In 1975, shortly before Papua New Guinea became an independent state, I began teaching a boy in a boarding school on Kayrira Island, north of Veuac on the north coast. The boys in the school were taken from 27 different tribes throughout the Eastern Sepik region and were all traditional enemies who would have killed each other in plain sight just a few years ago. It was a very exciting place to live and work, and I taught me that there is a lot of hope for a person’s efforts to overcome his past and improve the future.
I came as a CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas) volunteer, and as a prairie boy from Saskatchewan I was not ready for tropical life on the island, but I soon found out!
Kairiru is a small volcanic island, rising to 760 meters above the ocean, about 20 km from the coast of North Papua New Guinea. Located just one degree south of the equator, it was dominated by mountain. Malangis, in the ancient volcanic caldera, held a small crystal clear lake. The volcanic activity that raised Kayrira and its neighboring island of Mushu, still remains, manifests itself in the hot springs occurring in Victoria Bay in the western part of the island. Many sources, fed by an underground aquifer from the mainland, ran along the mountainside and made countless shady pools as they made their way to the ocean around the island.
This entire area is located on the southern edge of the “Lights of Fire” that surrounds the Pacific Ocean, and volcanic activity continues to be a major concern, along with regular lands and the accompanying tsunami. In fact, on July 17, 1998, an underwater earthquake occurred off the coast of Aitape, further west of Kayrir. The tsunami that engulfed the internal territory killed more than 1,600 people who did not know that the wave was on its way.
Many people do not understand that the main island of Papua New Guinea is the largest island in the world, if we consider Greenland as a continent. The western half of the island was annexed by the Indonesian government by the Indonesian government in 1963, and many UN members are still protesting this action.
This huge tropical ecosystem is home to more than a quarter of the world's languages, many of which have never been written or rewritten in any way. These fundamental differences in language made tribal wars even more inevitable and permanent. Often tribes that were just one valley apart spoke some other language, since English is different from Chinese.
During World War II, the Japanese completely occupied the island, especially in the Wewak and Madang regions. On the Wom Peninsula, there is a large memorial, just a few kilometers from the Veuac, which marks the place where the Japanese surrendered at the end of the war. Nearly a quarter of a million Japanese soldiers died in New Guinea, and many of them were imprisoned on Muchu Island, which was located between Qayrira and the mainland. Kayriru still carries some of the remnants of war in the rusty anti-aircraft guns on the eastern tip of the island, and many caves that have not yet been discovered by the Japanese have still been discovered.
St. Xavier High School was created by the marista brothers after the war and became an excellent example of what should be in any school. When I arrived, the school was masterfully led by a monk named Brother Patrick Howley, originally from Australia. He recently finished vacation to continue his studies, and returned to school with a new vision of what was needed.
Until that time, the school was administratively administered in an Australian manner, with very strict discipline and corporal punishment, which was freely applied to minor offenses. It all changed when Br. Pat created a school parliament that reflected the situation in the New Independent Country. Every aspect of life in the school was put under the direction of the student-run department, with the teachers participating only as observers at each meeting. Thus, a group of young people who were the first generation of their people attending school took control of a boarding school with 450 students and effectively managed all its affairs. For three years I worked there, there was never a time when a teacher’s representative on any committee had to use his veto to prevent the committee’s decision.
Space in schools in Papua New Guinea is limited throughout the world, and a thorough selection process has eliminated all but 10% of eligible students. This meant that the boys who got to high school, and then again to grade 9, were the best of the best! I studied for 33 years and have never met the best boys and have not worked with more diligent students. In fact, St. Xavier is fairly renamed PNG for producing Michael Somare, the country's twice-elected prime minister.
Since this was a school of the Catholic mission, the government paid only salaries to teachers, but did not contribute to the daily finances and work of the school. This means that we required each student to work at least 10 hours a week in the interests of the school, whether in gardens, maintenance, cooking, or a hundred other jobs that needed to be done in order to feed and train 450 boys in age from 11 to 20 years. The boys also had to attend 2 am, 5 nights a week, which helped them a lot, especially when we were forced to work in some class in order to save a place.
This whole atmosphere was combined with one idyllic motivation that any student would like. The character of monks, missionaries, local teachers, and other volunteers was such that we all worked together well with the boys.
Now, 30 years later, and all these young people have grown and raised their families. I am sure that if you ask any of them now what they remember about St. George, Xavier, they will say that this is the best time in their lives, and I would have to say the same thing, They studied mechanics, welding , woodworking, sex education, agriculture, first aid and commercial fishing, as well as the production of ferrocement, in addition to their regular research. They left the island, as well as rounded experienced young people, with practical knowledge of many aspects of the modern world and technology.
