These are the days of our lives...

Hello friends.
Life is good and busy here in Mt Hagen for us all.
Sandy days are full to overflowing with flights and MAF related work. I am kept busy with school with the kids, hospitality, market shops for our outstation family and generally keeping the house hold together.


This week Sandy spent Tuesday night down the south of the country in a village called Kawito. Earlier in the day, one of our other pilots had a prop strike when he taxied over a pot hole in his 206 after landing, the ground was slick with mud after rain, so he didn't see the hole, and the tuning propeller hit the ground.
Sandy flew down with a engineer to asses the damage. The guys decided to fly back to Hagen in Sandy's plane, and return today with the larger aircraft, and a spare engine, and a team of engineers to install it into the damaged plane, and fly it back to Hagen. Once back in Hagen, the damaged engine can be tested properly and repaired.
The local communities are responsible for the up keep of the airstrips here in PNG, and they work hard to try and keep the strips in good condition. However, heavy rains, wild pigs that love to rip up the soil, and natural springs that can pop up overnight make for interesting challenges in the maintenance of strips.


Back at home, our side of town is in a bit of a chaotic state, as the roads are being worked on this week. Roads are closed while repairs are done, and detours often find us going into the opposite direction we really want to go....but its all for a good cause, and we look forward to driving straight again soon.
On Tuesday night, we had a little taste of tribal waring that can take place in the highlands. The highland people are notoriously ‘bel hat’ (hot hearted), their fuses are pretty short and when they pop, they pop most spectacularly. Down the road from our compound is a squatter camp where some highland people are living. Fights are fairly normal, but on Tuesday night we had a full on confrontation between two tribal groups.
It was rather strange to be in bed reading a good murder mystery, only to have it interrupted by a mini war down the road. Such is life in the highlands of PNG.
(this picture was taken at the Mt Hagen Market opening singsing events... NOT from tuesday night!)

It was all spears clashing and blood curdling screaming and some gun shots mixed in as well. I felt completely safe, we have a guard on our compound and he and some other local blokes who live on our compound were at the gate watching the drama. The kids slept through the whole thing and it all calmed down after a couple of hours.