At 10:30 am sharp, some of my friends from last night came
to take me to the airport responding to a directive from Conrad. It turns out
that Conrad, who had packed his family in the helicopter, is the big boss of
the MP’s office of development. Let me unpack this statement. Each region is
represented by a Member of Parliament, or MP. To take care of the constituency
he or she runs what amounts to a development agency (whether out of personal
funds or a formal allocation given by the federal government is unclear), which
funds the first semester of students attending college, small business
investments, clinics, and maybe even schools. Conrad is the chief of that
development fund, and his subordinates Alphonse and Charles were the ones who
came to take me to the airport. Conrad himself couldn’t come because he had a
painful boil in his butt (I recommended compresses with hot water or a visit to
the doctor).
I got to the airport at 11:30 am, and the flight didn’t
leave until 1:15 pm, so I had plenty of time to snooze and listen to my
audiobooks. 45 minutes later we had landed near the town of Kokopó, which in
turn is close to the town of Rabaul. OMG, what a difference. The people here
look happy and care free, they have a new spacious open market that is full of
colorful clothes, vegetables, fruit, and the damn betel nut, which I believe is
the curse of this beautiful country. There are also a fair number of parks, and
my guesthouse Taklam Lodge is only a 100 m from the main station of the PMV’s.
Taklam Lodge has economy rooms for PNGK 165 (with breakfast)
and offers all sorts of tours for snorkeling, diving, and visiting the Rabaul
volcano. They can be reached at (+675)
982-8870, or by email at taklam@kbb.com.pg
Their website is www.taklam.com.pg
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