Fun product

from time to time we find a fun product description that is humorous to read because of the poor English translation.

this is from a Bible translator friend of mine:

"why the work of Translation consultants is so important...."

I recently bought a flashlight to take to the village.

The following model really intrigued me: "Hand-pressing Flash Light, NO BATTERIES NO BULB, simply shake to recharge."

After buying this promising thing, I read the product information on the box. It literally reads (and I'm not making this up!):


"Product Charcteristics:

1. This product is a new science and technology product and made with high and new science and technology. It can illuminate only placing it in rhythm.

2. No need any power no environmental pollution. Low noise and health. Comparing with common torch. it can be several times on lift.

3. Con stantly using this health torch. It can benefit to your palm. arm and shoulder stretching and blood circulation. so as to let your hands relax and brain clever. hand and brain coor dinate and promote your brain memory and health composition."


The sad thing about it is that that writer's English is certainly better than my Chinese.

Paratext Workshop

Paratext is a software that we use in translation work. It does all kinds of formatting and such. To truly know what we use it for you'd need to ask a translator.

These last 2 weeks our centre held a paratext training workshop.
4 weeks ago we were asked 'how can you guys help us with this?'.

We were faced with how to help the translators train future translators and current with this software, but having no man power to do it with. This time of year, we are very short on man power as people leave for furlough or finish, or vacation.

Well we did four things
1 - helped supply them with 60 netbooks so they had a platform to do the training on.
2 - setup a wireless network so they could access the internet for licensing
3 - thought up a creative way to help with little manpower and had 2 guys doing a lot of extra work, but doing it creatively
4 - prayed that God would provide the other needs they had.

God certainly did. They put out a 'help wanted' request for anyone with computer skills and they had 38 students with 20 helpers!!! That's awesome!

We're here to help with our computer skills. My department has an all time high of 8-10 people with computer skills. But, over the past 3 years, computer skilled people have been leaving the centre.

The high school lost 1,
the primary school lost 1
the translation department lost 3

which means the demands on people who have computer skills have gone up because the people have gone down. AND the use of technology has only increased in translating the Bible.
More and more people have more and more computer needs with less of us to meet them.

Which means we have a lot of work, and have to prioritize it properly.

Which means we have to say 'no' to a lot of things we'd prefer to say 'yes' to.

Which means there are needs not being met.

So to have this workshop something we had to say 'we can't help as much as we'd like to' to... a creative solution was to pray and send out that 'help wanted'... and people came.

God is good. We can't afford to think inside of the box, God's resources are endless.

I was so glad this workshop went well. Today is the last day.
I am sad that I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked to... but that's only because I enjoy training and learning!!

Please pray for more computer help.
I hear that next week we're getting a new programmer, and his name is Chad.
So there will be two Chad's working here in computers.

I'm hopeful he's a small guy, so I can get the nickname 'Big Chad'. (-;

50 Kina

In the U.S. if you ask someone if they will lend you money, it's often a statement about your relationship in some way. You wouldn't ask a total stranger, and you wouldn't ask someone you disliked. It is the same way in PNG. But there is also a part of the culture here that diverges from culture in the U.S. which is called the 'askim'. It means pretty much what it sounds like. An ASKIM is when you request a favor. An askim can be a small favor or a big favor. However unlike U.S. culture, there is little to no shame associated with an askim.
For example. In the U.S. if you go to a buddy and say 'hey I'm a little strapped for cash right now, can I borrow 50 bucks until payday?' You most likely feel a tiny bit of shame in admitting your need. Perhaps you ask for something bigger or smaller. Still there is a sense of shame and then a sense of debt.

I'm not saying whether or not the shame is right or wrong. I've noticed that this area of borrowing and lending seems to be one where cultures diverge quite often. I've had a few friends from the phillipines who have completely different views on borrowing and lending and if you're not expecting it, the differences in cultures can cause a huge clash.
Well, yesterday a knock came at my door and a man whom I know but would not call 'friend' necessarily asked, with no small talk, simply 'can I borrow 50 kina.' and then 'I'll pay you back on payday.'

It was the first time I was ever asked to borrow money. I've had other askims, some I've said yes to, some no. Often being white we're seen as rich, and so there is no shame in asking us for money and also no shame in not repaying the debt. So you need to be careful and wise.
It took me by suprise. I had no thought this person knew me well enough to ask me for such a large sum of money. I was flattered in a way that our relationship was at this point, but also slightly doubting that maybe I was being used. Quickly I reached for whatever wisdom I had and said 'let me go see if I have any cash.'. I went to my office to think, utter a quick word of prayer for wisdom and put the K50 in my pocket.
Then I returned.

