Wauw, what an amazing trip! We just came back from Rambutso and actually wanna go back already. Check out our website to read Brad's first hand account of the trip (http://www.friendsoframbutso.com/Community_Projects.html) or join our Facebook group Friends Of Rambutso.
Here's my story:
When was the last time you didn’t have a drink for a week? Or a proper shower? Or the convenience of a shop if you need something? Or access to tab water?
That was just after Easter - and don’t worry, I had a proper shower before I went back to work!! Together with 5 friends, Lynne and I travelled to one of the most remote islands in the most remote province of Papua New Guinea – Rambutso Island and it was a very interesting and exciting trip.
PNG is probably not the first country coming to mind for your next holiday, isn’t it? But I think the general perception of a lot of people is misplaced. Yes, I agree the capital, Port Moresby is a place where you don’t want to spend too much time but once you are on your domestic flight to the outer parts of PNG, you will find a fantastic, unspoilt, and safe country.
For me, going to PNG was an obvious choice. Firstly because I’m a diver; I love this place. PNG is located in the coral triangle of tropical marine diversity with the highest diversity of tropical fish and coral in the world. I’m planning another trip next year, so let me know if you wanna join! Secondly, and more importantly, Lynne and I were going to visit “her” island. Lynne was born on Rambutso Island, but left when she was one, and only went back last year for the first to find her mother and family.
As some of you know, Lynne and I have set up a foundation last August named Friends Of Rambutso (www.FriendsOfRambutso.org) and the main objective of this trip was to kick off our first projects and do as much research as possible for future projects. And we were pretty lucky as we had an emergency doctor, geologist, marine scientist, and dive instructor in our team, pretty useful skills for a trip like this.
Our arrival had been big news on the island weeks before we actually rocked up (this was the largest group of white people in living memory), and when we arrived we were treated to a traditional welcome ceremony with dancers (some male dancers had interesting appendages), singers, drums, and flower laces. It was touching to see how happy and excited the people were. “Nobody has ever come to our island to help us”, was a phrase we heard a number of times during our week on the island. They even built a community hall for Friends Of Rambutso!
So what did we do? As the villagers are reliant on beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) and as overfishing occurs, divers are going deeper and dying as a result (this is exactly what happened to Lynne’s brother Fred last year), so we did a freedive course and introduced safe diving practices. The classroom was a white beach and pristine sea, and the students were very keen to learn. They actually asked us to come back and teach them more!
As the villages don’t have electricity, the local population of 4,500 puts an estimated 100,000 (!!) batteries into environment each year, damaging reefs and fish stock they rely on for food, so we introduced solar power and rechargeable batteries. We also introduced battery collection boxes and within 36 hours we had more than 350 batteries collected!!
Have you heard of the Cargo Cult? We went to one of the villages were it all began, and in this village as well as other villages we attended village meetings where we asked the people what could improve and how we could work together to improve their quality of life in a sustainable and environmentally sound manner.
And next time we will think twice before we make comments like: “I heard you have crocodiles on the island; can you tell us some stories?” as before you know they go out, shoot a crocodile and present it to you!
Friends Of Rambutso cannot change their island in one day (and we actually don’t want to), but we believe that all small changes together will have a huge impact for the people of Rambutso.
Cheers, Ruud
