From fire to a tower

By PAUL MINGA
NOLYE was unable to move and remained in bed, Kulumb was still nursing her wounds beside their bamboo woven bed and there was crying inside the pandanus thatched house from little three-year-old Helen.
Outside the house, villagers were shouting and threatening to burn the three family members down with the house.
They all received a fair share of beatings by the angry villagers over a couple of weeks on a daily basis since the burial of Geruye, a village chief who passed away a month ago. The villagers were accusing Nolye and his wife Kulumb of causing Geruye’s death with their sanguma (witchcraft).
Little Helen was at innocent but had also received some manhandling. She was thrown into a banana patch once, belted, ripped off her only colourful skirt and warm woolly jumper and had her little body rubbed with mud.
Hot iron rods , sticks, knives, buckets of hot water were on hand every day for several weeks and villagers all in one accord demanded Nolye and Kulumb to confess that they were responsible for Geruye’s death and to remove their accursed spirits as soon as possible or suffer continuously until they died.
Their gardens were destroyed, house ripped apart, pigs killed, coffee gardens chopped down and friends disowned them all because of one kind gesture by Nolye and Kulumb.
Geruye was the elder brother of Nolye and one evening Nolye called Geruye over to his house because Kulumb was preparing a dinner of beans and mareta (red pandanus), which he could eat before he went to his house. After he ate the food and went home, Geruye vomited a couple of times and felt ill. Three weeks later he died in the village.
A month had gone by after the torture but the wounds from her skin and face from hot burning iron and hot water kept Kulumb indoors. Whenever she felt like looking for food in her destroyed garden, she had to cover her face as she walked and never spoke to anyone or looked at their faces.
Nolye also remained indoors. Helen occasionally came out of the house to play with rusty tins or small stones.
Every time she was outside the house Nolye or Kulumb would call from the house advising her not to go out and play with the other children. This made Helen more miserable as she had forgotten all her pain and crying and was ready to go out and play with other children in the village.
Life seemed total darkness and misery for the three every time they woke up from bed. When they came out of the house, shame covered their skins like robes. Little Helen forgave but not Nolye and Kulumb.
Years passed and Helen was in a primary school but gossip behind the scenes made some children not like to play with Helen because they wanted to avoid children whose families had stained reputations such as links to witchcraft. Sometimes children would call her names such as anguma pikinini (child of a witch). That made Helen more miserable but a few good friends would help in comforting her and provided much needed company and relationship.
Among these few friends were Delma and Susan who was a pastor’s daughter and they were in a same grade. Her class teacher Mr Kaupa was also a good friend who would go close to where Helen was doing her class work and tap her shoulder and ask her if he could have a look at her exercise and explained things to her. And at times Kaupa joked to make everybody laugh and to forget all their personal problems.
Sometimes after school, Susan would take Helen to her house and her pastor father would pray for Helen and her family, encouraging her to continue to go to school regardless of difficulties, rejection and discrimination.
Eventually Helen finds herself in high school and secondary school, thanks to some assistance from the Government’s free education policy.
Helen’s wounded parents could not afford much but the little they had was spent on her education. During those years not many from her village who tortured her and her parents apologised or assisted her financially in her education.
It was Pastor Paul and his wife who continued to offer prayer support. Yambe and Kumye with their families would sometimes share food and visit their house.
Twenty-five years on and Helen finds herself graduating from PNG Unversity of Technology with a Bachelor degree in Land Management. Soon after graduation, Helen received a letter from a real estate consultancy company for a trainee position.
While on the job Helen got engaged to a career professional man and had a colourful wedding at a church in Port Moresby.
After a couple of years, her husband was promoted to an executive position with a major corporate organisation and Helen runs a real estate company from the 10th floor of a skyscraper in down town Port Moresby and travels regularly.
She brought her old parents to live with her in Port Moresby to look after the house when she travelled out.
Whenever she makes a courtesy visit to Ps Paul and his family and even Susan and Delma in the village, she also meets a very big group of happy relatives and friends who would like to see her and praise her highly for being their first child in the village and entire district to run a big company and travel the world.
It is quite unreal for Nolye because only 30 years earlier she and her parents were at the brink of collapsing under the torment of some of these villagers.
“Where were all those friends when I was with my mum and dad inside a dark house crying?” she wonders.
But she has forgiven everything and moved on in life.
Sometimes we have to remember that there is night before day or day before night in every individual’s life.

• Paul Minga is a freelance writer.