I thought - if he were a white skin friend, I would not hesitate to lend the money. Does this make me a racist? No... their culture is different, I may not see this money back. If I lend it, I need to be prepared to not see it return. But what should I say to this man? If this is a relationship building moment, how should I respond? A flat no would communicate to him that I am not interested in friendship.

I went back outside to speak to him again.
'What is this for?' I asked.
He responded in Tok Pisin, his eyes glanced down, and didn't make contact with mine. A typical symptom of shame.
'My brother has beaten a women from a different village and now they are demanding compensation and he has come to me for help.' he replied.

Suddenly this entire transaction became a lot more sticky. Now what do I do? In lending him the money am I condoning this type of behavior? By not lending the money, if they can't come up with the compensation funds, there will be a fight that could lead to death.
I was thankful for the 4 years of living here thus far that gave me the cultural inside I've had, but I've heard missionaries say that after 20 years of living here you still don't understand all the complexities.

In my head was resonating this voice 'you have to earn the right to be heard.' He wasn't going to stand there and listen to a lecture about this from me if I didn't give him the money.
So I pulled out the 50 kina and as he reached for it I held it, his hand touching my hand we made eye contact and I said in tok pisin:
'I will lend you this money, but I do not like this behavior of your brother's. You can't go around beating women. You should not hurt women'.
He replied, "I know it's a bad thing.'

I continued, because in their culture, repetition adds strength to the point,
"This behavior, is very bad, you can't beat women it is a bad thing to do, you must talk to your brother and tell him he can not beat women. You tell him that I say, he can not hurt women any more and he must talk sorry to this woman."
And Andy replied, "I know, you are right, and I will talk very strong to my brother and explain to him that his bad behavior has put me into debt (dinau) with you and many others and I work hard for this money and he can't keep coming to me for this. I am going to talk very angrily with him."

At this point I had realized the situation and was glad I helped Andy. Andy was very upset with his brother. Andy was a good and hard worker, and his brother had done this bad thing and put him into a terrible situation where he HAD to honor his relationship and give his brother money, which meant he was working hard simply to fund his brothers woman beating.
Typically as a policy here, we do not aid or assist men who have beaten women. We don't admit them to our volunteer run clinic, we don't help them, we don't give them rides. IT seems heartless but we have to levy a very strict penalty for men who beat women.

Our policy as an organization is very strict regarding how we react to women beaters.
It's a sad commentary on the culture. There are many wonderful things about it, but the truth of the matter is that when the boys grow up without fathers, without God, they have no moral direction and do whatever they want to do. Thus spreads AIDS and thus spreads a great many sins of man. Living here you understand how important it is in a culture where men are the authority, that those men submit to GOD who is THE authority.
Anyway, so my prayer is that in lending the money, I wasn't condoning or contributing to anything other than peace and a chance to get the message into the right ears.

Fire Training

that's the fire.


that's me in full breathing apparatus next to our fire chief (I'm the bigger guy) ready to go in an fight the fire burning inside


that's me busting a hole in the wall of the burning house we were training in.

that's a blurry me, busting in the door with a sledge hammer.

One of the side-jobs I do besides computers, is volunteer with our fire-team. We train once a month on Saturdays.

WE learned a LOT during this training. Also I think we learned that what I'm best at, is knocking holes in walls and busting down doors.

as you would imagine, being INSIDE a burning building with breathing apparatus and fire gear on.. is HOT.. but that GEAR (donated) really does work. The last fire I fought without gear, I couldn't get close enough to help so I worked the outside more. But we're geared up now to where we can go inside... but training taught us, the only reason we would, is if there was someone inside.

At that point, being big and able to carry people is a bonus. I also learned that without a sledge hammer, these walls are constructed such that by sheer mass and force I can knock a hole in one and get out.

Pray we never have do, but we're thankful that we're more skilled and ready if we did have to.

we did it

SWEET and praise God.

it was a very productive week...
we swapped satellites and ISPs,
and it all got done today... the power stayed on.

Thanks God for keeping the rain off our sensitive digital test equipment, and for getting my co-workers back safe and on time.

hey folks,
we doubled our internet speed today!!! ... and... kept it as the same cost.... AND reduced our latency quite a bit.

BIG WIN TODAY!!!
thanks God.

Too much on Friday

please say a quick prayer for me today.

-I'm alone in the network room, usually we have 3 guys
-I have to handle the backup changeover - tapes (no big deal)
-We had been given a warning a week ago that 1/2 of our power will go out which is fine, since we have double backups.
-I was told yesterday that we will be re-aiming our SAT dish this afternoon (might take a few hours if done right)
-I JUST got the message that the other 1/2 of our power is going out today... which means I have to bring down all of our servers now, which often takes a few hours.
-My daughter graduates 6th grade tonight, so I have all these extra little tasks to do.


