Anita's inseparable love for Karkar

Coconut and cocoa plantations on Karkar Island. Picture by TONY DIBUL.

By PAUL MINGA
LOVE has its own gravy. It has its own spices.
When you add the appetizer, you’ll truly go the long distance in search of true love.
In this case, the Barike Bands late John Wong’s love hit song, ‘oh dear Anita’ can be the main course in our story here.

This is how the sago dish all began. Anita came from Kikori in Gulf Province to complete her education in Goroka, Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Before she got there, she was already in contact with a lonely boy from Karkar Island in Madang. The love bug bit them and despite the distance, they ended up eloping after Anita completed grade 12 at Kabiufa Adventist high school.

Kikori is a muddy, swampy outback on the southern coast of the Gulf of Papua. Goroka is inland in the highlands of PNG. So geographically, they were miles apart.
But in the matters of the heart, love is blind. You can separate someone physically and away from someone or from a place but not the inner love or passion of one's love for someone or something. As the saying goes love is unbreakable or inseparable.

Anita Bairai, now age 29, is from the Ubuo'o clan where her father belongs. Her mother is from the Buri clan in Kikori. Anita is the first of four daughters born to John Bairai and Joyce Beuri of Kikori.
Her education journey started at Kikori Primary School - where she did grade 4 - 8 from 2006 to 2010. She passed her grade 8 exam and successfully completed her high school studies at Kikori High School in 2012. She was then selected to attend Kabiufa Adventist Secondary School in Eastern Highlands for her Grade 11 and 12 studies.

Anita stayed focus on her dream and that was to complete her secondary studies and aim for something higher or to attend a college of choice. She knew she was away from her family and loved ones to fulfil a purpose and to make her parents happy and proud in the end.

(Anita in Port Moresby seeking job opportunities - Paul Minga picture)

But as far as romance is concerned - at times good things and plans can be put to rest by male or female students.

As for the Kikori lass, she was still in close contact with a man who was her boyfriend when Anita was doing grade 8 at Kikori Primary some years back. Pen friend days decades back for boy - girl relationship at times saw the boy and girl easily lose contact with each other or abandoned their relationship over a time.
But with the introduction of mobile communication these days there is constant or close contact in place for a boy - girl relationship.
This is what exactly happened to Anita and her boyfriend named Junior who is from Sangana village on the island of Karkar in Madang Province.

Since Junior's mother was from Gulf Province they somehow came to know each other through their first meeting in Kerema, capital of Gulf Province.

A love at first sight didn't fade easily as it gradually took roots for the 'K Town' girl and the boy from 'Fox Country' through their constant phone contact from time to time.

Certain undertakings took place was an indicative of the two being up to something. Junior left behind his job in Madang without any good reason and travelled the highway up to Goroka to be as near to Anita before her final Grade 12 exams.

Junior’s prolonged stay in 'Apo country' resulted in him being put off payroll. As in PNG typical slang it was love and romance at 'same speed' for Anita and Junior.
As soon as Anita walked out of the school ground after her final Grade 12 exams, she and Junior made their way off for Madang and onto Karkar island to start off their new life in Junior's village.

Karkar became her home and Junior's family were her own people. She forgot her beloved childhood Kikori and her real family.
But Anita's decision to start a new life in a distant KRX island may not have gone down well with her parents back home in Kikori. Her parents longing and hoping to see their daughter back in one piece prompted them into securing funds for her airline ticket.

Six months later, in July 2015, Anita received a phone call from her father that he had made a payment for an airline ticket for her travel back home. She was advised to pick up her ticket at Air Niugini's Goroka Office and travel to Port Moresby via Goroka.
That moment she was really in a totally confused state and don't know what to do. Whether to continue living with her sweetheart or to fly off and meet up with her true loved ones who missed her so much.

Anita said she had made the hardest decision of her lifetime at that instant. It would be better to make use of her parents hard earned money spent on school fees and her plane ticket than to let the airline ticket expire.

However, she (Anita) already conceived and was having her first child on the way. To make matters worse her boyfriend was off payroll and he had nothing on hand to give her to take along to reward her family.

As far as true love is concerned, Anita didn't want to leave behind her new home, her true love and friends at Sangana village. But it was the urging from her parents and the expensive plane ticket that turned Anita's heavy heart around in responding positively to her parents’ request.

Much tears shed by Anita and Junior's family at Sangana upon Anita's departure was an indication that family and friends didn't want Anita to leave behind their beautiful Karkar island and its white sandy beaches.
Anita was escorted out of Karkar with a heavy heart to Madang mainland and up the Highlands Highway to Goroka for her departure by air.

That was sometime in July, 2015 where she boarded an Air Niugini Fokker 100 aircraft and touched down at Jackson's Airport. Anita was picked up and escorted back to her beloved childhood stomping ground in Kikori where she stayed for the last 6 years since her departure from the island of Karkar.

Their love child that was conceived in Anita's womb when she was at Karkar is now at the age of 7 and is attending an elementary school in Kikori.

Anita said though she and her daughter are miles away and being separated from her first true love and her adopted island of Karkar for 6 long years, nothing will stop her from returning to KRX, the Island of No Return.
Anita also says she had to take her daughter along with her one day so she can get to know her real origin.

The heart of our Kikori lass still yearns for the island of love - Karkar.

One of the many meandering rivers in the Gulf Province that makes its way to the sea.