The Bay Today...

This is Jane McKenzie...



As many of you may know Jane is the better half of this blogging partnership. She does all the hard work required to ensure that you folks are kept updated (as regularly as is possible over here) with witty, well written and mostly correctly spelt (sp?) adventures about our time over here in PNG.

It is a somewhat thankless task particularly when compared to Cam's contribution which basically amounts to pointing a camera that seems unable to take a bad photo (except perhaps the one above) and trying to remember which button to push.

But contrary to how it may appear on this little page we've both been doing a lot more than just flouncing around taking pictures or having our pictures taken. That's why today unbeknownst to the chief blog editor I'm hoping to give you a little bit of an insight into just what Jane is up to with her volunteer placement... and I'll let you in on a little secret, given how tricky it can be to work over here it is pretty bloody impressive.

The project Jane is working on involves developing and delivering a six-part series of radio plays exploring important social issues (HIV, good governance, domestic violence, alcoholism, gender equity and youth) for the Media for Development Initiative MDI, who have provided a grant for the project. This is and has been what can only be described as a massive effort.

Not only was there all of the paperwork required to actually receive the grant but since then it has been a sort of nineteen-part balancing act which has focused on all the necessary elements that are required to make this sort of thing work.

The principal focus has of course been on the selection and skill development of a core group of performers who will be performing for the series. You may have met some of these performers on "The Bay Today" blog (see sidebar) and you will have certainly come across a few of their performances in other posts here (see World AIDS Day {December}).

What is special about them and the whole situation is that only one of them has had any previous acting experience. For the whole group to have progressed to where they are; recording scripts, improvising and working together as an ensemble is a pretty massive achievement. These folks have varying levels of education and natural talent but their development as actors (which is so impressive given the innate shyness of most people in Milne Bay) can be traced (in my completely unbiased opinion) back to learning from some one who takes such joy in learning herself. Jane has jumped headlong into improvisational theatre workshops stopping only for breath and the occasional glance at a Keith Johnstone book for inspiration.

It probably won't surprise you to hear that that is not such an easy thing to do here. There are cultural barriers about interactions between the sexes (heavily biased towards the uglier hairier half) and there are also very strong (but not necessarily clear) hierarchies established in all situations based on relatedness, station in life and age. There is also a strong directive from pretty much the whole community which could be paraphrased as "Don't show off, don't be a smarty pants and unless you have heaps of money and a good position don't be confident". With this as the case Jane who is not only female but is also the youngest member of the group (a group comprised largely of men and entirely of people who really don't fit the "be confident" category outlined above) has managed to work wonders.

But she has had some help, so just in case you thought that this was just a shout-out for my lady only you must of course remember Jane's counterpart Maxine...



Yeah well, apart from the amazing ability to be caught on camera looking silly these ladies have in common a serious dedication to their work and their group (they are also helped in equal measure by Beatrice from EMB management but I {un?}-fortunately don't have a photo of Bea worthy of this post... sorry.)

At the moment all of the team are super-busy with the writing, rewriting, translating, formating, and recording of scripts not to mention the rehearsing, timetabling and writing of lesson plans, all up it is bloody hectic.

The thing that I want to emphasize here is this huge amount of work is going towards the issues mentioned above that touch almost every single person in this town (and most likely country) on a personal level. The lack of gender equity is enormous and it's natural consequence, domestic violence, quite frankly makes me sick. PNG is amongst the worlds worst in terms of domestic violence and sexual violence against women and children (for more information about this from someone who is working more directly in the field check out our link to our friend Carolyn's blog on the right we've called it "kickass blog from a kickass chick", but it's official title is "Pink Ukelele" it is also good for some great rants and laughs).

With the way that all of these problems are well know and recognized in the public eye (by community members and politicians) it is nothing short of horrible to find that perhaps the most trying problem that the project has faced thus far centers around political / bureaucratic power tripping. Without going into too much detail or dragging this out there is a perfect and I mean PERFECT facility in this town available for recording, editing and broadcasting this program (and many would argue built with development donor aid money for exactly this sort of purpose!). The facility basically sits idle (as it has done for the past 3 years) because of the bureaucratic muscle flexing of whoever decides they are in charge of it when someone asks to use it. The girls are currently as diplomatically as possible trying to explore all the correct channels to secure use of this facility. While they do so the province's one radio station (whose broken down studio would make Guglielmo Marconi's facilities look state of the art) sits in the shadow of this new and basically unused edifice, a testament to both the incredible dedication of some people (Radio Milne Bay) and the incredible short-sightedness of others (the powertrippers).

But I should stop now as this is becoming a rant and if you want a rant you should either go to Carolyn's blog (see right) or bloody email or call me in person and then I'll see what I can do. The thing is that I guess I wanted to dedicate this little post to the Girls and Guys working towards the radio-drama project (particularly to Jane; she's dreeeeamy she's a dream-boat ; ) ). I also wanted to just let you know how bad some of these issues are up here, and to remind all of you out there in sweet-access-to-internet-land (the developed world) how lucky you are to never have to think about, let alone experience many of these issues. So maybe today give to a charity or read up on some of these issues (not just for PNG but for your own country) and also finish up with a look at a photo that I hope the girls are a little more likely to approve of...



P.S. Janey don't get cranky at me for such a text heavy post... It is probably for the best that I didn't put in too many more photos...