October 29, 2011

Leaving this place as a student...

Well its October now. The school year has ended. Well for the students that is. Many have already left the campus and many will continue to leave the campus in the coming days. Then the campus will be quiet - too quiet for my liking...hahahaha.

The bad thing about leaving DWU for holidays is that if you are in fourth year - it will be very hard to say goodbye to your friends. It will be painful alright. The other day I was walking past the boys dorm area and I could see a young men hug a group of his friends -his bags on their shoulders and the PMV bus waiting by ready to go. I could see that a few were wiping tears from their eyes and then the other one walked up to bus, waved goodbye and the bus took off.

This made me remember two incidents that I experienced just before i was to leave DWU at the end of the school year in 2003. Now I may see them in a funny light but back then, it was no laughing matter.

My room mate or what was commoly known then as 'roomsie' was a tall higherlander by the name of David Gera. He was the typical Highlander, physcially strong, intelligence and a down to earth person. He took PNG studies and I took CA. We were both in 4th year and we had been roomsies at Cottage A room 5 for two semesters and had shared loads of laughter and good times. On the day he was to leave, his 'hauslain' had come to pick him up. There were about five or six of them sitting in the back of the care. They had come in a Toyata Landcruiser. He had already packed the night before. I stepped out of the room and let him take his things to the car - an open back landcruizer. Once he had packed all his things, he quickly walked passed said 'goodby mate', put up the last things on the car and they drove off. That was all he said. I think its a thing among us the male species - we dont like to show our emtions especially the going away type ones.
Well I stood on the cottage steps and with the other residents of cottage A waved good bye and wished them well. We watched them drive off.
Along the way past the timber workshop and student mess, all of a sudden I heard some of the passengers sitting at the back of the cruizer fired some wild words loudly and shouted something in their language to the driver. The car stopped. Then I saw it reversed back to the cottage area. As I stood I saw my roomsie jump down from the back of the car and run towards us. He came and grabbed me in a bear hug and together we cried like somebody had died! We let the tears flow freely for a good 15 minutes until his father started blaring the horn of the car and telling us to break it up. It sounded funny as Iam writing this but back then it was one truly a sad moment! To this day, I have not seen my roomsie. I hear that he is with the Royal PNG Constabulary but have never actually seen him yet.


A few days later I was again involved in another incident that I also clearly remember to the day as I was leaving on the bus to go to to Lae. The 15 seater bus had picked me and some other boys at the cottage area. In the bus too was the then DWU SRC President David Kitchnoge. As we drove slowly past the timber workshop and student mess, I could sense that many of the boys were tearing up inside knowing they would never set foot on this place again. You know we often say that PNG is a small country but when you depart from school, you know in your heart of hearts that you will never see some of your brothers again. So the last time you see them, there are bound to be strong emtotions all around.

Anyway, we were feeling the hurt and David was by the window of the bus looked out and said in a sad way: 'Displa em last time blo mi na mi wari ya' and then as we came to the junior dorm and some of the boys came over to the bus to say goodbye. The bus driver seeing the boys approach the care, stopped. David, while sitting in the bus, shook their hands and tried to hugg them but it was when he saw this young West Papuan student -Nelson, he could not hold himself and burst into tears. The boys inside and outside the bus were also choking up. The realisation had hit home: We were never going to be students again and we were going to leave this place and friendships behind.

One of the boys shouted to the driver, as if angrily: "Draiva yu take off nau ya! Em ol mangi ya bai nonap stop sopos yu stap yet." and the driver kind of revved the car to let us know and then slowly pulled to the road and we left.


There will only one time that you will ever be a student and share such fun and excitment with your friends. Once you leave DWU, you may never come back to visit or even see the place again. Even if you did come back, there will be the possibility that no-one here will recognise you and also the physical setting will have changed.

So sapos em last taim blong yu long DWU, orait pinisim olgeta aiwara na pinis ok yu ken go!

October 06, 2011

A visit to Globe Manufacturing factory in Madang

Globe Manufacturing Limited is a part of the WR Carpenters (PNG) Group of Business which is one of PNG's largest employers.
I was very priviledged to have a look around the company's production line and packing section at Globe Manufacturing's factory in Madang. I went along with first year Communication Arts students and their lectuer to have a look at what they acturaly do to make thier well known products such as Sita Corned Beef, Globe Cooking Oil, Globe Curry Chicken and many other popular products.

The company's tobacco smoking zone for employees



Br. Micheal introduces to our tour guides..

Part of the CA1 group

Uncooked meat that is imported from Australia is grinded and then sent to a cooker


Globe Corned Beef tins ready for the production line


A stack of tins


Unused or faulty cooking oil plastics stored in this container


The plastic bottles being labelled on one side before they go in for filling


Tins already sealed, lablled and then prepared for packing


the tins again...







Earlier in September, Globe Manufauring took over the Coconut Oil Production Madang Limited (COPM).