In other words, at the checking of my email this morning, I realized I have far too much work to do today than is humanly possible, and the ramifications of that, is that the center may be without internet for the weekend, OR I miss my daughter's graduation.. OR I work the weekend.

If I work the weekend, I will have to cancel on the other things I have volunteered to help with.

SO, please pray.
PRAY that my co-workers return today, and that they have a safe trip and get here early.

There is hope we can pull it all off today if they get here.
I of course won't be missing my daughter's graduation ceremony, but I may not be able to stick around for the celebration which I'd like to be at.

This is how it goes... some things are totally unpredictable and you have to cope.
OFten times when I arrive at work in the morning I find my day plunged into total chaos...

and 99% of those times, it's on a Friday, which is why I always try to be extra energetic and early on Fridays. Don't ask me why it's always Friday.

Time

tomorrow several 'newbies' go on furlough.
You typically are here 2-3 years before your first furlough.

I've been here long enough to have seen new people come, go on furlough and come back.

That blows my mind. Time passes so fast here, possibly due to the lack of season change... that I lose track of who is no longer a 'newbie'.

In fact the guy I keep calling 'the new guy' has been here almost a year now.

GEESH.

Time she flies.

Pray for my co-workers in Madang, they are trying to install a new wireless link.

ALSO for this friday (2 days from now) as we will be repointing our sat dish and hopefully improving our bandwidth!!!

One, Two, TREE

On friday we got to watch both our kids perform in a choir concert. They sang some wonderfully fun songs with a real heart-wrencher at the end. They sang 'We are the future, give us hope, teach us the way, show us Christ.' Of course it was more lyrical at the time. It was a nice moment to be a parent.

On Saturday we got to see Sydney perform her trumpet in a middle school band. WOW this band is good. Much better than some high school bands I've heard. The bands here are simply excellent. They did some fun songs and I never had to take my advil! (-;

On Sunday night a tree fell in our back yard, narrowly missing the house. The windows in the picture is our bedroom window. Had the tree fallen 1 foot more to the right it may have caused the window to break and rain broken glass on my wife's head.

It wasn't windy or raining, the tree wasn't rotten or dying. It was perfectly healthy. Later investigation showed that there were tons of ants around the base. Apparently the wood ants ate away at the root system enough to cause the tree to lose connnection and it fell over because it had no roots connected. It was a great shade tree for our yard, and we're sad to see it go. That's 2 trees fallen in 4 years here. And both times, no damage to any structures, we're so thankful.

So I spent monday (a holiday for us, the Queen's bday) cutting and hauling the tree out.... then the kids and I went to the river.

Where we found our dog loves the water now... he used to hate it. HE had fun with the kids in the Bae' river... it was a good day of hard work and clean fun.

Key to Friday

Broken

If you happen to be reading this and thinking about what job you might one day want to do, here's a tip to help guide you away from the wrong direction.

If you can't emotionally handle a day where everything breaks, then don't become an I.T. person. (-;

Yesterday was one of those days.
Our team were all very tired because we put a lot of effort into this new project, and it finally went public and we were glad.
Today stuff broke.

-email ssl cert expired
-vpn stopped working
-email wasn't getting delivered
-people weren't able to log in from work
-radius server went offline so no one could access the internet
-I had to tell a crying translator her work needed re-doing.

then, quitting time rolled around and I went home.

-my truck broke - a short in the wiring causes the fuel injector fuse to blow repeatedly so I can't start it
-my wife told me the fridge is on the blink

then add to that the normal aches and pains of daily living,
-my wrist is banged up because of some fire training we did on the weekend.
-my son's health is slowly getting better but not as fast as we'd like.

so.. the theme of Tuesday was.... -BROKEN-

Having a day where everything seems to be falling down around you is a typical thing when you work in I.T. no matter where you are. The difference between somewhere else and here, is that when something breaks, like a refrigerator, it takes weeks to get a new one.

Well, I'll tell you my honest reaction at times like these, and they do happen regularly in my line of work....

If I'm energetic, I sink my teeth into the problems and go after them aggressively.

My honest reaction if I'm tired is to get down in the mouth a little, without realizing it.
And then, when I do realize it, I stop, and find a quiet spot and take a few minutes and pray.

Yesterday I prayed, 'God, I'm tired and stuff is breaking. I need to fix them well, and I don't have the energy, please help me in whatever way is right, to do You proud today.'

