Tari family farewells German friend

 By ANDREW ALPHONSE in TARI

ALL good things come to an end as the old adage goes. It was no different for a Tari family last Saturday when they threw a small barbecue to bid farewell to their German friend Joerg Oliver Adams. Affectionately known as Mangi Tari to children who live near the Tari hospital and Kupari wards in Tari town, Oliver works as anesthesiologist for the international medical organisation Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) or Doctors without Borders at Tari hospital in Hela. 

Like many other Huli children, 12-year-old Firnimore Kipili from Kupari met Oliver during her after-school and weekend visits to her mother who  works for the MSF in Tari. 

Kipili and Oliver became good friends and the pair would chat, share moments of fun and jokes each time they crossed paths. 

Kipili is a Grade 7 student at the local St Francis of Assisi Kuluanda Primary School. 

Recently, Kipili was among 14 others who was baptised and received her first Holy Communion at the Kupari Catholic Mission in Tari. 

She also invited Oliver to witness her big day.  

However, the sad news came when Oliver told Kipili he was going to finish after six months of his engagement with the MSF surgical, emergency and operating theatre at the hospital.  

Kipili decided to ask her parents to prepare a barbecue for Oliver at their Waipe home in Kupari.

A few of Oliver’s close MSF friends and other Tari youths also turned up. 

Kipili’s parents thanked Oliver and MSF for their presence in Tari. 

Many lives were saved by Oliver and MSF since their establishment in Tari in 2009.

 “We thank you Oliver and the MSF team in Tari for your many years of service to the Hela people on behalf the Hela provincial government and Governor Anderson Agiru, the 300,000-plus people of Hela and all patients who received life-saving surgeries and treatments at MSF’s Tari hospital,”  Kipili said.

Kipili also presented Oliver a PNG Kumul jumper and traditional Huli bilum. 

Oliver told the gathering that working and serving in Tari in the last six months had been a ‘blessing for him personally’ and as much as possible, he would like to come back and serve in Tari and Hela should an opportunity arise. 

Oliver will be in Port Moresby for three days before he heads home to Frankfurt in Germany for a well deserved break.