PAPUA NEW GUINEA SNAKEBITE PROJECT
A CHANGE OF PLANS

The trouble at the medical faculty has escalated with the gates picked up and closed, banners and angry students, and in places burning tyres. In the morning the area was on lock-down. Since the snek haus and the laboratory were within the campus compound we thought it unwise to abandon them and head out into the bush, so we decided to postpone leaving for Edevu until the next day.

Instead we sorted and repacked the kit, picked up last minute items and escured the generator and the camp lighting system worked. We also took a run down to the medical faculty to check on the snek haus and the laboratory again. It was ery quite when we arrived but the main gate was still closed and hung with protest banners. We accessed the snek haus and the laboratory via a back entrance which now had security guards patrolling. More guards were in evidence around the student accomodation blocks.

Student protest banners on the locked gates to the UPNG medical faculty at Port Moresby General Hospital

Now all we have to do it work out how we fit 5-6 people and all this kit into one Troopie, even with the ambulance stretcher removed it will be a tight fit.

So tomorrow we head for Edevu, we will be gone for a week, probably returning to Port Moresby around 22-23 July. During this time I will have no computer access but I plan to prepare blog pages whenever possible and post them enmass when we return.

Our camp site, on the bend of a tributary of the Brown River, can be found on Google Earth by inputting these coordinates [9° 12.777'S 147° 18.564'E] - look for the blue tarpaulin of the village house on the site.