By the end of the day,
-the SSL cert was put back in place
-vpn was working (no thanks to microsoft it was THEIR patch that broke it)
-email got delivered
-people could log in to work
-the radius server was put back online with a script to refresh it when it dies AND it helped us troubleshoot another problem.
-The translator found someone to help

-my truck is still broken but my mechanic friend is looking at it.
-the fridge turned out to be fine.
-my wrist still hurts but is healing up... telling me it isn't broken.


Being on the field, having a bad attitude, or a depressed attitude, or letting problems get you down, can be a definite advantage to the enemy. Since I honestly view my work as battling the enemy and trying to push the lines of God's forces against the enemy's lines, I see things like getting discouraged as spiritual warfare.

I do not mean that I have to always be upbeat and happy. I allow myself to get rest when I'm tired. And to talk out problems when they bug me.

But I also am always aware that exhaustion and discouragement are weapons in the enemy's arsenal that I have to have defenses against.


SO, if you're working in I.T. and you have a day where everything breaks, think 2 things:
1 - this is great job security for you!! (-;
2 - every day you find a solution, is preceded by a day where you're given a problem. So if today you found a problem, tomorrow, may be the day you find the solution!

Why it takes a Team

I've been asked 'why is support staff required, why can't the translator do all the work?'

Here's a good example why:

Currently the guys who really know the software well for Bible translation are gone and so this morning we had a translator who had a problem and I got the call.

I went over to help them.
They had spent three days and three nights working on a booklet in two different languages and were unable to print it.

So I installed printer drivers and got the printers working.

She was very emotional and obviously exhausted and at her wits end and it was difficult for me to get an answer from her regarding certain things. She kept repeating 'I don't know'.

Typically before she got to that point, a member of the team who knows the software would have helped her.

I was unable to because I simply didn't know all the required formatting, the page size, the fonts for her language, etc... for making a booklet. I could have gotten her stuff successfully on paper, but not into the booklet form she wanted.

It turns out, the harsh reality of the fact was that all her time and effort formatting and including pictures, was wasted, because she didn't start out with the proper template, and therefore everything was on A5 paper instead of the smaller booklet size.

She would have to reformat it all, twice.

It was a sad moment for me. Not unlike when I used to have to tell students in college that they accidentally deleted their term paper.

There are times when I get to be the hero, and there are times when I have to be the bearer of bad news.

The bad news was that were a vital team member present then they could have told her how to do it right from the beginning. Instead she plugged along with her best guess and spent days doing the wrong thing.

So, can a translator do it all on their own?
You tell me. Having the proper support would have saved her days of wasted work and hours of emotional anguish. It would have brought the pamphlet to print much faster, and enabled her to do work where her strengths lie, instead of spinning wheels in areas where she is weaker.

Support staff is the coming together of the body with their different talents and giftings to help others who need it.

My job is to enable her, and today I had to help and watch as she realized that there was a gap between what I knew and what she knew, and there was no one around to fill the gap.

It was a sad moment for both of us, but even sadder for the Nankina and Ngain people who won't be getting a pamphlet in their heart language today.

They will eventually get it, but it will be late.

This scenario is also a good example of how sometimes, two people can't fill the shoes of 1 person with very specific knowledge. This is why we are constantly praying for God to be moving more people to come here. We need people to fill the holes that are left when people leave.

From the Keepers File

It is easy to forget 'thanks'. That's why I have a 'keepers' file. This is a folder where all emailed 'thanks' that come to me or my department get filed away. Another thing hard to remember because we do so much in a year, is to recall at the end of a year what we have accomplished.

The reason I want to keep the thanks, and the accomplishments is so that I can effectively communicate them to YOU, the people who enable us to be here.

This month I was able to volunteer some time each day at the TTC training course. I met several Papua New Guineans learning how to translate and use the Scripture in their heart language. It was refreshing to work with people at this level because often times behind a monitor you can feel detached from the actual translation effort even though your work does support it.

Anyway this morning I got a thank you for helping at TTC and I pass the thank you on to you, this was from the 'boss' the coordinator of the TTC

Thanks so much for your help during TTC – it has been SO much appreciated. Can’t really say it enough. For me this has been the best TTC I have been part of, and having you around has been a key part of this. Last year I was not able to do my job because I was constantly helping people try to solve network problems, or worrying about people’s network problems, or trying to contact CTS. Just knowing that you were there, that you were coming at a set time, that you were available was such a huge psychological burden removed and I could actually concentrate on doing things I am supposed to do – like checking how the teachers were doing and any help they needed with the content of their courses.

So, thanks very much!!!

so thanks to you. This is the difference between support and no support. Sure this man could have done the class without us. I'm sure with a lot of effort he could have gotten things to print and found a way around requiring a network.

