Walked from the house three hours to visit Lowa village market and the walked back - a total of six hours. My phone said 13 km but I swear it must have been further than that.
My escorts - Peechee and Ku-uh
When we crossed from Liap to Lowa, we entered into the Lelemadih-Bupichupeu LLG area. Liap is in the Pomotu Ndrehet Kurti Andra LLG area of Manus so we literaly crossed one local government area into another. It wasnt a great market today but i got betelnuts, fish, mumu tapiok and some donuts. I say it wasnt great because it wasnt as busy as could be. Usually the place would be packed with people from Liap, Lowa, Mwaramuan, Lopahan, Drayau, Ahus and Powat
The village soccer field is next to the market. Wanpla selfie pastaim!
Not too many people came today but I still got my betelnuts!
Then strolled to the edge of the village where there is a famous hole in a stone island. As you stand there you look eastwards towards Mwaramuan, Lopahan, Drayau and Powat villages respectively. People from these villages including Liap and Ahus Islanders congregate every Saturday here at the market.
One of the best things about this village are the clean 'streets' which cut through and across the whole village.
The seashore at the the village
Im trying to pose while someone interjects..lol
The streets! Thats me and papa at the back
The village is virtually at sea level and is also part of the swamp area. There are mangroves at the back of the village so there are definitely crabs and seashells around.
Just lying about in the mud at the village
Look at these shells!
One of the most significant structure is a stone just across the seashore looking towards Lopahan village on the east. This stone rises above the sea line and has a whole - a perfect circle - which may have been carved out long ago. Here is a picture of the stone.
The stone is furthest is the one that has a hole on it.
Anyway, that is my story today. Life does really go on....
MANUS is around 2,100 square kilometers in land area and amongst its vast open 220,00 square kilometer seas, lie many islands, some inhabited and others not. While some of these islands are large and can sustain multiple villagers like Lou, Rambutso, Pak and Baluan, others like Nyapio are so small no one would think people lived on them.
Nyapio island, more popularly known as Johnston Island, today, has 14 households and a population of just under 50 or so people who call this remote island their home. The island, on the south coast of Manus is part of Ward 6 of the Pobum local level government area. Nyapio is around a kilometer long, around 300 meters wide and has sparse vegetation. These Titan language speaking people do not have a trade store, a school or an aid post on the island. Their livelihood and major source of income is fishing. They fish from the sea and then sell their catch to villages along mainland Manus or to Lorengau for cash or exchange fish with the Lou islanders for fresh vegetables.
Not much grows on the island.
On the island, they have coconuts, banana, taro and very few sago trees but nothing much grows here as the island is just three to four metes above sea level. Even water is scarce on this island and when the seasonal trade winds become harsh, food from the sea becomes even harder to find making hunger an issue at times. The Nyapio sail on outrigger canoes to mainland Manus or the surrounding islands of M’buke, Lou or Baluan or sail to the nearest health service provider at Patu Health Centre on the mainland of Manus some two to four hours away.
One person I talked to explained that once, he had to take two children who were very sick most probably with malaria, with their mothers, and sail on his outrigger canoe all the way to Lorengau town. They began the journey in the middle of the night using the stars as their guide. All along the journey, the mothers kept keeping a cold press on the children’s bodies just to keep their fever at bay for that three-hour journey on the high open seas. They arrived in Lorengau, just as daylight broke out.
While their story seems sad and difficult, it is what makes them resilient in the face of constant hardship and continued difficulties. I usually write on my blog lopoki.com about community initiatives in Manus so I was pleasantly surprised when I was invited by the community in September to come see a small project they had started early this year.
You see, being resilient means that when everything seems to be going wrong or difficult, strong people emerge and stand up to provide solutions to the problems faced by their communities. The Nyapio people are resilient. They sat down and thought long and hard about how they could solve some of their community problems. They knew that the island would, in its simplest and mundane form, still provide the solution.
They decided to build a community-based resort of sorts that would provide a means of an income to support their livelihood on the island. They had this understanding that through such an enterprise, much more would come and eventually a school or an aid post would become viable on their little island.
In that way, they wouldn’t have to send their kids away to the mainland of Manus for months on end to gain basic education or sail the high open seas just to have access to life saving medication. The young elite of the village, who live in Port Moresby, supported this move and began by chipping in cash and kind. Around 10 young men on the island eventually built two bungalows – one completed – using traditional materials like wood, sago leaves, bamboo thatched walls, etc., while the other, still to complete, has iron roofing. They are also building a septic toilet and shower room too. They sourced the raw materials from mainland Manus and shipped the rest of the materials from Lorengau.
