outback to jungle

Musings on experiences of volunteering in Papua New Guinea with some gratuitous domestic social and public comment

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

some would say it's no big deal

to volunteer. Oh? You must tell me more. You haven't grown as a person volunteering? I can understand natural volunteers. They are at every chook raffle, every working bee, every sausage sizzle, every fete. However, count the number of fetes, working bees, fundraisers and you will see that for most of the population volunteering must be a very big deal. What does volunteering mean for me? The con man saw me down the street on Sunday after he had previously been to Church and when he got me alone in his comfort zone he was in a position of strength to ask me for money for petrol. Bullshit. I gave him nothing and I quickly hurried off to get a PMV home. But I help out Peter and Joseph the security guards in little ways like cup of tea/coffee, sandwich etc. I employ a haus meri on good wages but that is all I give her. I am not here on full ex-pat wages. To get expertise in certain fields they have to pay international contract rates. Volunteers come here on the much lower national rates. Is that any big deal? Missionaries are a lot worse off. When I see the state condoned corruption I have learnt that this country can afford full price for international labour. They treat volunteers and aid donors as suckers.

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