But thank you so much that he didn't have to!!!

communication

tonight at midnight we're rolling out a huge change to our network which should enable much more simplicity and functionality. It requires a large change of thinking for the people who live here and we have labored over how to best communicate that.

We have begun a series of open houses, in which we give the same presentation repeatedly at the top of the hour.

It's something new, and it has in fact been really well received.

The sacrifice is that in order to be available, we have to do this after hours.

So most of the computer staff here have been donating their nights this week to train the community on this 'new' way of doing internet access.

Pray that it goes well. It is one of the most ambitious projects to date, that we have tried, and we want the first impressions of it to be good, as it hopefully will be very reliable going forward and be a massive improvement for the community.

ABC....

Translation Update

Seija M[...edit/...], together with her 6 translators, finished the gospel of
Luke today. They still need to work on checking it, but the milestone of
getting the first bigger book in pretty good condition was reached.

Why is Internet so Expensive in PNG

I get this question a lot.
'why is internet connection so expensive in PNG'

The good news is that it's all getting better. The bad news is that it should already have been better.

Here is a really good summary article containing far much more than you ever wanted to know about it... but the summary is... this is GOOD for us!



Internet Growth in PNG Going From Stagnant to Very Exciting
Article by: Charlie Gilichibi, Team Leader IT & Special Projects Coordinator
Bandwidth Capacity Major Stages of Internet Gateway Development in PNG
16 Megabits per second APNG-1 (October 1967) on copper wire intended for telephone communications
560 Megabits per second APNG-2: (October 2006) on optic fibre for telephone and internet communication
10,500 Megabits per second APNG-2 + PIPE (September 2009) and National Broadband Network (work in progress to be completed in 2015) on optic fibre and power lines
Internet Price Comparisions
Internet Service Provider Prepaid Cost / MB Postpaid Cost / MB Cost of Setup or Dongle Purchase Coverage Centers
Daltron 40 toea 56 to 20 toea K400
Data Nets 40 toea 40 to 25 toea 30 centers
Datec 60 to 66 toea 60 to 20 toea
Digicel GSM 33 toea peak hours
25 toea off peak 22 toea peak hours
16 toea off peak hours K99 Port Moresby, Lae, Hagen and Kokopo
Global Internet 61 to 23 toea 61 to 23 toea
Hitron 20 toea K750 – K5920
Telinet CDMA 29 toea 40 to 16 toea

Why is internet expensive in PNG?

It is easy to point fingers at ISPs and blame them for un-affordability of the internet. Then again those pointing the fingers from the business and social space and the civil society at large can’t be blamed for their ignorance on why internet prices are so high compared to the rest of the world.

The basic economic principle of demand and supply is the immediate phenomenon that drives up cost of living including the cost of internet services. In the grand scheme of things and at its most fundamental, it is the lack of visionary leadership at the national and sub-national levels, so not to single out anyone as the problem is an inherited one as well as on-going the reasons are best left to your imagination.

When the internet took its first baby steps in the 1980s and the world was watching and nurturing it, when it developed to be a teenager in the 1990s and went rebellious with the parent world always counselling and guiding it and doing everything right in terms of national policy development and investment in a child in the PNG context that would later provide a welfare net for the parents in old age, leadership in PNG was too bothered in power plays then worried about what would become of the future.

Going back to demand and supply as the invisible hand that sets market prices, Sundar Ramamurthy CEO of Data Nets during an Emerging Technologies Seminar on Tuesday 10th of April 2011 said whilst the current capacity shared amongst the ISPs in PNG for internet services is 265 Megabits per second (Mbps), the overall demand is at 285 Mbps far outstripping supply.

PNG Internet Bandwidth Analysis

Current capacity between PNG and the rest of the world shared by ISPs is 265Mbps
Current total demand in Papua New Guinea is 285Mbps
Internet gateway undersupply by 20Mbps

PIPE Capacity into Madang is estimated to deliver extra capacity of 10,000Mbps
PNG’s Total Capacity once PIPE cable (via Madang) comes online is 10,500 Mbps

Source: Sundar Ramamurthy, Emerging Technologies Seminar 10.05.2011, Crowne Plaza

PNG’s National Broadband Network (NBN)

Once the National Broadband Network, currently work in progress is completed and links the PIPE optic fibre cable in Madang (from Guam) to the rest of PNG we can expect the power of the internet to be let loose running wild in the country just like how the nation experienced the explosion of mobile phone sector around 2006 and 2007.

