Reason(s) To Drink Alcohol in PNG

I have to laugh (or cry) because I get it.  I get the Scotsman.

How do you like my face? This is what I look like for the majority of the weekend in Japan. I look like that because I love drinking alcohol. I do this for personal enjoyment but also to block out the boredom of Japanese life and various people who I may socialise with. I have created this self-portrait in celebration of my youthful good looks before my body totally gives way to such hedonism. I personally like the chicken pox marks on my forehead.

Seriously, sometimes that's how I feel here in PNG, except well, I like drinking alcohol and I do it to block out all the insanity around me.  Escapism at it's best....

Today's newspaper mentions uni again.... Ironically, while the funeral of the student killed this weekend was being held at Duncanson Hall on Tuesday, the National Court was handing down its decision for the 2008 student killing.  That one was by the hands of on-campus security.  According to The National, four of the six Kuima security guards were sentenced to a total of 108 years for “the willful murder of the final year architecture student.”  Kuima Security is still our private security on campus.  Just as they were during the student killings last year.  Oh, yeah, I feel so safe. Drink.

Then another article about how poorly uni handles ethnic clashes.  "THE governing body and administrators of the PNG University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae, Morobe, are too slack in dealing with the ethnic clashes among students and other problems in the campus, Philip Kapal said."   As I look at the picture of the casket being carried off, I see one of my debate students.  He was his good friend.  Drink.

I think of Dylan. Drink.

Near uni, I drove past a man walking down the road wearing half an elf costume (green felt with red felt trim) - as in this was his attire today.  Then I slowed down unsure if a pig was going to cross the road or just stay on the sidewalk.  I don't even try to take a photo anymore because this is just life here.  Drink.  

I was hassled by a kid begging for "coins" in front of Papindo.  "White Meri, I'm hungry...." Drink.

I'm trying to teach students that their country is in the midst of an HIV epidemic, so yeah, although it would be great to win the debates next week, there's really a bigger issue at stake.  It seems half the girls on campus are pregnant and the STI clinic is overflowing.  Drink.

Well, I'm a lightweight, so if I really drank every time I encountered a reason to, I'd never stand upright.   Instead, occasionally, I buy a bag.  Yeah.  Can you tell it didn't help?  Oh well.  Tomorrow's another day....  TGIF.