MEOOW MEOOW

 

The Old Housing Commission headquarters at Tokarara.
Picture by TOLE WIA Junior.

The Grand Old NHC in Port Moresby's Tokarara surburb.

A STRANGE CASE of A GUARD & TWO KITTENS

 

By CLAUDIA TALLY

Kaupa Tapio is a security guard at the old and abandoned National Housing Commission head office at Tokarara in Port Moresby. 

Kaupa’s daily routine, including the odd night shifts, is to keep an eye over the wellbeing of the aging building to ensure any unauthorized visitors, intruders and pests are kept well away from her precinct.

Last October, Kaupa befriended two kittens. They appeared with their mother still nursing and cuddling them as they quietly approached Kaupa one morning. Kaupa noticed that the kittens were still learning to get their paces together.

Without any fear or hesitation, the mother cat bravely shrugged off any thought of their safety, purely relying on her animal instinct that a total human stranger in Kaupa would be the perfect surrogate mother to tend her babies.

The mummy meeow meeow then disappeared into the red flowery gardens that neatly form the hedges of the abandoned car park.

Kaupa is originally from Kamtai village in Sinasina Yongomugl district in Chimbu's rugged Highlands of PNG.

As curious as he was, he warmly welcomed his two new friends and the kittens settled in well as if they have been together for a while. The two kittens would follow Kaupa around the huge yard of the old building.

He aptly named his new friends as “Housing and Commission.” Housing was identified with yellow streaks while Commission was normal grayish black.

Few weeks later, Housing and Commission were out on routine insect scavenging while Kaupa was doing his rounds. As the day drew to early evening, Housing and Commission failed to show up at their usual abode with Kaupa.

Kaupa became concerned. And concerns quickly turned into fear as the night drew in. Kaupa feared that he may not see his pets anymore, stolen or even worst, killed by other predators.

Guard Kaupa and one of the cats.

His anguish turned into heartbreak. Kaupa could not sleep that fateful night. Two days passed and still no sign of his pets. A week later, Housing and Commission popped up from nowhere with their mother.

Kaupa could hardly hide his feelings as he beamed with a big smile.  He was finally relieved of his fears and his face was overwhelmed with joy.

His smile was momentarily disturbed by the strange behavior of the cat mother. Kaupa noticed the kittens’ mother stood still and never walked with her two kittens towards the guard.

As Kaupa approach to receive them, the mother remained a distance away and allowed her two kittens fell into the waiting arms of their surrogate parent.

Feeling content, the mother slipped into the line of  flower beds and never to be seen again. Housing and Commission developed a strong bond with Kaupa while learning new things just as a man would teach new tricks to his dog.

The pair grew and developed a hunger to hunt huge container rats that had contributed to the demise of the Grand Old Housing Commission.

Money and resources were burnt to waste by the damages done by the marauding rodents that chewed up everything from important documents to telephone lines and data cables, office equipment wirings and the list of ruin goes into hundreds of thousands of kina.

Pest controls were even engaged to stem the tide. Nothing seems to work as the rats continued their devastation of the old lady.

One day, it all came to a stop when Kaupa’s own Housing and Commission started to move into the interior of the building to hunt and feed on these container rats.

The pair quickly developed an appetite for the huge rodents and as the weeks rolled by, the entire colony of rats was wiped out completely with some fleeing into the nearby container yard owned by a supermarket. The ruin brought about by the rodents over time finally came to an end.

Commission on patrol at the NHC in Port Moresby.

Finally, the old lady can take a sigh of relief and rest with ease from these marauding rodents. She is assured that Kaupa with the aid of Housing and Commission can provide her protection and company until the restoration to her former beauty commences within the first quarter of 2023.

Optimism for the restoration looks more promising than ever before with the work expected to commence within the first quarter of 2023.

Positive strides have been made under the management of Managing Director Henry Mokono (below)  and the watchful eyes of Minister Housing Dr Kobby Bomareo with the leadership of the Marape-Rosso government.

The approval and gazettal of the NPC board of the National Housing Corporation has finally come to pass. This is a groundbreaking initiative for the establishment of the Special Procurement Committee for NHC to procure all contracts under Public Investment Program funding above the K1mill to K5million threshold limit.

The committee comprises technical officers from NHC and membership from the central agencies and NPC will take place anytime to give them the powers to enforce the functions of the NPC Board. The advertisement and awarding of the winning bidder will follow suit after the formalities to swearing-in the procurement committee.

Relief for the NHC restoration is now truly on track to get the refurbishment work implemented immediately.

When the Grand Old Lady was first constructed in the 70s, the NHC head office was a standout architectural design to behold because it was the first government establishment to relocate to the suburbia from the traditional colonial choice for administrative headquarters of the newly declared Independent State of Papua and New Guinea at Konedobu.

Konedobu was the HQ of all government establishments during the formative years pre-independence. In the interim,  the NHC staff  are relocated to the New Horizon Building at ATS Road, 8 Mile.

A few days ago, after I visited them, tragedy struck Kaupa and his beloved pets.

Housing went for his usual scavenging mission and failed to return as the evening set in. Heartache overwhelmed Kaupa, and this time he feared for the worst that his pet may never return home.

Kaupa is assuming that some members of the neighborhood that drew admiration from Housing and Commission may have something to do with his missing pet.

Surely, Kaupa will suffer the heartbreak but the Grand Old Lady will have one less pair of eyes to keep her at check, at least for the time being.