Whilst the government will reserve some chunk of the 10,000 Mbps capacity for other projects of national significance even half of this capacity when divided and rented to each ISP would leave each of them with at least a whopping 265Mbps equivalent to the total capacity currently shared by all the ISPs. Benefits from this development would include:
• streaming of audio and video data (multimedia) that is of telephone quality at around 8Mbps
• CD quality audio compressed in MP3 format at 192 Kbps
• HDTV at 27Mbps – for instance distribution of EMTV via the internet
• Rest of the benefits aside, internet affordability for the masses. ISPs would initially throw in all differentiation gimmicks by packaging internet plans and selling them to existing customers. When they realise they are too big for the markets in the urban centers or when they have developed the winning business strategies to go hunting in the country side they will but eventually take the plunge. As Sundar Ramamurthy said, Papua New Guineans are our own worst enemies. We discount the majority as illiterate and ignore their will for the want of progress and when mobile competition arrived with handsets flooding even to those areas considered as the most disadvantaged by lack of access to reasonable education, the country was awestruck by the rapid proliferation of mobile devices even those with the best educated pessimism that the high illiteracy rate is an obstacle.

APNG1 & APNG2

Until recently (in early 2000s), connectivity to the rest of the world was via the 897Km long Australia-PNG (APNG) cable, a copper coaxial analogue telephone cable laid between Cairns and Port Moresby in 1967, and by Intelsat Earth stations at Port Moresby and Lae.

Telikom retired the legacy APNG (APNG-1) coaxial copper cable of 16 Mbit/s in 2006 replacing it with the 1800Km APNG-2 optic fibre cable that used to link Sydney to Guam redeploying it between Sydney and Port Moresby at an estimated cost of US$11 million. This was a wise decision by Telikom because a new 2nd generation optic fibre cable would cost an estimated US$60 million. Why the advanced countries were selling off these cables was because they have surplus 2nd generation optic fibre cable capacity to cater for their growing market demands for internet and voice communications.
The APNG2 cable has a capacity of 560 Megabits/second (Mbps). While 560 Mbps this is a lot of internet capacity compared to the 16Megabits/second prior to 2006 it still wasn’t enough as only roughly 270Mbps is shared amongst the ISPs for internet purposes whilst the rest is used by Telikom for voice communication purposes as that required a lot of capacity for the voice clarity required in telephone conversations. Not withstanding, while the rest of the world moved on to higher capacity cabling between 1980 and 1995 noting the demand placed on these cables, no longer for growth of voice demand alone but the rapid proliferation of the internet stripping constrained capacity from these telephone cables. This resulted in the 16Mbps capacity of APNG-1 between Cairns and Port Moresby originally intended for telephone communications stripping telephone communications capacity to be shared with internet communications in the 1990s.

This explains why when the internet first hit PNG in dribs and drabs in the early 1990s, cost was way out of reach even for small to medium enterprises and the word “internet” and its wonder world of benefits was only a word shared by the technology savy in the offices, streets and homes around the country.

The APNG-2 optic fibre cable has a serviceable life of 15 years since its commissioning in October 2006 and will be retired in or around 2021. That’s only 10 years away so where to from here?
Source: http://soft-brain.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html



It’s in the PIPE-line from Madang

The PIPE optic fibre cable gateway in Madang was commissioned for service in September of 2009 and like the split segment of this cable that was re-aligned linking Sydney to Port Moresby it also has a serviceable lifespan of 15 years.

It was reported in The National and Post Courier of 20.05.2011 that the Governor for Southern Highlands, Anderson Agiru and Peter Graham the Country Manager for ExxonMobil signed off on the construction of the 750km segment of the National Broadband Network Project that will link Port Moresby to Tari and Mendi at a cost of US$70 (K169.5) million. It was also reported that it will take 4 years to link up rest of Papua New Guinea from the date of project implementation sign off (19.05.2011) to the PIPE gateway in Madang. This means critical mass utilisation of the PIPE’s 10,000 Mbps will start around 2015. In that time PNG taxpayers will have accrued a loss in value utilisation of US$24 million (6 years of idle time divided by 15 year lifespan times US$60 million investment in PIPE) let alone the opportunity cost in the 6 years the PIPE Gateway from Madang will have been lying idle since it was commissioned in 2009.

The murky-side of communications development in PNG aside, we can expect and anticipate greater reduction of internet costs where it will eventually become more afforadable for the masses. This will be a result of fierce competition in the ISP sector and pleasing to note this competition process has already started. ISPs are now consolidating and preparing their battle plans for when the National Broadband Network will be unleashed. A good ISP will triumph by adapting to the times and taking advantage of opportunities as they come. A great ISP anticipates openings others don't see and creates possibilities that were not there before for their immediate survival, long-term growth.

