The Travels of the
Techno-Freedom-Fighter

Just when you think that you have settled into the grove here, something just takes your eye and you know that you are in PNG. Like a yellow Hyundai Sedan (or once was a sedan and now is just the mere carcass of one) travelling backwards, however in the right direction as the other traffic, down the main street with at 50km/h making a hell of a racket 3 adults 4 kids and 2 dogs in it. None of the windows intact and the driver, who is sitting on what looks to be a tree stump where there was once a seat, being assisted to control the vehicle by one of the children and a mechanical lever device fashioned from a stick. I mean nothing to be concerned about, the kids are having a good time; the dogs are having a fantastic time and the adults and getting to where they need to be. :-)

It is kind of like that someone gave these guys a heap of gear, and never gave them the instruction manual. Ok not that I have ever use instruction manuals ether, nor do any of my male friends but its there if you have to use it. So the Niuginians just get on with it and use what they have to get the job done. Or if something breaks then they fix it any way they can.

Take the old 12 seater minibus (over here in PNG they are used as the main type of public transport), predominantly they have sliding doors right? Well not here! Ok so they start off with sliding doors but when they break, the Niuginians crack out the old welder and weld the door back on with large garage style hinges. Just think about it? Why sliding doors? Very impractical, how the hell are you going to squeeze past the cranky old nanna who as subjugated the front bench and refuses to move to let you in. I mean with a hinging boor you don’t have to confront the occupying forces on the front bench, you can easily pop into the second or third bench and slip you pig under the chair, Vantastic!

Take our ‘haus meri’ (cleaning lady) Ann, god bless her for her patience, Chun being the 205cm tall freak that he is decided one weekend that he would pinch the spare single bed that is in the tried bedroom and attach it to his queen size double. We’ll that lasted about 1 day, when we came back from work Ann had put the bed back the way that is was ‘meant’ to be. Ann is like this omnipresent force that brings order back to our world of Chaos. Really I think she sees us a couple of boys that she needs to look after because our own mum is not here, she basically has full control of the house, and we respect that.

One time we decided to but the utensils in another draw in the kitchen, the next day they where all back where they where ‘meant’ to be. As an experiment (being scientifically minded chaps) we decided to only change one object in the house, small items like a can opener, in order to quantitatively determine the strength of this force. Well its like Groundhog Day, everyday, no matter what it was it all ends up back where it is ‘meant’ to be, except underwear. It seems that there is a universal counter force that we have decided to call Anti-GDF (Groundhog Day Force) that only affects underwear, often my underwear and Chun’s underwear end up in each others cupboards. We have decided not to run any experiments on the Underwear side of things as it’s a difficult subject, we’re like Brothers - Chun and I, but running experiments on undergarments is one step over that shaky comfort-zone line. Honestly it just could be that Chun and I both have a similar style of underwear and Ann finds it hard to tell the difference, it takes the fun out of it though. :-)

Anyway back to innovation, take the innocent Toilet roll, you just throw them away right? Ok unless you are a primary school craft teacher or a TV host on Playschool, where you have the remarkable ability to make a 1:8 scale replica of Michelangelo’s David from nothing more that green felt, toilet rolls and Percan’s past! Ann has taken the toilet roles and used them as curtain gathers. What a fantastic idea, we where tying them with bits of string or tying them in knots. But bang, she was trowing them away and decided to use them on the curtains.

There are so many other examples, such as I mentioned earlier, the tyre rim used in the muumuu. Also the way that they carry their Backpacks with the backpack strap to the head. This is the way that the traditional billums are normally carried. The thing that gets me is how innovative the Niuginians area mate of mine was deployed to Bougainville with the army during the trouble, and she was very imprested by this as well. During the revolt Bougainville was under Blockade, this forced the local people to supply themselves with everything from electricity to soap. They ended up refining Bio-diesel out of Coconut oil to fuel vehicles, not the best for the TDI engines however if you don’t have anything else. They also built a small hydroelectric power plant out of old car parts. Basically they used coconuts for everything, they also used for making soap, lamp oil, baskets, treating wounds and placed in the coals of a fire to act as a mosquito repellent, just like Gilligan’s Island but on Speed! Seriously though being a proponent of the open-source revolution I have great respect for this innovation.