Well, I have a lot to tell you. A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days in Papua New Guinea, a country I was only dimly aware of until recently.
You can see a gallery of photos from the trip here (taken by the extraordinary Conor Ashleigh who is only 22 and a photographic genius).
I went to PNG in my capacity as ambassador for Vicks’ Road To Relief program which works like this: you buy any Vicks product marked “road to relief” and your purchase will pay for one child in a developing country to be immunised against measles.
It’s that simple.
I will admit I was apprehensive about the idea of going on this trip. I don’t like to fly. I don’t like to travel. I don’t like to do new and adventurous things. And I’m a complete wuss-bag about children doing it tough or being in any kind of distress. I can’t bear even the thought of it and I turn into a puddle.
But that’s a totally pampered and privileged view. You can’t be an ostrich forever and I wanted to push out of my comfort zone and learn a thing or two about a country that is just a couple of hours from our own. It was an amazing few days. Amazing. I travelled there with Jolie from Vicks, Catriona from UNICEF (who are managing the distribution of the immunisations in PNG and other developing countries), photographer Conor and videographer Tara.
We were a tight team and we saw some wonderful and upsetting things together. Everyone who heard I was going to PNG raised their eyebrows into their hairline. “It’s sooo dangerous,” they exclaimed. “Be careful.” In Port Moresby, where we were staying, we had armed guards and weren’t allowed to leave our hotel. But on the first two days, we climbed into our mini bus and drove about 90 minutes out of Port Moresby to the province of Kwikila where we visited a health clinic, a mobile immunisation clinic and a school.
Top Comments
There are many places we are not still aware of, Mia. It seems highly unlikely for a person to be able to visit every country in the world. So far, out of the South Pacific countries, I only knew about Australia and New Zealand.
Mia that was all very brave of you and it must have been incredibly daunting visiting the hospital. It seems senseless that both PNG and East Timor are so close to us and struggling so much and we do so little to help. We rarely even hear about them (unless it is to try and offload our obligations to other desperate people onto them).
The photos are beautiful. It must be startling to see such humanity and warmth on the backdrop of so much suffering and poverty. I am always struck by people who seem to do so much with so little, and I don't think we should forget the happiness that is mixed in with the sadness. Its nice to be reminded of the importance of perspective and gratitude for what we have here (if only we were a little more gracious in sharing it). I really hope to get out to East Timor at some stage and help out in some way. I hope you write a column about your experiences too, it will certainly be interesting to read.