Boigu Island

The flight in was terrific, given this little place is on the edge of a very healthy wetlands just off New Guinea. It is home to cray, crab and many fish, as well as the very warm Boigu islanders.
If anyone from Boigu wants these photos emailed to them for use, please say so, we did this for you. We do have a few more.


Congratulations to Lloyd and the Boigu Council team. The place looked terrific. It was clean and the new houses look great. The whole place felt good.


On arrival we went for a walk round town and quickly were adopted by two kids. They took us down to see the crocodile. It was quite funny when two other kids came to join the crew, and the first little fella, said "go away, these are my people". Such is the welcome and trust. It turned the kids belonged to Norena, one of our participants and local organisers, so we had a chance to meet her. We soon met many participants for the workshops and knew the workshops would go well.

Internet banking is a real need here and on most islands. It costs folks $30 to make a transfer - that's too much. If nothing else we save folks $30-$60 a month so they can help their kids away at school.

We gave the camera to some of the workshop participants and it was great to pick up the island stories from their perspective. This is why we travel to places and work locally, so we learn more and respect more about what we learn.

Tree of Spy

We were amazed at the computer literacy of the local children. We had several call in one day when the teachers were on strike. The school is doing a great job, something we told Don when we saw him.

Afternoons after the workshop are always an adventure. On this day we saw lots of New Guinea folks from Buzi Village, waiting till after dark to go back to New Guinea after shopping for supplies on Boigu. It is amazing to me to have folks travel by a tinnie and small outboard to another Country, but when it is only a km....

The visiting nurse told us the next day, that folks wait till after dark so that there are less mozzies when they arrive home. Denghi fever and other diseases are so bad on the bottom area of New Guinea, that people do what they can to keep their children safe. She told us terrible tales of children who had died from fevers because the seas were too rough to make the crossing to come over and get a dollars worth of medicine.

Moving to load the boats in very low light caused this effect.

The jetty in daylight pointing to New Guinea.