A community resort
In November, through my small not-for-profit non-governmental organisation called Lopoki Inc, I organised a three-day basic housekeeping training for 10 of the locals. The community resort fully funded the three-day training on their island. Lopoki worked in partnership with the Manus Provincial Government’s Commerce Division and the Manus Training Centre to carry out the training. The Division of Commerce through their business development officer Pius Kuweh and Manus Training Centre’s Tourism and Hospitality instructor Albert Pih were both at the island to conduct the sessions.
Pih focused his training on three main areas of housekeeping (storeroom and stock control), accommodation and guest laundry, and room servicing. The training provided basic housekeeping skills to the participants and increased their knowledge and capacity to manage guests.
I can already see that the community has taken the initiative to build two semi-permanent buildings housing four rooms for around eight guests when they visit the community based resort.
The Nyapio islanders have proven that they want to bring change to their community and so they worked with Lopoki Inc. to ensure this training occurred.
The very fact that they do not have an aid post or even an elementary school speaks volumes about the suffering that they have had to go through all these years. It is inspiring to see the islanders stand on their own two feet and build something that will sustain them as a community.
If you want to visit Nyapio Island Getaway Resort, please visit the website: https://nyapioislandgetawayresort.com for more information.
You won’t regret your decision to visit. If you do visit, please commit yourself to give something back to the island with a programme or session while you are there through your passion, education and work so that greater cultural learning is mutual.
One of the best things about living in the village is the fresh earth food - kaukau, cassava, banana and taro. It feels good when you eat from the earth you have cleared and tilled.
Just having a cup before the sun goes down.
Even having a wash in the river beside the house is refreshing
Yes village living can be a healthy option as it provides an environment for us to connect with out culture, traditional practises and extended families. But it must be noted that living in rural and remote part of Papua New Guinea can be unpleasant experience if you are sick or need medical attention. This is because many vital government services are lacking in these rural areas. Yes we own the land and do whatever we want on the land but we cannot fully utilise our land and live on it if the government of the day cannot uphold and sustain basic government services like schools, clinics, roads and bridges.
A few days ago when travelling on the south coast of Manus, we came past Pamachau. It is a very small island just a few hundered meters or so off the mainland of Manus. The space between this island and the mainland, where Waratalai and Lawes are, creates a narrow waterway where boats travel through when the high seas are rough. Many people who travel on the south coast come past this group of four or five houses which are literally on stilts due to rising sea waters.
The fascinating thing about this picture is that I first saw this white house on a person's laptop at DWU in Madang so many years ago. He had this picture of the house on his laptop's desktop. I had asked this person why he had this as his desktop picture and he would proudly tell of this spot here. Of course it was my late colleague Mr. Kichawen Chakumai and this was his house. He was one of PNG's senior and qualified health administrators serving in the early government health's 'one system' just after PNG's Independence, then the two health systems in the 1995 Organic Law on Provincial & Local Level Government era and then the new 'wan system tasol' in the 2007 Provincial Health Authority era (health managers know what Im talking about...). He was also a Health Extension Officer who became an academic at DWU and taught many HEOs and Health Administrators/Managers that came through DWU.
My eyes watered as i stood on the boat in the mid morning sun and saw this white house. The last time I saw him alive was when I helped carry him from his house to the car to go to Modilon Hospital some three years ago. I wished that when i finally travelled this way, I would have stopped the boat to come meet you and hug you under your white house. Sometimes we miss people not because they are gone and are no more in our presence but we miss them more because of the 'what ifs' and the 'what could have beens'.
A few days ago when travelling on the south coast of Manus, we came past Pamachau. It is a very small island just a few hundered meters or so off the mainland of Manus. The space between this island and the mainland, where Waratalai and Lawes are, creates a narrow waterway where boats travel through when the high seas are rough. Many people who travel on the south coast come past this group of four or five houses which are literally on stilts due to rising sea waters.
The fascinating thing about this picture is that I first saw this white house on a person's laptop at DWU in Madang so many years ago. He had this picture of the house on his laptop's desktop. I had asked this person why he had this as his desktop picture and he would proudly tell of this spot here. Of course it was my late colleague Mr. Kichawen Chakumai and this was his house. He was one of PNG's senior and qualified health administrators serving in the early government health's 'one system' just after PNG's Independence, then the two health systems in the 1995 Organic Law on Provincial & Local Level Government era and then the new 'wan system tasol' in the 2007 Provincial Health Authority era (health managers know what Im talking about...). He was also a Health Extension Officer who became an academic at DWU and taught many HEOs and Health Administrators/Managers that came through DWU.
My eyes watered as i stood on the boat in the mid morning sun and saw this white house. The last time I saw him alive was when I helped carry him from his house to the car to go to Modilon Hospital some three years ago. I wished that when i finally travelled this way, I would have stopped the boat to come meet you and hug you under your white house. Sometimes we miss people not because they are gone and are no more in our presence but we miss them more because of the 'what ifs' and the 'what could have beens'.
