Broken Clutch Cable

Darn... After I've been in Kaiam for 10 hours of driving too...

Monday was a big day of work here. There were about twenty people here
and most of them had bush and grass knives cutting grass in the low
areas for me to fill. One of these areas has been our 'swamp' area for
a long time, so I was very excited to fill it in. However, as I was
pushing material into the hole, therefore chasing out water, I broke
through my new surface and instantly sunk in to my axles. It took ten
guys an hour to put enough rocks, logs, and dig out my ruts to get back
the two and a half feet to solid ground. Ick.

After that I took lunch, it was after one thirty and as I raised my arm
to crawl up onto our porch I noticed that my arm hurt... I looked over
and realized that I'd missed a spot on my arm where I hadn't liberally
applied sunscreen. It was already an unhealthy shade of pink.

At this point I was feeling pretty good... I'd had two fairly bad things
happen today and was ready for the afternoon... I shouldn't have been.
Right at the end of the day as the sun was setting, or getting close to
setting, I put my foot down to shift gears, but the tractor wanted to
keep moving forward. Since the fear of going back into a similar deep
hole as this morning had my reflexes heightened, I quickly jammed the
pedal to the floor while shifting into neutral. Cautiously, I applied
the clutch and shifted into gear... Good so far. Now, let out the
--jump!... The clutch was shifting about a quarter inch from the
floor. Time to go back to the shop!

At the shop, a quick inspection told me I was not leaking anything, and
all the major pieces were still accounted for. Looking under the dash
to where the clutch pedal goes I was greeted with a ratty end of a
clutch cable held together by four thin and worn strands of the
originally 3.5mm. Talk about skin of your teeth.

Unfortunately today required loosening the fuel tank, which required
draining it, and taking off a frame bracket, which required two of us to
stand on the wrench to break it loose, not to mention the six or seven
hours it took to accomplish this. Finally, the cable has been removed
in all it's 700mm glory... Since I don't have another one of those here
(yet), I attempted to fix it... so far no luck. The ends on those
cables are pretty hard steel and I can't just drill through them and
braze the cable back together like I thought I could for a "temporary" fix.

Any bright ideas for a field repair?

Mambis over look from Radio Tower

Well, it's now 2:30am and I've run out of time again to post all the pictures that I would have wanted to put on this blog, but there is some good news.  The Hospital here now has internet, their nice Cisco router (that I've been telling them they needed for two months but arrived about 28 hours ago) that is all configured for "some" of the needs here... I'd never worked with a real enterprise router before... always the home networking WRT54G type with custom firmware... Those enterprise ones are really complicated/powerful!  I really wish I had more time with that piece of equipment to get some settings more finely tuned, but that's what they get for delaying until the 11th hour...

Right now they have a hidden SSID with WEP encryption, a VLAN that broadcasts a public SSID, unfortunately I wasn't able to train anyone on how to enter in MAC address filters so that they can charge people for use of the public WLAN, but it will make it easier for all the hospital staff because I know for a fact that most of them won't be able to set their computers to connect to a hidden network and this way they can actually start using the internet that they bought and paid for well over two months ago...  It's been a frustrating couple of months that was only slightly alleviated by the fact that the Lutz's had a small WRT54G that I setup in the window so that a couple of the tech savvy doctors and I could use what the Hospital had paid so much for.

Now that router has dd-wrt firmware on it configured to be a bridged repeater for the house down here... Very handy.  Unfortunately now it's time for me to go to Kaiam, so it's back to C.R.M.F. radio email and that's it.  Quite a stark contrast.  But at least it's email... so hopefully I'll be posting more 50kb photos to this blog while I'm working on the airstrip.

Ok, enough tech talk... The photo here is the last picture I took from the Radio Tower hill looking back toward Mambis and Pausa high school with my super wide 10mm lens.   Enjoy!

Sing-Sing - Munduku

The last night I spent in Munduku in June (was it that long ago already?) they had a sing-sing that lasted all night.  I only was able to stay up for a few hours of it, but they where dancing and playing these strange flute like things all night.  It made a pretty strange sound and there was apparently different songs that they where playing as well as different steps, but in my inexperience, I couldn't tell the difference...  It was certainly unique though.  It seemed like it was only the old men that knew the songs, so it's very nearly a dieing art.  Hopefully some of the younger kids take interest and are able to keep PNG's culture alive.

Sunset - Munduku

A few minutes before sunset and the colors were pretty cool.  I always like the profile of a palm tree and having the sunset background made this a really nice evening... right before it rained buckets on us.

