Stories and Experiences
My hair-raising trip into the Mountains of Sogeri
With my eyes glued to tiny screen of my android Alcatel
mobile phone, I was lost to my co-travellers inside the 25-seater bu,s as it
laboured its way up the winding road to Sogeri. At some point along the what
appeared to be more of a mountain goat trail than a road, I tried looking down the side of my
window. My eyes were met by a dizzying chasm that dropped hundreds of metres straight
into the Rouna River somewhere beyond the tree line below. Surely there must be
only a few inches between the bus and the edge of the road. The thought of our
vehicle plunging into such an abominable gorge by some accident was enough to
turn my attention back to my Facebook pages.
I had gotten on bus 501A which was parked opposite the Gordons Police Station. At first I was a bit worried about traveling alone to Iarowari in a public transport but was relieved to find that the bus was going all the way to Sogeri that there was no need to change buses along such a precarious route. I had waited seated, sweating like a hog in the Port Moresby heat in a oven of a bus as it waited for more passengers to make the trip worthwhile. The driver mumbled something about the fuel prices and swore. I was so deeply engrossed in my conversations with friends on “FB” that I was rudely interrupted by the bus driver when the bus came to a halt at the front gate of Iarowari High School. “Okay Kawas, (an affectionate name which PNGeans called Bougainvilleans) is this the place you were suppose to get off?” he boomed in his deep highlands voice. “huhuh, what did you say? Oh yes that’s right, Iarowari right?” I intoned surveying the where he bus had stopped the bus. “Sure is” he replied. Quickly, I got out of the bus, went through the gates and up the stairs into the Administration building. A middle-age woman I assumed was a teacher was there to greet me as my eye came to rest on a “Headmaster” tab above a closed door to the left hand side of me. “Yes sir, may I help you sir?” She asked. “Oh yes of course I would like to see the headmaster if he is available", I replied pointing to the door with name tab. “I ‘m afraid he has gone out to attend a board meeting sir, the deputy as well”, she added. This is not right, I thought to myself but hardly concealing my look of disappointment from the lady in front of me who grinned irritatingly at me as I tried to muster some sort of a dignified reply. “Oh, I see, so they are both not available you say?” was all I could manage. “That is correct Sir” her reply hardly registered in my mind which was already in damage repair mode. “Ok my name is Chris Baria, I am here as a parent of two boys who were attending this school and have now been absent from school for more than the 30 days limit that students can be absent for without being excluded from classes.” She shook my hands and gave me her name which I can't recall, but for the purpose of this story I shall called her Mrs. Tau. "Mrs. Tau I am really concern that the children have missed out on their schooling due to no fault of their own and since I have come a long way from town, it would be better if I at least explained to you or any other member of the staff here, what the situation is. Then you could convey my message to the headmaster when he comes back from the meeting." |
She beckoned me into a staff room which was an large open room filled with tables and chairs for teachers to use as the base from which they discharged their teaching duties.
Once inside the room she grabbed a pen and notepad from the drawer and sat down and at a table and I sat opposite her. "As I was saying, Mrs Tau, the boys are not in school because they fear for their lives after being are being threatened", I continued on while she scribbled on the pad with a tell me more look about her. I explained to her that some grade 10 students from Iarowari who were celebrating their completion of final exams had gone to Tubusereia where my boys come from. During a drunken brawl the students were beaten up by the village boys and sent packing. In retaliation the students had issued threats that they would take revenge on Tubuseria students attending Iarowari High School. That is why the boys were scared to come back to school. I also told her that the boys had not reported the incident because they told not to and if they did they would be dealt with for that too. After giving her time to finish writing down what I had said, I went on to explain that I would have like to see the head master to discuss remedial action for the situation my boys were in. "I understand very well your concern as a parent and I am afraid no one had told us all this", she began. "I will definitely tell the headmaster what you have just told me. However, it would be better if you talked to him yourself to see what can be done for the boys next year." She gave me the contact phone number for the Headmaster and told me it would be best I called him on the phone to save me the trip again to the school. Too right, I thought to myself, I am not coming up that horrid road again even if I had hundred children attending Iarowari High School. After thanking Mrs. Tau I walked out of the staff room and went outside the school gates to wait for the bus at the same spot I had disembarked earlier. What they say about going down being worse than coming up is true. I decided not to go back to surfing the net on my phone out of fear of being caught unaware if something happened. I had chosen the seat nearest to the doorway. If anything happened I would flung myself out the door before the bus ran out of control. On straight stretch of slope down the bus picked up speed and my heart raced to my mouth then the air brakes cut in at a bend. I shot a glance at the driver whose face was partly hidden to see if I could detect any "psycho" looks in his face so that I might consider telling him to stop so I get off and walk on foot past the those bits of the road which scared me. I relieved to see that he was an elderly man with who looked to be well concentrate on his task of maneuvering the 25-seater around he bends and sloops down the narrow road towards laloki plains. After enduring a 20-minute roller-coaster ride out of the Sogeri mountains we finally reach the flat land. My energy sapped by all that fear and adrenalin drain, I went to sleep until I was woken up again when the bus reached Gordons bus stop. |