The pilots’ meetings are over for another year. At the end of them, and particularly after two days flying on Thursday and Friday, I was more than ready for the weekend. The best part of ten hours sleep over Friday night was both very unusual (for me) and extremely welcome.
As usual, the amount of effort that went into preparing for them was worth it in the end. There was good interaction and as the Country Director (Todd Aebsischer), Operations Director (Doug Miles) and Finance Manager (Geoff Boer) were all way in Cairns for regional management meetings, there were some vacant time slots as each of these would normally take a session. With a bit of leeway it meant that we weren’t under pressure to fit everything in, so there was more time for discussion and for everybody to catch up with each other.
After having the meetings in the Goroka area, either at a mission station just outside the town, or at Aiyura, last year, this year we’ve held them back in Mount Hagen, where they always used to be based. It’s worked well; there’s been less time spent travelling and, particularly this year, the venues have been good. In the past we used the Highlander Hotel, but last year their quote was very high, whereas this year it was much more reasonable, so we used one of their function rooms and enjoyed some excellent pizza from their restaurant on Monday evening.
A couple of weeks ago Todd recommended a book to me called, “Turning the Ship Around”. His brother is a senior officer in the US military and coming up for promotion. Todd had asked him what was on their required reading list and this was one of the titles. Although his brother is not in the navy, this account is nonetheless on the reading list.
The author is now a management consultant, and his style and method was born out of his experiences on the USS Sante Fe. When he took command it was reckoned to be the most dysfunctional ship in the US Navy. It’s somewhat scary to think that a nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine was in that state! Anyway, he relates how it went, to quote, “from worst to first” by encouraging all levels of the crew, officers down through the ranks, to take responsibility for their roles, rather than expecting to be told what to do.
I recommend it. It’s easy reading, but very interesting and, because it’s born out of front-line experience, carries an authority that a theoretical management book is less likely to. I haven’t tried reading too many management books as they’ve never caught my interest when I looked at them, so this is definitely more attention-grabbing.
Our garden is making good progress. The hedge is clipped right down its length and through Brandon & Sharlene Coker’s garden next door. Neither of them enjoy gardening so they are happy for me to use my hedge clipper through their patch.
On our main flower bed, I’ve thinned out the rampant cannas and gingers, removed loads of amaryllis that had proliferated wildly, put in some other plants for both colour and shape from other parts of the garden, and eradicated as many weeds as possible.
This afternoon I picked a very good load of rhubarb, which doesn’t grow brilliantly well in a warm climate, but still provides a reasonable crop every now and then. A rhubarb crumble is on the menu for this evening’s meal. We usually eat midday on Sundays, but it was the annual Thanksgiving service at church this morning and the guest speaker went on for over an hour. By the time we got home we decided a snack with the main meal later would work better.
If any of our sons had been badly cut with a bush knife while attempting to break up a fight, and ended up in hospital for a couple of weeks, I cannot imagine that Nicki and I wouldn’t be on the phone every day, maybe more if necessary, to them, especially if it wasn’t possible to visit them.
There’s a family we know who live in a village on the outskirts of Mount Hagen. The father is uneducated and virtually illiterate, the mother can read and write a bit. Their oldest son has been in Port Moresby for a couple of years trying to find work and recently has had a job with a security company. Their second son has just finished his grade 12 exams and is waiting for his results. Two younger daughters and two still younger sons complete the family.
It was the oldest son who was injured and he has been phoning Nicki, or she has phoned him, just about every day this week. Nicki has passed on his phone number (he’s using a phone from another patient as he doesn’t have his own phone) to his family, and also provided them with some phone cards so they can afford to call him. As of this morning, he has not had one call from either his parents or extended family. His parents obviously can’t visit him, but extended family members in the capital haven’t either.
We saw his parents in church this morning. Nicki passed on the phone number (again) and both of us made it very clear that it was their responsibility as parents to speak to their son, to encourage him and to let him know he isn’t forgotten.
Nicki rarely gets cross, but this has been one of the rare occasions. She commented this afternoon that if he’d been killed, money would have come out of the woodwork to ensure his body was brought back to the village for burial. However, he hasn’t been killed and they can’t be bothered to find a way to call him. Grrr!!!
The internet has been poor for the last few days and at the time of writing there is no connection. We had a problem with our phone line that was sorted out very quickly after we reported it, but now I can’t connect to get our internet account recharged. Grrr again! Hopefully it will be restored soon so that this is the Weekly News for Oct 29th and not the one for Oct 29th and Nov 5th combined.
