Seven communities that sourced the school with children had to send their children for boarding as early as pre-school as the distance of the school is stationed to be at the centre where all the communities will have equal walking distance to it.
Because of the distance, children are sent to be housed at the school throughout the week for classes, undergoing, according to an Isabelian wantok, harsh conditions at a school which seems to put a lot of emphasis on moulding children into good Christian characters.
Hicks Bule, whose late dad taught at the school when he was in Primary and later in secondary, recapped on the days when he was there in a moving evening story telling session with me.
Life at Muana Primary School for children around the area started when they reach pre-school age.
Sad and bitter as it sounds, they have to leave home and become part of a new life at a boarding school, undergoing discipline suggested to be of good to them.
Class 5 and 6 students are expected to be leaders and some are chosen as prefects to look after the little ones.
And looking after the flock of kids is as mandatory as being the one who must sleep close to the door so that whenever one wants to visit the loo in the night, he or she will accompany him or her.
And apart from that they do have the duty of following a roster which they have to cook for the little ones in their different bush hats, which consist of children of the same community.
Food is supposed to be brought by parents and their day of getting them over is on Wednesdays.
Everyone is expected to be obedient and coming to church services, which is one of the regular activities at the school, is a must.
And so when Fridays come, the children tend to have no ego for lunch and just skip it because that’s the time they’re going home to visit their parents for the whole weekend.
Some villages are well into the interior and to start from Muana at 1pm one can reach there by night.
But these robust kids sometimes travel in groups of friends and meet their parents in their food gardens and later travel home in a merry passion that seems to be a looking-forward-to event of every week.
Spirit of Independence
A sight of a little kid brushing grasses in the huge school campus as a morning work session can wear you out of your imaginations.In fact, questions like, why does life has to be experienced at such an age where tender care and love should be offered at home by parents should have rightly toppled the rest but one thing became eminent in the kids.
When a group of mandated girls woke up at 5:30am on selected days to do a motu (a traditional food oven) for lunch that day, detailed loyalty in the spirit of self reliance can be seen out of their innocent hearts.
When the Kaipito river floods and they have to cook using the dirty water to boil the Kumaras (sweet potatoe), a diet which appears to be their daily, perseverance can be clearly isolated from the young hearts.
Sometimes emotional stories of these kids finding their own way through the bushes along the river to find Kasume (a type of wild fern that can be eaten) for an evening meal can be too hearty to hear but strength and acts of self reliance are again shown in class there.
A spirited torn choir sprouted in the Muana green hills and earring oneself to these young voices will put one on the brink of tears.
Innocent and childish as they are, the young hearts carry their innocence in the hymns that are perfectly curved by their unworn voices depicting the Christian upbringing that they are swayed to bend themselves to.
Parents and Students
It is easy to guess what a young age kid would feel like to be away from his or her parents and when it comes to the Muana kids, the scene on Wednesdays is an emotional one.“Just before their parents about to leave after delivering food, you’ll see most of these kids crying and clinging on to their parents, wearing your heart out if you're genuine enough to feel what they’re going through......sometimes they just stand crying helplessly as their parents depart,” recalled Mr Bule, who stayed at the school when his dad was a teacher there.
According to him, parents had a hard time thinking about their children.
“At such a young age, you just don’t know what will happen to your kids.”
But what could be more inspirational as the heart of the parents, despite the pain they feel inside, the desire to see a future for their children cost them that step of faith to just send their kids to such an isolated school.
The quest of good things in some areas, said Mr Hicks, is a trade en route in style and comfort but when it comes to my area, it is difficult and overwhelming.
The 22-year-old man from Kolomola, one of the villages that is served by Muana, said that struggle is always part of their life but it has raised them to the mark of self sufficiency.
According to him, Muana still practises boarding for Primary school kids but modernisation perhaps changes some aspect like now girls are allowed to leave their hairs long unlike in the past.
With the new lot of teachers, corporal punishment is now not a problem but perhaps the struggle having to live life and struggle away from parents at an early age is still an issue and will always be a sad and hearty one unless the current government realises the need to build more schools that are closer to these villages so that these young kids are not deprived of the right to go to school yet under the daily loving care of their parents.
By HAROLD MAESULIA
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