Soccer Field - Munduku

Here we have another spectacular example of the scenery on my "daily" (biannual?) commute.  This is the soccer field that is connected to the airstrip in Munduku.  By connected I mean it's an extension of the flat land that was chosen for the airstrip right next to the river.  Some of those trees in the background are actually on the other side of the 100 meter wide river.  This rainbow was quite visible and contrasted the stormy skies above the soccer game on this evening. 

Soccer, Rugby, and Volleyball seem to be the big sports here, but usually it's easier to stab two sticks into the ground rather than set up a net, so Soccer and Rugby are a close pair.

Lotu Building - Munduku

This is the Lotu Building (one of them) in Munduku, where we have to fly in and out of until our airstrip is completed.  They had gotten an unusually large amount of rain just before we got there and that's why there was a lake in front of the building.  What's interesting is that they are unable to dig any drainage ditches to the river because that would cross someone else's property and it sounds like there's some neighborhood disputes over land rights so there is no way to drain this area.  It doesn't usually seem to be a problem because in a day and a half all the water had evaporated.  Talk about heat!  This did make for a spectacular photo though...  I really like the reflection.

River View: Part 4

How would you like to jump in a canoe like this one?  These girls were going home for lunch from school.  They took a five minute canoe ride from one side of the river to the other.  It's pretty amazing to see them get into this extremely tippy canoe and paddle over to the other side through some fairly difficult water without falling in.  I'm not sure that I could say the same in my case.  Made me glad we were in a slightly less tippy motor dugout canoe.  It's too hot to paddle.

River View: Part 3

There are several points where amazing waterfalls can be scene... ahaha... pun pun pun...

River View: Part 2

Another view of the river scenery.  This one is of Susu mountain which is visible for a large part of the journey.  The clouds were changing quite quickly in the afternoon on this day and were doing a very strange layering effect.  It made the mountain look much larger than it actually is.  The Karawari river is part of the Sepik watershed and it really does drain a lot of water.  We're still a long way away from the coast at this point, but not too far down river from where this picture was taken, the land flattens out like the panhandle of Texas and these large rivers snake their way to the ocean.  It makes our 20 mile "as the crow flies" journey take nearly 40 miles of river travel because we weave back and forth through the landscape.  One thing that I never thought rivers could do was to fork into two rivers, but that's what this river seems to do many times.  Sure, a river can have sandbars in the middle (thank you Platte river) but to actually diverge and later rejoin after miles multiple times is just strange to me.  It might be interesting to take my GPS and map out some of these forks in the river, but that would take even more time on the river, so I'm not sure I'm too interested in doing that.  These guys really know this river though as it seemed to change (or we took much different paths coming down, not sure) in the time I was at Kaiam.

Oh, and Susu means milk, so you can figure out what the people that named this mountain thought it looked like... ;-)

Hornbill

While we were floating down the river I decided to pull out all my big camera equipment, much to the chagrin of many of the people that were going down river with me.  They were quite concerned that if we capsized (not difficult in the very unstable dugout canoe) then my equipment wouldn't be protected in the Pelican case.  However, I would never have gotten shots like this one had I not kept my camera in hand.

It's pretty difficult to take a photo of a bird in flight as the auto focus has trouble finding the subject if it's not setup just so...  I was pretty fortunate when this Hornbill flew over.  They sound like small jet planes as you can hear the wind blowing through their wings from pretty great distances.  That helps with getting pictures of them as well because (kind of like hunting grouse) they scare you when they take off.

Rubber Mouth Fish

You may think that all we ever do on the river is fish... well, that's partly true.  Pictured here is the rubber mouth fish that is harvested from the river.  They're a fairly large fish and decent to eat.  I just like this photo because it looks like the fish wants a kiss... ;-)

River View

How can you be upset with a commute to work like this?  I get to spend two or three days going up and down a river that has absolutely beautiful.  And possibly best yet, I have no responsibilities while doing it... It's like I'm on vacation or something... ;-)

The guys in the picture are fishing once again, but at this point in time, I really didn't mind.

Catching Fish

How do you catch fish on a big shallow river?  Not with a hook, that's for sure.  You get a big net, a couple guys to stretch it across a narrow section, then start the motor to make a bunch of noise and chance the fish toward the net.  Easy true!  Part of what makes our river adventures always take so long is that the guys have a chance to get some protein in their diet and they don't waste the opportunity by looking at the scenery.  On the other hand, it is much nicer to eat sago and fish than just sago... so it's hard to complain too much.

River Canoe

Here we are lazily floating down the river.  Anton seems to be much better at the time killing activities than I am.  I've still got a lot of go-go-go mentality, and that just doesn't work on a dugout canoe on a shallow river.  There are usually two to four guys in the front of the canoe that take turns pushing poles down into the water to test the depth and make sure that the driver knows if he needs to pull up the motor before it runs right into a big rock. 

