Delpine’s Six Weeks at Bogia of Madang

Leonard Fong Roka & Delpine Piruke

She left Madang Teachers College (MTC) on the 27 of July and headed north to Madang’s last district, Bogia, to do her six weeks of primary school teaching practical. In isolation she was from Bougainville and Madang town but there was a world before her.

Delpine Piruke

Delpine and her group of 9 other trainee teachers took off on a Saturday and were on the road for 6 solid hours keeping me connected every minute through texts on her mobile phone from the fully packed transport she was on.

Six stressful hours we were on the road from MTC. I was worried living Leonard, my husband-to-be behind; that was a pain I was with all through the journey. To keep that under control, I ordered my fiancée to keep his phone on so I feel peace when my texts were received.

This did work; for if not of that I could have left that practical and be back here in MTC so I can regularly visit my hubby and spent time with him.

For Delpine, as she admits it, the journey was through an unknown world of Madang and not her Buin in South Bougainville. She says a significant number of the Madang people by the North Coast Highway live a traditional life; nothing is new or modern, as she saw it from the MTC hired transport as they passed each village.

And I could claim that Madang people are quite hesitant to pursue change through development and that is so obvious to from the fact that Asians and other PNG people, especially the highlanders and the Sepik are now in control of the Madang Township.

Nearly all villages by the roads are built of traditional materials. She says she saw domesticated animals in the midst of the village just like Bougainville’s Buka communities; ruggedly dressed children waved at them often making her feeling Bougainville open to her.

We arrived at 7 o’clock at Munumbo, the primary school I was to be doing my practical teaching in the Bogia District of Madang Province. But 7 o’clock is pitch-dark in Bougainville but not here in Madang; maybe Bougainville time is an hour ahead of Madang.

But the Munumbo community was real good people and friendly but more so in terms of money they were a bit poor. Unlike Bougainville, there was a clear lack of retail outlets in the village, so their shopping destination was Madang town that was 6 or 7 hours to the south.

And as I did told Leonard earlier, upon the advice of other travellers, there was no Digicel mobile coverage or the coverage was weak that phone calls or texting with him would be problematic; to get proper connection there were few hotspots to access the network but you have to stand or hold your phone in a right position.

Monday we begin work. I was given the duty of teaching Grade 7s because others were a bit hesitant to get the higher graders. And the problem was that the school lacked resources and materials both for us teachers and students. So we have to improvise; that is, we have to create mostly from little materials we have to impart something on the students. But the problem is that you would not know whether you are having the students gleaning anything at all. This really frustrated me.

Yes and Delpine so often went onto a spot in the house she and other female trainees were accommodated in to decant her frustrations on me, really a man without any connection to the teaching industry.

It was annoying for me, when the lecturers at MTC were arriving once in a week to assess us teaching and observe our planning of lessons yet they knew that Munumbo was really a forgotten school by the Madang provincial government or the national government as well.

Worst for me also, is the fact that some of these students I was taking were older than me. Back at home, in Bougainville I could accept this because we have missed out on education in the 10 year crisis but Madang has no excuse. There should be the right aged students but they were good students. 

Anywhere, she says that peer evaluations did help out. This is when every trainees came together to share their lesson planning and so on to each other for analysis.

All in all the experience was great for me to return back to Bougainville with and help my Bougainville students. I feel confident that I will deliver the best teaching service to my people especially the students in Panguna where I am moving with my fiancée this December.

So after the six solid weeks in the north coast of Madang Delpine returned back to MTC on the 7 of September.