As the 2011 internship work is coming to a close, the HIT team is beginning to look toward next years agenda. We are currently fine tuning our intern selection process as well as hashing out details on 5 potential HIT trips:
1. Papua New Guinea: 2012's PNG trip would be a continuation of this years engagement in New Ireland. It could potentially include a return trip to Ngawalus as well as expansion into surrounding villages. We are also looking into the possibility of stretching the HIT program into other provinces of PNG.
After hours and hours of flying, all of the interns have safely returned to their respective homes. This year was an extremely effective building year for the Heritable Innovation Trust. We were able to set up a foundation for internship programs for future groups with the Ngavalus community in New Ireland. Prior to our departure, we were able to connect with Clement Kanau, a politician, to set up plans for internship groups to be part of the development of model villages he is organizing just north of the Port Moresby airport.
The preparations are set, orientation starts in a couple of days, and our work (and play) begins this Friday! Katie has been working extremely hard in the office this past week while I was spending some last-minute time with my family. I'll be staying at her house through orientation, which usually equates a full immersion into this project. I can't wait! This week will be spent getting into the HIT/M-CAM mindset before we embark on our first of many flights Friday afternoon.
We are now down to 4 days before orientation starts. All of the materials and forms have been checked and double checked. We have finally figured out what we are hoping will be a functional international cell phone but that will just add another level of suspense to the trip as we will only know if it works once we are out of the country. Theresa sent us a tentative schedule of our stay in PNG and it is looking like we will be kept very busy. The interns journal arrived earlier this week.
We received word from Tyler Gage, our contact in Ecuador, that their heritable knowledge intern has finally arrived. Chris Jarrett will be working closely with the M-CAM team to document the heritable knowledge of the people who are associated with Runa. We are currently making arrangements to set up a skype call with Chris to fill him in on the documentation process and answer any questions he may have. Both Runa and M-CAM are very excited to finally be moving forward in the development of our second Trust document.
We have received another update from our interns. This will be their last until we leave for Papua New Guinea in 12 days!
Rod Jackson:
I haven’t had too much time to think about the trip during my exams, but every time I do, I ‘m starting to get more nervous and excited. It was difficult getting the malarone medicine but I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and I think he will write me a prescription. I have increased my workouts, but I don’t know how physically demanding this trip will be which kind of worries. I think I should be okay though.
Hey everyone!
We are down to 15 days until departure. All of the orientation presentations are finally finished and all the necessary forms are drawn up. Along with the use of scenarios, we are working on contacting White Wolf, a member of the Monacan tribe of Virginia, to include a real-world practice scenario for the interns.
In April of 2010, the Inter Press Service News Agency published an article titled "Oil Pipeline and Uncontacted Tribes." According to the author, Milagros Salazar, Preneco has recently acquired exploration and production rights to the northernmost region of Peru, Loreto. This Franco-British oil company planned to construct a 200 kilometer oil pipeline that would connect to an existing line extending all the way to the Pacific Coast. However, Preneco has run into problems in this development. The line would run through the ancestral territories of three nomadic Peruvian tribes living in vol