In this picture you can also see all the loot that we float up and down the river with.  Clothes and camera gear and all other sorts of cargo that we probably don't really need, but just can't separate ourselves from.  Conversely, these guys have a small bilum bag close by that has some bui, a flashlight, a bush knife, and that's about it.  It would be quite nice to be able to just get up and move as these guys are able to do.

By the way, those umbrellas... Not really for rain... It's hot out on the river in the middle of the day and you can only put on so much sunscreen.  What a wonderful addition to be able to pop up your own mobile shade...  Anton and I often discuss how much of a curse it is to be white.  Makes me want to take a few of these guys back to Alaska and see how they like -40... ;-)

Kids are kids...

All over the world... Kids are kids...

This young boy was trying to stalk grasshoppers on our airstrip at Kaiam.  He would walk up to them Mowgli style on all fours, pounce from higher ground, sprint across the pitch, or simply wait for the busy insects to make their way into his arms reach.  Pretty entertaining to watch, and even better to take photos of on a hot evening.

Smoking...

Smoking is a big part of PNG, and especially in the bush.  It's kind of like all those old movies set in the 20's where everyone has a cigarette in hand.  However, these smokes are all hand rolled with wet leaves and scraps of paper that happen to be around.  Even the old cardboard boxes that aren't any good are taken and stripped apart to be rolled.  The leaves they use are green, but usually placed over a fire to dry them out a little bit but they still have to relight the smokes several times in order to burn the whole thing.

There's a running joke that they'd even smoke pages of the bible if we gave them such things...  Sad, but more truth than fiction.  Between all the smoking, the smoky houses and malnutrition, tuberculosis is a huge problem for many people in PNG.  From the records that Anton has kept it looks like close to a quarter of the population in the Kaiam area have been put on TB drugs at one time or another.  The biggest problem isn't that it's difficult to find the people with TB, or administer drugs, it's a problem of keeping them on the treatment.  After the first few treatments they feel a lot better and then they leave the area so that they can't actually eliminate the sickness from their body.  Complications...  Another interesting side affect of the TB treatments is when someone with HIV/AIDS (huge problem in PNG) gets sick and takes the treatment and recovers.  Others look at this and say that the TB treatment cured HIV/AIDS... no... it cured the TB, that's all it was going to do in the first place.  Strange to think that people still don't know that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS...

Hello Douglas!

You remember Douglas don't you?

One of the pastimes of the kids here is to make a bow and some little arrows and try to spear grasshoppers, or whatever they can find.  I'm not sure what all the materials are that his equipment is made of, in fact, I'm not sure that I could make one, but it's pretty impressive to see him firing away at extremely small targets with impressive accuracy.  The arrows that he's firing don't have any fletching on them, possibly because he's not shooting far enough for them to need it, and the arrows just have a sharpened tip on them, no stone or anything like that.

The skill of hitting what you're aiming at might mean the difference between you family getting some much needed protein or becoming malnourished, so while it looks like a game (and it is) it becomes much more serious when they become adults.  In places there are lots of feral pigs in the bush.  Perhaps they used to be domestic (like the Arkansas wild boars), perhaps not, but if you're talented enough to spear one of those there would be a feast for sure.

If you've never killed a hog before, I must warn you that they don't die easily.  Even if you can get close enough to hit them, more often then not they keep running away with your arrow stuck to their side.  And the possibilities of chasing a pig into a trap like on `Apocalypto`... well... good luck to you...  Speaking of that movie, the guys here in PNG really get a kick out of it.  At Kaiam we have a small 12V portable DVD player to watch movies at night.  It's a great way to relax, and a fantastic addition to the house.  What's interesting to note about most people here is that they are deathly afraid of snakes...  Remember the part where the guy gets bitten when he's leaning against a tree?  One of our guys jumped up and ran out of the house... Anton and I laughed about that for days!  We're so mean... ;-)

Dragonfly: Part 2

Yep, another dragonfly... Hey, you can't blame a guy for wanting to post a picture like this can you?  I'm still looking for the PNG insect book that I'd like to identify all these fun creepy crawlies that I live with at Kaiam... Wouldn't it be amazing to discover an insect that wasn't in the book?  Sure it might happen all the time in PNG, but not to me!

Anton and I both used to collect insects in our youth, so I have a kindred soul to help me chase after these strange bugs in the bush.  Yeah, I may not always be moving dirt to complete the airstrip, but that's part of the wonderful place we live in...  People are always saying you should stop and smell the roses... well, I don't like them (they're pokey!), but I'll stop and look at the insects/spiders/millipedes/etc.

