![]() Teacher Serving in Remotest Part of East Sepik Province My name is Fox Kipu & I am from Ialibu-Pangia District in Southern Highlands Province. As a Primary School Teacher, I want to share my experiences & challenges that I have encountered & continue to encounter in every single day while serving in one of the Primary School for six years & the school is located in one of the remotest part of East Spik Province. In 2013, after graduating from Balob Teachers College in Morobe Province, I first came & taught at Kero Primary School in Imbonggu District, Southern Highlands Province for 3 years. In the beginning of 2017, I got a call from one of my senior brother who had been teaching in East Sepik Province for some years. He called me & said, "Hello brother, I just want to let you know that I was posted to a new primary school as a Head Teacher there but the school is located in a very remote part where people find it very difficult to access basic services & because of this situation, teachers don't accept their posting to go & teach there. But I want you to come & we can join hands & see how we can change this school."
After getting this call, I was thinking. I am the only working in my family & all my entire families, friends & relatives are looking upon me & I can't just abandon them & go. And make it worse, my elder brother who had supported me to complete my studies in college was a disable man. He's unable to walk so I was the only hope for him. I also had the responsibility to pay school fees for the young ones in my family. My father died when I was a child but my mum still lives but she's very old. Leaving them behind with all these responsibilities was the hardest decision. One night, I slept & I prayed to God to show me what to do. I wake up in the morning, all my burden/doubts were gone. My heart & mind was opened & ready to go to East Sepik Province. In that morning, I called the Head Teacher and said, "I have made up my mind to come so please prepare the tickets for me, wife & my kid. It was in March 2017, I left my province & landed in East Sepik Province. To leave my entire family, especially my disable brother, & my mum who was about to die, was the hardest decision I have ever made. Make it worse, I came from a very poor family, & leaving the entire family behind & go wasn't the easiest decision but I did. After landed in East Sepik Province, we slept there & next day, we caught a bus at Wewak & travelled to Maprik (K20 mile). From Maprik to Dregigiya is quite a long distance. The PMV truck dropped us on the road side heading to the school that we wanted to go. Unfortunately, time was catching up so we looked for friends & spent a night there. Next day, early in the morning, we traveled the bush road. We crossed several rivers, climbed several mountains, crossed over several villages situated in certain geographical locations & at last around 8:30pm in the night we arrived in Wallam Primary School. My wife & I were really exhausted because of the distance that we have traveled. We went into the Head Teacher's house. While resting, I just made up my mind again to leave that place & come home because it was like my family & I, we lost somewhere in the thick jungle. My wife literally cried while resting. She is also a Teacher. She was on the Teaching Field for 5 years before I met her so she was a Senior Teacher. But during that night, she was arguing with me saying, why did you bring us to this place, she continued to cry. My baby daughter was sick that night and my heart didn't settle & I was thinking of leaving that place the next day. I did what I could to cool down my wife, we slept & wake up the next day. In the morning, my wife came up to me & said, "Fox, I understand want we feel about this place, but the school has got us a ticket, the surrounding community & the Head Teacher were very happy for our arrival so I suggest we stay for a year only & we return to our province." I agree with her, & we were planning to stay there for a year only. The Primary School during that time had 5 teachers, including me & my wife. The teachers around East Sepik Province don't feel like coming to that primary school because of geographical locations. The classrooms even today are build with bush materials. No permanent houses for the teaches. From the Primary School (Walam Primary), if you want to travel up to the main road, it will take you 7 to 8 hours. You will cross several terrains, sleepy mountains, several creeks & rivers, heading into a thick Jungles, & eventually you would reach a place where there is vehicle transportation. While traveling on that road, you would travel with more than 3 people to avoid wild animal attack & of course the attack from magic & saguma people. In that part of the World, people don't know how to dress. Their life is full of customary things especially magic, saguma & so forth. They also have their gods, who gave them the evil powers to heal the sick, penalize or kill another person etc..so as a matter of fact, people in this part of the world has close relationship with evil spirits. They have less or no knowledge about the outside world. So in that place, you won't have enough access to food items in the store. Within a month, you will eat rice, just in a single day & same applies to all other food items. These is because there is no road access, the place is situated in a geographical location where it is very difficult for basic government services to reach them. Very hard to go & buy store goods. After assessing all these, I accepted the fact that I have already made my decision so within that year 2017, my family and