Where to from here for Papua New Guinea after the serviceable life of the 1st generation optic fibre cables connecting us to the rest of the world reach end of life?

The answer is no one knows as there is no specific national policy or plan(s) for life after APNG-2 and PIPE optic fibre gateways connecting PNG to the rest of the world.

Generating confidence through the media and other means for the National Broadband Network may be crucial to creating demand and supply in anticipation of broadband services in PNG but so is candor.

References
Pacific Connectivity - HighLevel Consultation-18May07
Chapter 2 – Technical Viability
http://www.unescap.org/LDCCU/Meetings/PacificConnectivity-HighLevelConsultation-18May07-Almaty/VersionFromAlmaty-June07/2_Technical.pdf

Re-use and Re-routing of Retiring Cables (check the website where this article was downloaded)
Jamie Merrett, Remy Laude
http://suboptic.org/App/Uploads/Files/We1.09.pdf

PIPE Pacific Cable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Pacific_Cable

Madang Landing Station
http://www.pipeinternational.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&task=tag&category=Landing+Station+Madang&Itemid=53

PTC09 Submarine Cable
http://manymedia.com/2009/01/ptc09-submarine-cable/

Telikom starts fibre optic plans
http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID
=23375/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl

APNG2 – Cable System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG-2_(cable_system)

Environment Warrior of Madang and Information Access a David & Goliath Story
http://heatheryoungleslie.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/enviro-warriors-of-madang-and-info-access-a-david-and-goliath-story/

Fibre Optic Network Test Run Lae to Madang on PNG Powers Infrastructure
http://pngengineering.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:fibre-optic-network-test-run-lae-to-madang-on-png-powers-infrastructure&catid=39:communication&Itemid=53

Telikom PNG's View of PPC-1: Madang-Guam (10Gbps)
http://soft-brain.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Digicel launches mobile 3G Broadband
Monday 9th May 2011
www.postcourier.com.pg

US Government Oks PIPEs Submarine Cable to Land in Guam
http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/networking/20669-us-govt-oks-pipes-submarine-cable-to-land-in-guam

Confessions of a single dad part II finale

well I got word today that my wife and son will be returning tomorrow!!! So we'll all be in the same country again! So this is the last installment of confessions....

Day 6 Sunday - Syd has a fever and chills so going to church is right out. Making this the 6th consecutive day of very little social interaction. I realize my wife is the tie that binds here. On the flip side, we're not producing a lot of laundry. Hmmn... coincidence? Trying to keep my daughter's spirits up, we still have our traditional family movie night, only with leftover pasta as our dinner instead of pizza. She's not that hungry anyway so it's fine. We both were kinda down because we'd been inside all day so we went for a trip around the center and said 'see you later' to some friends. I try to be extra goofy for her to cheer her up, and it's not hard to cheer her, she's a pretty optimistic kid.

Day 7 Monday - a lot of work to do, and Syd is feeling better so she's off to school. I come home dead tired and a friend delivers a home made dinner to us. WHAT a cool place this is to live! When the chips are down, the community pulls together. Syd and I have a quiet meal because the food was so good, and as she says 'this is funny we're quiet except to say 'mmm this is good'. ' Ever since a toddler she's always known how to cheer me up... a well timed hug, a good joke. Together we're doing okay without mom and calvin around. But the place is a bit empty without them.

Day 8 Tuesday - another long day of work, some GREAT things have happened. I have now gotten to the point where I can handle what comes at me, and fill in the gaps, but realize that not only is my wife an incredible woman and help to this family, but that single parents are probably always tired. It takes a lot of energy to be do all the things needing done, and still be emotionally available for your children. My daughter wanted to play with me every moment she could, which was exhausting but in the long run good for our relationship. I get the great news that my wife and son are returning tomorrow!!!! I'm excited for that.

Two weeks ago I prayed that God would give me the time to spend some alone time with my daughter to help build the relationship. Well we've had that.

1 week ago you all prayed that my son would get to the hospital safely. He did.
5 days ago you all prayed that he'd be disharged from the hospital, and he was.
Last night you all prayed that they'd come home tomorrow, and they are.
Tonight please pray for their safe travels.

Praise God and thank you.

Confessions of a Single Dad part 1

Day 1 - Weds. People offered to invited us to dinner, but work is really busy and I have to figure out how to work late hours and still provide the emotional support for my daughter if we're going to make this June deadline. On top of that I've donated mornings to this training course. It's funny how this month was supposed to be about this new project roll out and TTC training, and now it's about surviving a medivac. Life changes quickly.

