Back in black.

After a long hiatus I will try to update my blog.
My excuse for not writing is a change of job and a firewall that stops me doing updates from work.
In May the construction manager for the project resigned abruptly due to the stress his work caused him and I filled his position in the interim. A few weeks and some reorganizational changes later, I received my new appointment as Site Developments Manager.
Since then it's been chaotically busy for most of the time and my improvisation talents have been severely tested by anything from land owners disruptions to lightning strikes but I seem to have adjusted ok and overcome the stress and anxiety.
The project itself has gathered up speed we finished the work on the North west Moran Pipeline and are now making good progress on the South East Mananda one and while there is still a fair way to go it looks now good for a finish early next year.
A review of cost and schedule took place in September and October with the reality finally sinking in at board level that if it rains for five months and you didn't allow for that in your schedule it’s going to both cost more and take longer. I guess they will pay more attention to ongoing project work next time!

Back to the future

Currently I am Brisbane airport. My next flight to Port Moresby should leave in about forty minutes and all being well I will be back in Sisibia tonight around seven o'clock.

Ear again

I felt absolutely lousy yesterday and am still not much better today. My right ear is now infected and hurts and I can't hear with it. On days like this I feel that Neal Stephenson's description in Cryptonomicon is quite applicable.

"It would be an idyllic tropical paradise if not for the malaria, the insects, the constant diarrheal and resulting haemorrhoids and the fact that the people are dirty and smell bad and eat each other and use human heads for decoration."

On other days I quite enjoy it out here.

Yesterday

Had a lousy nights sleep last night mulling over potential problems on the job.

Normally nothing happens when you do that but just for a change this time did. At about 8.00 we were informed that a group of landowners had invaded one of our camps in the bush and we were told to remove our camp from their land and stop work. So we put a plan into action that did just that. We removed the camp in question and all the other camps from the bush run. Used helicopters to remove all our heavy equipment. Fired the locally hired work force and flew our supervisors out.

All good so far.

Today

The Huli are not known for their laid back nature so this morning I was getting the first messages from our security department that things were afoot in the Toma area.
Apparently some of the people that lost their job had marched on the village of the landowners involved in the stoppage and tried to burn one of the landowners his car. Another group was said to moving towards Moro to take their frustration out on the company.

No information of anything untoward in Sisibia so we feel quite safe out here. Having twenty well armed police, who are feared widely by the locals, does add to the comfort factor.

(H)ear (H)ear

Well the antibiotics must be working. My hearing is slowly returning although my ear is still sore. Nice not to have to listen to the echo of my own voice though.