As usual, the amount of effort that went into preparing for them was worth it in the end. There was good interaction and as the Country Director (Todd Aebsischer), Operations Director (Doug Miles) and Finance Manager (Geoff Boer) were all way in Cairns for regional management meetings, there were some vacant time slots as each of these would normally take a session. With a bit of leeway it meant that we weren’t under pressure to fit everything in, so there was more time for discussion and for everybody to catch up with each other.
After having the meetings in the Goroka area, either at a mission station just outside the town, or at Aiyura, last year, this year we’ve held them back in Mount Hagen, where they always used to be based. It’s worked well; there’s been less time spent travelling and, particularly this year, the venues have been good. In the past we used the Highlander Hotel, but last year their quote was very high, whereas this year it was much more reasonable, so we used one of their function rooms and enjoyed some excellent pizza from their restaurant on Monday evening.
*************
A couple of weeks ago Todd recommended a book to me called, “Turning the Ship Around”. His brother is a senior officer in the US military and coming up for promotion. Todd had asked him what was on their required reading list and this was one of the titles. Although his brother is not in the navy, this account is nonetheless on the reading list.
The author is now a management consultant, and his style and method was born out of his experiences on the USS Sante Fe. When he took command it was reckoned to be the most dysfunctional ship in the US Navy. It’s somewhat scary to think that a nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine was in that state! Anyway, he relates how it went, to quote, “from worst to first” by encouraging all levels of the crew, officers down through the ranks, to take responsibility for their roles, rather than expecting to be told what to do.
I recommend it. It’s easy reading, but very interesting and, because it’s born out of front-line experience, carries an authority that a theoretical management book is less likely to. I haven’t tried reading too many management books as they’ve never caught my interest when I looked at them, so this is definitely more attention-grabbing.
*************
Our garden is making good progress. The hedge is clipped right down its length and through Brandon & Sharlene Coker’s garden next door. Neither of them enjoy gardening so they are happy for me to use my hedge clipper through their patch.
On our main flower bed, I’ve thinned out the rampant cannas and gingers, removed loads of amaryllis that had proliferated wildly, put in some other plants for both colour and shape from other parts of the garden, and eradicated as many weeds as possible.
This afternoon I picked a very good load of rhubarb, which doesn’t grow brilliantly well in a warm climate, but still provides a reasonable crop every now and then. A rhubarb crumble is on the menu for this evening’s meal. We usually eat midday on Sundays, but it was the annual Thanksgiving service at church this morning and the guest speaker went on for over an hour. By the time we got home we decided a snack with the main meal later would work better.
*************
If any of our sons had been badly cut with a bush knife while attempting to break up a fight, and ended up in hospital for a couple of weeks, I cannot imagine that Nicki and I wouldn’t be on the phone every day, maybe more if necessary, to them, especially if it wasn’t possible to visit them.
There’s a family we know who live in a village on the outskirts of Mount Hagen. The father is uneducated and virtually illiterate, the mother can read and write a bit. Their oldest son has been in Port Moresby for a couple of years trying to find work and recently has had a job with a security company. Their second son has just finished his grade 12 exams and is waiting for his results. Two younger daughters and two still younger sons complete the family.
It was the oldest son who was injured and he has been phoning Nicki, or she has phoned him, just about every day this week. Nicki has passed on his phone number (he’s using a phone from another patient as he doesn’t have his own phone) to his family, and also provided them with some phone cards so they can afford to call him. As of this morning, he has not had one call from either his parents or extended family. His parents obviously can’t visit him, but extended family members in the capital haven’t either.
We saw his parents in church this morning. Nicki passed on the phone number (again) and both of us made it very clear that it was their responsibility as parents to speak to their son, to encourage him and to let him know he isn’t forgotten.
Nicki rarely gets cross, but this has been one of the rare occasions. She commented this afternoon that if he’d been killed, money would have come out of the woodwork to ensure his body was brought back to the village for burial. However, he hasn’t been killed and they can’t be bothered to find a way to call him. Grrr!!!
*************
The internet has been poor for the last few days and at the time of writing there is no connection. We had a problem with our phone line that was sorted out very quickly after we reported it, but now I can’t connect to get our internet account recharged. Grrr again! Hopefully it will be restored soon so that this is the Weekly News for Oct 29th and not the one for Oct 29th and Nov 5th combined.
