too often the wrong books are chosen. Here are two that found their way to Bougainville and caught my eye this morning. Neither is a bad book in itself of course but both are meaningless here.
If you ask google for the pigeon English for helicopter you'll probably get 'magimix bilong Yesus', but take care: magimix will be replaced with whatever the local term for food blender may be: magimix, mixmaster, blender, vitamix...
But that variation is itself the clue that this is nonsense: the word used is'helicopter'. The idea that tok pisin offers endless opportunities for etymological comedy like this is pretty threadbare.
And this came about because although the puppies under the library have not sparked any interest at all, a helicopter flying over it got everyone outside, staring and pointing, in a flash!
Squealing and mewling from beneath the library needs investigating. And here's the cause, five more dogs which has to be the last thing Bouganville needs! An event like that in a New Zealand high school would be at least a talking point and more likely bring classes to a halt, but here it is barely noticed.
My back wheel has developed a wobble. My colleague says his teenage son loves fiddling with bikes and would be happy to fix the broken spokes. I instinctively said I'd pay him for his time, thinking that encouraging entrepreneurship and financial independence in a young man was just the thing to do.
How 'waitman' was that assumption? No, no, I am told, his son must on no account be taught the sordid value of money. If he helps, it's because helping is just a nice thing to do. Payment doesn't enter into it.
It's standing room only at the library this morning as parents of graduating students meet to discuss the Grand Graduation Ceremony that will take place in October.
Planning something this far in advance is simply unheard of and the cynic might say 'Just do the same as last year'!
The decision is that each parent will contribute k40 per student. Easy for some. Completely impossible for others.
The meeting has just ended so heads are bowed in prayer. That's the way every meeting starts and finishes round here.
