The Office

View from the balcony overlooking

the Win Haus and sea.

The lounge area in front of Simon's office.
View from Simon's office looking towards the
kitchen and dining room.
View of the ground floor auditorium which also features
a large stage and can seat 250 - 300 people. We often use this
area for large gatherings & conferences.

Now that I've proven that it is actually possible to have a social life in a quiet and sleepy town like Alotau, allow me to enlighten you on what I actually do for a living. As previously mentioned,I work for Education Milne Bay Ltd. a small company which specialises in training,community development and providing development services to various organisations within the country. We have a small team. Simon Ellis is our General Manager and he focuses on the training and educational aspects of the company while I help manage the Centre. We also have Guy Edwards-an Australian volunteer who works alongside Mercinta-Elaine Maras and Michelle Benua in managing the Wanigili Distance Education School. This is the first year of its operation and we have a total of 8 students (all doing either yr.9 or 10) doing correspondence with Dubbo School in NSW-Australia.We also have a wonderful group of kitchen,maintenance and housekeeping staff whom I'll introduce to you soon.

Wanigili Centre is our headquarters and is situated a few minutes from main town Alotau in the KBD area. It is a large and spacious property located along the seafront. On site we have 2 rustic bungalows,a guest house with 12 rooms and the main building, which features several office spaces, conference rooms which we regularly hire out in addition to a resource room with several computers (access to internet), printers and photocopying machines.

The building was designed by a local Milne Bay architect from Suau Is. and built by local builders.All the timber was sourced locally. It has an eco-style design with lots of open spaces and beautiful rosewood walls and large posts. I never really had an appreciation for timber until I came to Wanigili. On a sunny morning as the sun creeps up on the building, the walls and posts literally light up with a warm golden glow,it's quite breathtaking, as are the views from the balcony that surrounds the entire building.

See the photos for yourself.....I know, I pinch myself all the time and Thank God that I've finally found a job where I can meet interesting people,walk around barefoot, run home in 2 seconds to see my son, and be near the sea every single day.