The problem is that many of these smart, well-educated people were forced to return to the village, unable to participate in the modern world, about which they had learned so much. For most people, returning home to one of their hometowns is not such a bad future, but in PNG there are practically no opportunities for employment or business creation in any village you can choose.
A great example is one of those guys with whom I have supported over the years. His name is Nick Artekain, and he is from Tarawai Island, which is located to the west of Kairira Island. He was raised in a village in which there was no permanent, no modern structures, no power, no running water, and yet he was one of the best academic achievements of the school. He excelled in Algebra, Geo-Triga, Calculus, and spoke English very well that he had an advantage in all other subjects.
His father was a master navigator who sailed to his side on all the islands up and down the coast and remembered well the Japanese occupation. After the war, Tarawai became part of the Eastern Sepik Province (later the region) under the jurisdiction of the Australians. It ended September 16, 1975, when I was present. People from Tarawaii went to the magnificent Sing-stump to celebrate, and I have a lot of vivid photos of this event. Although there was some misunderstanding about what Independence really meant, they were very happy to have their own country, headed by their own people.
My belief in the human race, when I understand that from this very diverse group of cultures one can imagine, a democratic government has been created that benefits them. When countries around the world are in turmoil over minor cultural or religious differences, Papua New Guinea continues to amaze me, even now, from afar. Of course, they had their own struggle to preserve their confederation and, most likely, it will continue to do so in the future, but I very much believe that they will remain together and strong. As one of the last groups of people on Earth, to resist the onslaught of the modern world, they received the advantage of the wisdom of our ancestors. This saved them from the merciless exploitation experienced elsewhere, but in the end they could turn out to be even worse, without help.
Nick will still return to Vecac, but the lack of opportunities cannot keep the same mind, and he took over leadership in several groups, trying to negotiate honest relationships with various foreign groups trying to use the natural resources of Papua New Guinea,
People like Nick need financial initiative to develop their best natural resources, their people and their environment. Ecotourism is a great opportunity in many other countries of the world, but this requires the creation of facilities to serve the tourist trade. In many parts of New Guinea, this will require large investments, since the conditions are rather rough and often isolated from the regular flow of tourist traffic. I wanted to help him for many years, but I could not think of anything for the meager salary of a teacher, even here in Canada.
A few weeks ago, I finally got to him by intermittent telephone. I talked to him using Skype over an internet call, and he was on the beach in Wewak, watching the waves roll on his mobile phone. It made me think that in this modern wireless world, that if we could communicate in this way, we must have a way to use the Internet to help him and his group.
A small survey showed me that there are many people around the world who are willing to lend small amounts of money to third world entrepreneurs, such as Nick, so that they can start a business, and no longer have to bow to foreign companies that come to harvest their fish and lumber, and then sell them to them at prices that they cannot afford.
I want to create an agreement between entrepreneurs, such as Nick in New Guinea, and private individuals who are willing to lend them a small amount of money at low interest rates. I know that other groups receive financial assistance in this way, and now I just need additional information and some kind of help in getting it.
There is already a small guesthouse on Kairira where travelers can stay while they explore the many natural beauties of the island. The coral reefs are teeming with breathtaking beauty, as they are all over the area, and the tropical jungles were so lush and diverse that no one got tired of walking around it, wondering what the next bend in the path might show. Brother William Borell, who lived for many years on Kayrir, is credited with identifying a number of new species of both plants and animals. He often visited our student classes all day long, traveling around the island, collecting unusual plants and animals that they welcomed to him to inspect him.
The days I spent on the reefs around the island were the most interesting for me, like an exploder who never saw the ocean until I brought the boat to Kairira in August 1975! I have a picture of Nick when he was 16 years old, and was holding a huge brown spotted eel of Moray, which he pierced that day. He kept me with fish and fish, and they were tied to a rope around his waist when an eel broke out of its hole in the reef to snatch one of the fish from its string.
As an islander, it was the greatest insult that one victim had to be stolen by another predator, and Nick immediately raised his house spear and shot at the eel when he went out to another light meal. We had to fight this for a long time before we were able to free him from his lair, but Nick’s proud face says more than the picture shows. The second attack of the eel almost forced him by the legs when he pushes the water above her. His sharp sharp teeth lowered his knee as he turned to shoot at his head. The picture does not show his bleeding leg, which pushes, as not too slowly to mention, but a little awkward. In the end, he was from the island of Tarawai.
I'm sorry I can't send a photo of Nick, so your readers will find out what I'm talking about a real person with amazing talents and intelligence. This is the last photo I have from him, and as a result, I can only visualize him at 16, although he now has several children and even some great children! When I called him last, he said that his hair was white now, but his skin was still black!
Who cares about png? ME!
