Six-hour trip to attend camporee

By GLORIA BAUAI
EIGHT-year-old Nixon Dinga is one of 23 Adventist youths who braved an almost six-hour long dinghy ride along the Sepik River at night to attend a camporee in Morobe’s Markham.
Nixon, the youngest in the group of mostly 10 to 15-year-olds from Angoram, had joined his mother and two elder siblings on this risky, yet adventurous journey.
The group, according to Pastor Malcolm Nenai, had opted for the cheaper option to take the “backroad”, as referred to by locals, through Madang and into Morobe for the Adventist PNG Union Mission Pathfinder Camporee currently underway in Markham.
“We left Angoram at 11pm on Monday, convoying down the river in three boats – 65 horse power (hp), 75hp, 80hp (double 40hps),” he said.
“Locals say the river mouth is rough at night so our best plan was to wait at Watam village; but first, we had to get in the water at night to clear the logs and debris that blocked the river passage which we would take.
“We pushed our boats, manually maneuvering by hand to a clearing, and continued through the inlets out to Watam at around 4am on Tuesday; there we lit a big fire and waited until we saw the sun rising behind Manam Island before we continued our journey across the open sea to Awar in Madang.”
For Minister Glen Timil who also accompanied the group with his pet crocodile and an ostrich, it was a scary experience.
“Because I caught malaria and pneumonia during the trip and almost lost my life,” he said.
“We travelled in the rain and wind but I kept a positive mind that God will bring my pathfinders to the campsite safely.”
Angoram is one of 16 districts under the Sepik Mission, covering East and West Sepik combined.
Also from the West, a group of 43 East Coast Suthern Island pathfinders took the similar route down the Sepik River, departing Wewak in a convoy of four boats around 8am on Tuesday and arriving in Bogia at 11pm, under the guidance of club coordinator Malachi Alison.
“Boat ride was our plan B after ship fares were suddenly increased at the last minute,” he said.
Daphne Urambo, Vanimo District coordinator said the sudden increase in ship fares had disadvantaged hundreds of their pathfinders planning to attend the camporee.
She said they had registered an initial 130-plus members for the camporee earlier this year when the ship fares were set at K360; unfortunately, only about 50 from the West who could afford a return fare of K972 by ship or K2,600 (return) by air attended.
“Despite the struggles for our children to come here, God has been good to us; this camp is a good exposure to motivate them spiritually and in their education,” she said.
From the nine local missions attending with more than 6,000 pathfinders and leaders, Sepik Mission confirmed about 400 delegates; Central Papua Conference alone had more than 2,000 delegates.