Wali's Wits

Last month I took my students down to the Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae as part of their Change Management Course to see the changes that has taken place in the cocoa Industry in PNG. We have come a long way from growing cocoa beans to down stream processing of cocoa into finish goods. Here we had the opportunity to speak with various stake holders which support the industry and the very backbone of the industry the farmers themselves. The Cocoa Industry has grown and Minister Maru who officiated at the ceremony said PNG wants to hit the production rate of 1B by 2022 from its current of 350 mio. Such an ambitious target for the country 65% increase. I had the opportunity to speak with alot of small holders who actually supply almost all the cocoa for export as cocoa plantations is minimal and all farmers are small holders. They still face a lot of challenges one of the main they highlighted is the route to market for the beans. They usually have to bring them in either by boat or ca...

If you grow lemon grass at home here's a great way to create your own herbal tea anytime of the day. All you need is handful of lemon grass leaves, say 5-10 leaves wash it give it a good squash and place in a teapot. Pour in boiling water and leave it simmer for 10 mins. Then serve whilst hot if you have honey add a teaspoon to it. In no time you will have a aromatic herbal tea at minimal cost or none if you don't want to add any sweeterner. Enjoy!

Vision Board We all have various pictures of what visions we have of our lives and how it would turn out to be. Vision, as defined in the Macquarie Junior Dictionary, is the” power or sense of seeing”. What pictures do you conjure up in your mind as you think of your journey in life? The bible is filled with lots of faith pictures telling us stories of the various Bible heroes and what they went through in life to reach the various callings that God has for them. Faith is defined as seeing what you believe about yourself and more or less it is about seeing pictures of what and how you want your situation to turn out.   In the book of  Habakkuk:  2-3 “it says to write the vision make it plain that those who read it may run with it’.  Well, one Sunday morning the kids stayed at home because it was raining so I decided to have creative church with them. Our scripture reading was based on Habakkuk 2 and to make it become more practical and realistic I got the...

The Art of Basket Exchange I was privileged to witness a basket exchange ceremony recently held by the Gemsao mama’s in Lae. Basket Exchange is an event that was created when mothers in various churches throughout PNG saw the need to raise funds and at the same time bless each other. Sometimes it is within the same church group or at other times this event takes place with ladies in the towns and cities and ladies who fellowship in village churches.  This is the reasoning behind the exchange and usually it is for fund raising event to assist renovation or build a church so what takes place is ladies buy various goods to the worth of a ceiling amount usually not strict and you can go beyond this amount if you feel like it.  Then the groups come together and exchange goods and the money is given to the worthy cause. In the traditional times goods are placed in a basket and then exchange thus earning the name “basket exchange”. In the recent event I witness this gr...

Hi everyone yes I have been off the grid for a while but just returned with a new receipe for you all. I am spending time with my big sister and this one came out of her receipe book. Tamarillo is also referred to as tree tomato. There is an abundance of it in Goroka and you will find alot in Lae as well. When they are in season try out this jam. The taste is between marmalade and raspberry jam but its from our very own backyard. If you are watching your weight and cutting down on butter this is a good option. Ingredients 20 Tamarillo 1kg sugar 600ml of watet Method Slice tamarillo in half lenght wise Place in a pot Pour in 600ml of water and boil for 15mins. Take off stove and remove the skins. Pour in the 1kg of sugar and boil rapidly for 30 mins. Cool and bottle into jars makes 4 bottles of jam.

Do you find it difficult to make decisions in your life. We are faced with decisions everyday. Some decisions are easier to make others are quiet difficult and all decision gives you an outcome. I find that sometimes  people just shut themselves off because they don't want to make that decision. Do you sometimes find yourself shutting off because you have a difficult decision to make. Do you feel sometimes you make decisions out of fear, insecurity,doubt or worry. If we want to be precise than we can became very technical and use probability to make our choices. And some people do that they calculate every risk and options they think will happen and cross out the likely scenarios and then are able to make a choice. Sometimes we make decisions out of stressful situations. However to be better prepared for the outcome a good decision will require a careful though process. This is my experience which may or maynot work for you but at least it can give you some perspective on how yo...