Brother Ken Kalinowski, FSC
La Salle Hohola
PO Box 1911
Boroko, NCD
Papua New Guinea
Greetings to ALL:
This week in PNG!
Well, this is the driest wet season on record! We had two days of a tropical storm, a lot of rain, but that was it! We can only hope that the rainy season is only a month late because we are in dire need of rain. The school year is moving along, week 4, and we have 706 students. But we don’t have enough space for all of them, a really good problem to have in most schools. Unfortunately, in PNG, if there is no room, chances are that the student may just stay home for the year and try the following year.
We had an all-school Mass last week – which really went well - to open the school year. Afterwards, we had the year 11’s (our seniors) spend an afternoon with the year 9’s. It really turned into a fun day for the students. Last week, we had a rash of crime that has really affected the school and the Brothers. Two of the incidents involved our faculty simply being attacked by a group of men; the faculty members were surrounded and the group demanded their money. Another case involved a Brother from Australia visiting the Brothers at our other school. At midnight, men with machetes attempted to break into his bedroom. The Brother heard the noise, screamed, and alerted everyone. To make matters worse, the men refused to leave the property – until morning. The Brothers saw that the men had knives and locked themselves into their rooms - crazy stuff! Welcome to PNG!
Much of the crime is due to the tremendous poverty. Last week, I was stopped at a checkpoint for vehicle/license inspection. I was told that I needed a PNG license and the inspector indicated he could help me get one for 400 Kina. He gave me his name and phone number, for which I said thanks. I returned to the school to find out that I could get one for 60 Kina – about 18 US dollars. If this man thought that I had 400 Kina, well, he is talking to the wrong person! I went to the DMV and am now officially a PNG licensed driver, thank God!
The government has finally lifted the ban on imported vegetables! The country is now allowing other countries to bring in fresh vegetables - due to the drought. Making them available is great – we’ll see- but the price is really so high that only foreigners can afford them. Sad – for the native people!
I hope you are well – please keep me in your prayers; you are in mine!
Ken
Br. Ken Kalinowski, FSC