One of the biggest disscussion points for anyone living in Lae is the state of the roads. It doesn't matter who or where you are talking if you mention the roads it will bring a wry smile or a frustrated groan along with a 'what I would do' comment.
Take the views on the way to the girls school below.
This is the view of our front garden as seen from the top of the stairs.
Moving down the driveway and looking back to our boat along with Sam the Dog. The large trees in the background are across the road behind the fence in the Lae Botanical Gardens.
Our front gate with the razor wire.
Our road in front of the house has been deteriorating rapidly and yesterday there was a large grader that was 'fixing' the large potholes... it simply scrapped the dirt and mud from beside the road and filled all the holes with mud! We almost had to engage 4WD to get through this morning! Believe it or not there is a half sealed road under this mud.
This pothole is notorious for us as it was here (last year) that we came upon a serious accident where a 15 seater van and a PMV truck collided at speed trying to dodge this hole. Marilyn was in the middle of a crowd of people trying to help one of the men who was trapped. We found out later that his femur had been smashed through his pelvis into his liver while his head had been cut severly as well. Men were trying to separate the vehicles by attaching chains to both and wrenching them apart using other trucks. That man was probably one of the bravest people I have seen as he was still conscious and in extreme agony while the vehicles were rocking. (He subsequently passed away after a week in ICU at ANGAU hospital... by the way...he was taken to hospital on the back of a utility as the ambulance had come and taken one person and not returned for the others)
This is a close street nearby where other ADRA staff live. It is a minefield for pedestrians after a wet day (nearly every day) as there are many potholes and cars find it very difficult to not splash water/mud.
This is the Ericu bus station. The potholes here are 5 m across and sometimes a metre deep filled with water. Marilyn actually had to back out of one a while ago as it came above the bullbar on our Pajero 4WD!
There are some positive signs with some companies fixing their assigned sections of road. The local government assigned 5 companies different roads in town to stop accusations of favouritism. So it seems that the first thing each company did with their allocated money was to buy a grader, excavator and trucks! With many now lying idle as the funding has dried up. Many roads are half fixed with large drains being constructed.
I couldn't resist this photo. As they were fixing the other end of my suburban street the grader broke down and they just left it in the middle of the road for a couple of days.
Jenaya, Izzie and Tiarna may be a little heavy for an extended trip on the dugout.
The girls were very excited and not a little scared of possible sharks being towed behind the boat. Andrew found it a little hard being towed underwater for ten seconds or so until he resurfaced!
