Ian and I have now been in Papua New Guinea for roughly three and a half years. Its been a tough project, with lots of issues, plenty of demands and, as always, a series of experiences which we would never have dreamed on having when we were married all those years ago.
PNG is a truly geographically beautiful country, but it is a third world nation, which is still trying to work methods of retaining its culture and developing into a true liberal democracy. Sometimes I actually wonder if the two will ever be really compatible. The huge gap in wealth, education and benefits, between the movers and shakers who mainly reside in Port Moresby or overseas and those that remain in subsistent farming villages throughout the country is huge and continuing to increase. It is hard to see how this gap will decrease anytime soon. Even those politicians with the best of intentions (and many do not fit into this group), have a difficult time managing the demands from the political groups, the NGOs and aids groups and the demands from their extended family and clan groups back in their home provinces.
Even so, the project works forward; with many work-stoppages associated with demands for the Company to provide services which should be provided by the government. After almost four years Ian's work on the Komo Airfield has almost come to an end (he will then move over to the Hides Plant Site work). THE major milestone was achieved on Friday with the landing of the first flight - the world's largest plane - an Antonov.
The airport took 3 years, 4 months and 24 days of site work; moved 9M m3 earth with ADTs hauling 1.3M km; 2.3M km of transporting and placing 400,000 m3 rock; layed 400,000 m2 of hotmix pavement; 3,900 km of runway grooving (enough to travel from Sydney to Pert; with the construction team enduring 50 Billion litres of rain (that would fill the huge site to a depth of more than 9.3m and submerge the captain in the Antonov cabin; and with a fire truck that is green (huh, I thought fire trucks were supposed to be red!?)!
So we now have about 12 months of work left to finish the pipeline and the plant site before moving on to the next experience in our lives. In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy the wonderful sunsets, which are amongst the most stunning we have ever experienced.
