LOST AND FOUND in WAPENAMANDA
By BIG PAT
Often in the far reaches of Papua New
Guinea you will be surprised to find a lonely 'makuri wantok’ among the locals.
Most end up on a lonely coral island,
coastal 'nambis', mountain valley or a faraway town by choice.
Others, well by hook or crook, you can't
beat love.
Work takes many away from their youth,
origins, from their loved ones, from their customs and cultures, their songs
and language.
In their new settings, they have to assimilate
and adapt to a new setting and begin a new life.
This is the story of one of those lost and
found Kerema bloods.
The Wapenamanda night was cold and quite close to
freezing. In my dreams I saw my son Mikes. He had a warm blanket in his hand.
But it was a baby blanket.
Next morning I found myself covered head to
toe in a warm blanket. Lofty had survived his first night in 'kol ples' (cold place) Wapenamanda.
Well the test was yet to come. A cold shiver me timbers shiver my soul freeze my balls shower had my knees knocking.
'Yakarum
kaimo soa hea lofeare'.
Voices on the road guided me to my cool next
discovery.
In Enga land besides Wapenamanda, there are
'mandas' everywhere. Sakaramanda, papa manda and mama manda and my favourite spot
Teremanda where the Tere Tigers hail from.
Wapenamanda is the electorate of local MP
Rimbink Pato, our country's Foreign Minister, and a man who is slowly
building the future of his people.
According to Pato, ‘manda’ refers to a
mountain and yes here, there, everywhere are plenty of mandas to climb.
And in the Wapena mountains I found a long lost Kerema wantok – Joe Sefe of the big Moveave village.
And sure enough, Joe Sefe looked up and saw
a lofty kerema tree and shed tears of joy.
Joe’s village of Moveave is at the mouth of
the big Taure - Lakekamu River.
Joe arrived in Wapenamanda 36 years ago as
a young man and has never left the beautiful blue mountains since 1984.
Joe, now happily joined to a local manda girl,
works in Wapenamanda district treasury office.
MP Pato says there are many others like Joe
in Enga. “We welcome them and make them feel at home. They are part of us.”
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