Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Description: In 2009 Year 12 student, Jake Stewart, was given an opportunity to go to PNG to assit with building projects. He reflects on his experience.
Author: Jake Stewart
I don't know how big a role God had in putting me on that plane to While on board, I finally had the peace I needed to work out what I was doing as I stared through the foggy glass searching for an explanation. I was flying to a foreign country, a place which I had only recently learnt to spell, without some deep, philosophical explanation for my journey. All I had were 16 of my peers beside me. And then it struck me. These 16 guys were all I had to keep me safe, sane and entertained for the next three weeks. That feeling was something new to me and I think that is why I was there. To stand as part of a group of people to do something – to help others. We reached Mainohana while it was enjoying the last quiet days of the school holidays. The endless stretch of green lay sprawled beneath the school buildings. Classrooms, dormitories, a bakery, the cafeteria, and finally, the assembly hall, a building capable of holding all of the 600 students, was in desperate need of repair. This was our first project. Our second was to construct a new house for staff in the remote area that is Mainohana. We rose early. At times swimming through the humidity, we painted, hammered and drilled to the tune of conversations. The mix of high school musicians, athletes, artists and academics worked with a synchronization that no other arena would ever probably see. After a week and a half of work, we were introduced to a number of students. They each came from villages ranging from ten to two-hundred kilometers away, a journey they would make each time they come to school. For three days, we were to live with them and their families – to truly understand the Papua New Guinean culture. After three hours in the back of a truck next to a caged pig and a dead wallaby, I arrived in Nabua. A coastal village filled with the kindest, calmest, most talkative people I have ever met, of whose contentment, openness and simplicity I will forever be envious. They welcomed me into their lives and homes with a warmth and compassion I had never before experienced. We returned to Mainohana, met with the near-finished buildings we had been constructing. The time away had been rejuvenating, and the fuel of nostalgic conversation seemed to help us work. The days flicked by and just when we had grown accustomed to reeking of sawdust and turpentine, our work was done. The school gathered in the assembly hall, warned not to touch the freshly painted walls, and looked on as seventeen boys sat on stage, proud and touched by the gratitude of the amazing audience. The journey home was a much more pleasant one than that which had brought me to We had made a difference. And with a smile on my face, a fuller heart and an exhausted head resting on my shoulder, I left Grateful, and changed forever.