Bro. Ambassador Taylor Stays on the Move in the South Pacific

Bro. Amb. Taylor greets villagers on his trip to New Ireland Province

Bro. Ambassador Teddy Taylor, a past Basileus of Gamma Pi, has been gone for more than two years on an important Foreign Service assignment to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In his third year in the prestigious job, he continues to plow new ground in leading the area diplomatic corps in a part of the world that is somewhat unsettled.

Bro. Taylor's influence was recently on display as he traveled throughout the region on a weeklong tour for several public events in behalf of the U.S. State Department. The locale was New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea, the first such tour of this province by a U.S.diplomat in quite a while.


Heading to a school dedication on the island of Tanga

During the tour, Bro. Taylor visited the open pit Gold Mine in Lihir, met with the Chamber of Commerce, Provincial Government Officicals, Women Leaders, and dedicated two schools. In the photo at right, Bro. Ambassador Taylor and his junior officer are being taken ashore in a rain storm for the school dedication on the island of Tanga, which is part of the province.

 "New Ireland is one of the Islands we (the U.S.) liberated from the Japanese during WWII. The provincal goverment has been a leader in transparent governance, they were the first province to offer free public education through grade 12 and they have just begun a very modest pension program for senior citizens,"said Brother Ambassador Taylor.

 "The governor, sir Julius Chan is one of the founding fathers of the republic of Papua New Guinea and donated some of his family land to the province to build one of the schools."

Bro. Taylor is returning to Washington for meetings this month. Send him an e-mail.


Bro. Amb. Taylor addresses the crowd



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