Yesterday the phone rang and a stranger's voice wanted to know, "Are you Peter Goerman?" Expecting another nasty marketing call, I cageyly asked, "Who wants to know?" The stranger's voice replied, "My name is David Bretherton. The former District Commissioner for Bougainville, Bill Brown, gave me your number. I worked with Bill on Bougainville and now live at nearby Moruya Heads, so perhaps we could meet and talk about old times."
Which is what we did: we talked and talked and then we talked some more when we met for lunch today at the Moruya Bowling Club. I took along my Papua New Guinea desk flag so that he would recognise us, and surprised him with a copy of his Sydney Airport arrival card from 1968 when he had already been in New Guinea for more than ten years.
At the end of a long lunch of roast pork, followed by desert and drinks - the dining room closed at 2 o'clock and we were the last to leave - we followed him out to his HAUS KIAP to put right some more wrongs in the world, and to promise to meet up again soon for more of the same.
Until next time. Lukim yu bihain, David!
