Some People Are Roughing It

If you are observant you may have noticed that I have added a link on the side to the "Tenkile Conservation Alliance". This funky and catchy name is basically just a two person show run by my fellow Aus Volunteers Jim and Jean.

Now Jim and Jean are doing it rough. They are out in bush in the West Sepik province at a place called Lumi. They are living in a bush house with no running water and power supplied from a couple of solar panels. In their latest report Jean is quite happy to have a hot shower for the first time in 9 or so months when we were all in Goroka for our AVI conference.

The work they are doing there is to try and save an endangered tree kangaroo called the Tenkile. This little fella lives in the mountains near Lumi and has been hunted close to extinction. Jim is a zoologist by trade and his job is to go on scout trips to try and find scats and other clues to check numbers of the Tenkile.

Jean's job is to try and educate the villagers to let them know that the Tenkile is special and should not be hunted but saved. From the presentation they gave us at the conference it looks like they are really starting to make progress in this regard.

My hat goes off to these two. Not only do they have to really rough it, but they also have to manage the whole project themselves including trying to obtain funding. Their two year assignment with AVI is running out at the end of the year, but they have decided to extend for another year and AVI has agreed they will look after them, which is great.

Keep up the good work guys.