The Thinking Room

At least that's what it is when I'm able to sit down, relax, and let nature flow... Not quite the same at Kaiam.  This is our squat toilet, which is really well designed with a sealed lid to keep the bugs out, a mostly leak proof roof for when it's raining, and an interesting view of the forest behind our house.  It would make a great thinking room if not for the quite uncomfortable position you are forced into to keep from $@*!ing on your feet.

Between the extreme heat, and prevalence of biting insects, this ranks as a solid #3 on the list of reasons I'm not excited about heading back down to Kaiam.  Good thing there's lots of greens to eat there... ;-)

Macro Sweat Bee

One of the most hilarious, but absolutely annoying creatures might be this little sweat bee.  Why do you ask?  Well, first of all how does it fly?  It has this really fat body and tiny wings.  In humming birds this trait works out fabulously, but in these little guys, well, Dumbo flew better.  They don't so much fly toward you as crash into you.  Not graceful.

What makes them absolutely annoying is the fact that they are drawn to sweat, and at Kaiam there seems to be plenty of that to go around.  These little guys crash land on your body, but since they're so small you hardly notice them.  As they walk across the surface of your skin they drag themselves through the forest causing a mild irritation.  If you sweep your hand across them, they act like spiders and hold fast, so the best thing to do turns out to be smashing them into your skin.  Good thing they don't have stingers.  They actually make honey from the sweat that they gather.  I haven't tasted it, but Anton has and he says that it is quite salty in flavor.  One time when he was at Kaiam they were covered with these bees and went searching for their home.  It turned out to be a small hole in a dead tree full of gloriously salty revenge.

Perfected Spring Steel Bearing Puller

Say that five times fast...

We had another bearing fail on the little tractor but there was a small problem: Before, when that bearing had failed, the Lutz's took the part to Mt. Hagen and the shop there had to weld something onto the part in order to pull against to take it apart.  We were not exactly thrilled about the idea of having to do this again, so we set out to build a bearing puller that would slide into the 1/16" gap between the gear and the casting in order to remove it.  Pictured is the result after nearly five hours of work.  The basic thought was to shave down two 1/8" spring steel plates so that they would slide into place, then weld something to them that would allow us to put the whole contraption in the 30 ton hydraulic press.

Of course we started out with a much less durable form of similar design.  The first one I ha just one cross brace on, which popped off without much pressure.  The second attempt broke my stitch welds (or rather ripped out part of the spring steel because the welds didn't penetrate the hard steel far enough) on the horizontal pieces.

At the time I was feeling wonderful because of some bad chicken I'd had in Mt. Hagen earlier in the day, so Anton went to work grinding out welds, and re-welding one of the pieces all the way around while I laid down for an hour or so.  When I came back, I re-welded one of the pieces and then we were ready to put it all in the press.

After the pressure built up to about 18 tons, we were questioning the strength of our newly rebuilt device and decided that this was enough pressure, so we broke out the torch and heated the casting up a little bit.  By a little bit, I mean about thirty seconds of heat and we heard a huge "POP!" ... It sounded like a weld breaking but we were quite happy to see that the part we wanted to move had indeed started to slip off.  It still took about 10 ton of continuous pressure to remove, but at this point we pumped the hydraulics as fast as we could.

That night we were on top of the world!  Pretty nice to build a specialized puller and successfully use it in just a few hours...  We certainly couldn't have done this at Kaiam, so it reinforced the decision to fly the part out and fix it in Mambis.  I will be accompanying it back down to Kaiam on Monday!

the Coke side of PNG

Have you ever taken one of those photos that looks like it came right
out of a commercial? Well, a few weeks (months?) ago, I took one of
those and sometimes you can't keep those photos to yourself... So, I
went online and found some free fonts that resembled the fonts used the
real adds. This was the result. Almost looks like I took it straight
out of a magazine or something.

For a little back information: Coka-Cola is the only soda company in
PNG. Years ago Pepsi was here, but between a very good add campaign and
other things there is no longer any competition from other companies and
we're left with Coke as the official soft-drink of PNG. I don't think
it hurts that the red and white fits right in line with PNG's colors.
They also have these really nice billboards and wall sized adds that
read: "Coke and Kai"... Kai-kai means food in pidgin.

It's pretty common to see Coke cans and 500ml bottles around. Most
little trade stores sell them. The cans can also be recycled at various
places but for about a kilo of aluminum you only get about 4 Kina (a
little more than a U.S. dollar), and it takes a lot of cans of Coke to
add up to that. That doesn't mean no one recycles them... And it's
always fun to see a couple hundred cans lying in the roadway to make
aluminum pancakes.