Last night Sydney and I made tacos. It was an easy meal, if you don't have to make sour cream. It was simple and nice, and we had left overs for dinner the next night. Tons of leftovers in the fridge. Sydney has music practice so that takes me to 4pm, work ends at 5pm and a friend volunteers to watch her until I get off work.

Day 2 - Thurs - yesterday wasn't so hard! I think I can handle this, especially since we've been invited to dinner tonight. "Hey Daddy, did you know that tomorrow there is no school all day!!! We can play!" I'm thinking.... how am I going to get someone to watch her, because I have to go to work. I'm sure they'd understand if I didn't, but the pressure is on, and I need to make progress. Still, my little girl might be needing extra hugs during this time of family separation. Ouch my back still hurts.

Well I found someone to watch her, but then she came down with a fever and she's cold and headachy. Must be this virus. So I cancel the afternoon plans...

I come home later and find my home alarm is sounding and my dog has jumped the fence. That is odd.

The day feels overall, sort of OFF... like nothing goes to plan. But, I didn't need to make dinner and the rest of the night goes well.

Day 3 - Friday - Sydney packs her own lunch, makes her own breakfast and heads off to school with her backpack and trumpet. Her fever is gone, and today looks to be productive. Dinner tonight is already covered, but I have to find time to go to the store, because we committed to seeing some friends off with a meal, and I will prepare some pasta tomorrow. 1pm the phone rings, Sydney's lunch was 'rotten' and she wanted me to bring her a new lunch... okay so now I pack a new lunch, and find time to get to the store. At the store, I can't find a can of mushrooms. I don't know if they're not there or if I can't find them. I ask a friend, they're not where they usually are. I find that our house is well stocked enough that I really don't need much of anything to host this meal. That's good!

Day 4 - Saturday - I wake up deciding today will be a sydney and dad day, we'll go to the river, make bread rolls, make dessert, cook dinner, play games. So I start by cooking up the leftover potatoes for country fries, and make an omelette with tomatoes, olives and avocado.. all produce I didn't want to go bad. And after cooking all this up Sydney looks at me and says 'Dad i think I'm going to throw up...' she hadn't even tasted it yet!!! She says 'but I'm happy you made breakfast.' Her fever is back. I tell her had I known she was feeling that sick, I would have made us some simple toast. So half my elaborate breakfast goes to waste.

Now she's on the couch resting, and I'm punching buttons figuring out how to work various kitchen appliances and meeting with relative success. I do not know how my wife stays in the kitchen all day on saturdays making cookies and whatnot, but I find it makes my back hurt.

My wife is an amazing woman, and very helpful to the community. I feel tad guilty that the community is lavishing love and care on us in her absence, almost like I'm collecting on her good will. But as of now, we have meals arranged for us for almost every day next week.

Which is awesome, but it means that the only time in the kitchen for me and sydney to share, is today and tomorrow. So we'll make the best of it.

Medivac

the word has already gone out about my son's medivac. A virus brought on an exacerbation of his asthma which required we fly him to a hospital. So my wife and son flew to a different country leaving me and my daughter in PNG.

PRAISE GOD, Calvin is out of the hospital now, exactly as we prayed he would be. Thanks to those who prayed!!! Praise to GOD!! We knew God would do something incredible for Calvin and getting him out of that hospital when so many were praying, helped show our son the power of prayer.

Now that things have calmed for a bit, Kendal and Calvin have another week or so in Australia to do follow up checks, etc.

I thought some of you might get a chuckle out of a few blogs on what it's like for me to be a single dad of 1 parent in PNG, given that I now have to tackle a lot of things my wife does... and if I cut down what she does to the absolute bare minimum, I might have a chance.... and so... I bring to you

'confessions of a single dad'. until the family is reunited.

Enormity

I'm sitting here in TTC1 class, observing and helping as computer needs arise.
TTC1 teaches basic English concepts and basic Bible translation and some other things I'm sure I don't understand.

As I look around I see the age of people. Some look over 60, few look under 30 years old.

Which makes me realize the task of bringing the Word of God to this country is enormous.

If it takes 20 years plus, to do a translation, I'm seeing many of these people here learning skills that will take them another 6 years to master. They will be translating while they learn.... but we're talking many many years before seeing fruits.

I admire teachers, knowing they are investing in the future... a computer guy like me demands instant results, if you told me to fix a computer and I wouldn't know if it worked for 20 years... well.... I might not respond well.

But in the midst of feeling this huge and heavy burden for all the work to be done... and the duration that it'll take...

I hear at the table next to me in Tok Ples, then English then Tok Pisin 'What's Grace... ' and they are opening books and talking and working out the concept of grace and pantomiming what they compare it to in their culture....

and I think again, yeah lots of work to do, but it's God's work, and He has a good plan.