A little lie saves a space in college

LIFESTYLE

Good friends shape future MP’s life

By PAUL MINGA
HOME was home.
Wake Goi returned to Gope and spent time with his people and doing what he usually did in past years. He joined his mates from community school days and other village boys, whiling time in the village or going for outings in and around their childhood favourite dwelling places. He was so caught up with such activities and forgot about what was in stock for him in the following year.
One time, in February 1986, Wake and another village boy named Topo decided to venture into an income generating activity. They made plans to pick coffee cherries from their family gardens and sell them to buyers. Then they could use their gains to participate in a card game or to buy something for themselves, items such as biscuits or delicious fried wheat.
They then they took an empty bag each and went off to pick red cherries from the coffee gardens. After a few hours of picking, Wake and Topo then took a walk of several kilometres down to Wara Mants, a riverside market, each with a bag of cherries. Since Wake’s family’s garden was small, his bag weighed only about 10kg or so. But Topo’s bag looked much bigger and heavier because his family had a bigger coffee block. Despite the differences, the boys were happy and eager to use a fraction of their gains to buy something for lunch and to use the rest to try their luck at a card game.
Topo got about K14 for his bag and Wake got K6 when they sold their cherries. Topo was excited and he spent about K4 for their lunch as they wandered about the market and checked on what was available.
After a few hours at the market, the two boys went down to the banks of Mants River to cook up another plan. Their conversation then was about a plan on what they would do to start a card game at the gambling place. They made plans on what tactics and signals they would be using to enable each other to win or prevent the opposing players from winning.
They planned to enter a game as a team where one would help the other win. After sorting their plans, they went back to the market and called for a new card game. After a few minutes of campaigning and ushering by Wake and his friend, a new card game started.
During those days back in the 1980s, two types of card games were usually played by locals at Wake’s village to win bets. The games were ‘last card’ and ‘three leaves’. Wake and Topo started a last card, a four-player game. It was around 1pm and the first game got underway for Wake and the other players. They placed their bet of 10t each for the first game. The first game was won by someone else and not the two boys. The same happened in the second game. After two rounds of game, the betting amount of 10t was increased to 50t for each player. Fortunately, Wake won the third game and also the fourth game.

The breaking of interesting news
As the fifth game got underway, the sound of a vehicle was heard as it moved towards Wara Mants market. All the players in the card game, including Wake, were focused on their card game and were not disturbed by the vehicle. As the vehicle came to a stop at the market, Kerge, a friend of Wake’s, jumped off. He was a messenger. He had come all the way from Waghi with some really good news for Wake.
Kerge asked those at the market if Wake was anywhere close by.
For someone who had come from faraway Waghi down to Jimi with a message, it could mean it was either very good or very bad news.
Those who were at the market were anxious too. What was that news for Wake? So, they called out for Wake to come forward and see the messenger. Some of the people shouted, calling Wake’s name while others observing the card game told him to stop what he was doing. His mind though was on the game and he did not bother to get up and go out and meet Kerge.
As soon as the card game was over, Wake rose from where he was seated and walked over to see who it was. He noticed that the messenger was his friend, Kerge. He had stayed with him and his family at their home at Kapalku, in Waghi.
The Kapalku man was a good friend, a man with a good heart, and was bringing good news down to Jimi. The news was that Wake’s choice for nursing studies at Kudjip Nursing College had got the green light. The good news wouldn’t have reached Wake in his remote village had it not been for the kindness of two generous persons – the man who acted as the messenger and a girl working at Kudjip Nazerene Hospital.
As things turned out, Wake was reserve student for the Kudjip college. Even though he was not selected for his first choice on his application form, he was placed on the reserve list.
That was the news that would again take Wake out of his remote village to learn more about the world that was slowly entering their highlands communities. The news was surprising but it was positive. It was good news.

Reserve student
When the 1987 academic year started at Kudjip Nursing College a student from East Sepik who was offered a space did not show up for registration and after the college had waited for a few weeks. Since class had already started, the college administration could not wait any longer for the Sepik student, so they tried sending word out to Wake, the applicant who on the reserve list.
The college administration then had put up a notice for the whereabouts of a local boy by the name of Wake Goi. Fortunately, a young woman from Kapalku named Susan, a nursing staff at Kudjip Hospital, knew Wake. She then told the college administration that she knew where Wake was and she would bring the message to him. The college principal gave the okay and sent Susan over to deliver the message to Wake. When Susan arrived at Kapalku, she asked the people there if Wake was around, now knowing that he was faraway in Jimi, his place of birth and real home.
The good news brought by Susan to Wake’s relatives at Kapalku was a surprise and the man whom Wake had stayed with made up a clever trick. He told the girl: ‘Susan, you are so kind in bringing over this wonderful good news for Wake and us. We will pass on this pleasing news to him this afternoon when he comes home. We assure you and the principal that he will get to the college by tomorrow.’
Since Susan had left her job and had come home to deliver the message, she had to hurry back. She had done her part. Wake’s relative though had given the impression that Wake was somewhere near – out in the garden or down by the river.
If Wake’s friend had said that Wake was away in Jimi, Susan would have brought back bad news to the college administration and they could have done something else, possibly offering that place to someone else.
After Susan left, Kerge prepared for a trip by PMV to Jimi the next day to deliver the news as well as pick up Wake. He took out all his trade store savings in the night and hired a Datsun vehicle for the trip to Jimi the next day.
Early in the morning the next day, Kerge and the driver of the hired vehicle made their trip of more than 90 kilometres to Jimi. Kerge knew the final destination of their trip and directed the driver until they reached the roadside market at Wara Mants, the popular meeting place for people there. They met Wake at the market at around 2pm.
Wake who was in a long tracksuit, rugby boots and a shirt was rushed to hop on the Datsun vehicle for the trip up to Waghi and to be enrolled for studies at Kudjip. Wake was hesitant at first, not expecting such news and also was not prepared at all. To make matters worse, he was not in decent clothes. But Kerge advised him that this is something urgent so they must act promptly to ensure he gets the chance that was offered him by the Kudjip college.
Eventually convinced by Kerge, Wake in his old tracksuit, rugby boots and sporting a recently shaved bald head, jumped on the vehicle and they left Jimi for Kudjip. The ride was long and bumpy due to the poor road condition, but they finally arrived at Kudjip at about 8pm. As classes had already started a week before, every move demanded urgency.

Enrolling as a college student
Upon arriving at the college, he was taken straight to the office of the college administrator, an American lady named Sister Eve. She was the principal and a senior lecturer then. When Wake was taken to Sr Eve’s office and viewed under the electricity light, Wake knew he was anything but pleasant to look at as he was in dirty clothes.
Standing before the principal, she looked straight into Wake’s eyes and asked: ‘You are Wake Goi, is that correct?’ Wake said yes, feeling anything but comfortable. Then she asked other questions, almost like interrogating him. One thing that Wake remembers of that first meeting was that she was not friendly. She looked him up and down intensely, and the look caused Wake to shake with fear.
Wake knew he looked so different from someone who was supposed to be a new student, one who was ready for class the following day. He was frightened but he was not going to run after travelling for 90km. He was here to stay even if he was to be penalised for looking like a street bum.

• From the yet to be published biogra phy of Wake Goi