I, we started to adapt to the system there. The first thing I did was I look for a land next to the school. I cultivated it, gathered bush materials & build a Bible Missionary Church (BMC) there. Myself, I have been a assistant Pastor during my young age & while being a teacher, I continued to help pastors in BMC churches back in Ialibu & I continued to serve God as He is my everything. So when I had a chance to come to East Sepik, especially in that remote place, the first thing that came into my mind was to built a church & I did. With the help from the surrounding community, the church was established. In that place, you could hardly locate a single church. The only church you would locate is Catholic church but it is located far away, somewhere near the main road. Including the whole of East Sepik Province, there is no Bible Missionary Church (BMC) being established there, by the Grace of God, I went & established the BMC church there. Few months later, I called a white Missionary from USA, who based in Ialibu-Pangia District. I wrote a letter to him if he could come & inspect the land where the church was built. Fortunately, he responded & he came all the way into that remote place. When he came & saw me & my family, his heart truly bleeds. He thanked God for using me, making the way possible to establish the Church which would serve His (God's) own People in that Part of the World. Before the Missionary left, we purchased the Land where the church was established with K10 000. Within that Year, with the help of the missonary church, I built a permanent church. I also built a permanent house for the Pastor. Later I sent a letter to the Missionary requesting for a Pastor. The missionary responded & sent a pastor for the church. Within a year, the entire community came & gave their lives to God. They gave away their demonic activities that they have been doing, they had truly repented & I always thankful to God. In terms of dressing, I taught them how to dress especially for men & my wife did the same for the females, and about 12 people, I took them to a Fellowship Camp hosted by BMC church in Southern Highlands Province. That was the very first time, these local villagers (both men & women) see the outside world Regards to the School: I worked very hard with the Head Teacher to at least change the standard of the school. Unfortunately, the head teacher was a alcoholic body, who did not settled well at school. All of his time, he spends at Wewak & because of his actions, he had also influenced the other two teachers. What they used to say was that, this is a bush school, no one from the education department will come & penalised us, we can operate on our own. While me & my wife, we worked very hard & before the the year 2017 ends, we had changed the face of the school. We invited the parents to school, to do fencing, digging drainage, building classrooms & teachers houses with bush materials & so forth. In 2018, we were thinking of leaving the school, but again we felt that it was not the call the government that we came to that place. It was the call from God Himself. So we decided to stay back, and for six solid years, we are in Walam Primary school, in Dregigiya, Maprik. There were lot of challenges that I go through in life while being stuck in this part of the world which I didn't mention. Many times I failed my people back home because I don't have that easy access to go & visit them. During Christmas holidays, I go & visit them with my family. By the Grace of God, my mother is still alive, as well as my elder brother. Being here, I was able to save enough money to pay the school fees for the young ones in my families attending Universities & Colleges & I am very much thankful to God for that. I know, it is not by mistake I was called to go & teach in that Part of the World. It was the Plan of God Himself & I am always thankful to God. My appeal to the Government especially the local MPs, Provincial Government, & National Government to look into such places where government services have already being established like the schools & health centers, and provide the necessary services accordingly. Road access is paramount. The responsible government authorities must look into the burden faced by these poor teachers & health workers in every day life in all the rural parts of the country. As teachers, we work very hard, risk our lives to produce the future leaders & intelligent people of this country. The money we getting doesn't worth our lives but we risk it, for the sake of humanity. To my fellow colleague teachers right throughout the country, teaching in rural parts of the country, be faithful to your job. Be great full to God for where He places you. It is not my mistake you are where you are. It is you that would depart from the plan of God in your life especially when you aren't faithful to your Job. With that I thank you all for reading my story. I pray that you would be inspired & encouraged with this piece. As a student, I believe this story will encourage you to pay more respect towards your teachers, study hard & make your teachers happy because teachers sacrifice so much to give you the right knowledge that you truly deserve. I also believe that my colleague teachers around the country would also be inspired & encouraged to take a bold stand & face the situation in your respective locations. By: Fox Kipu Wallam Primary School East Sepik Province Share your Inspirational Stories, Education Issues, Education Talk. Let your voice be heard: Send us your stories to us: email : [email protected] Share this
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