Students get ready to go home…

With exams out of the way for UNITECH students and academic staff busy marking and preparing results, things are starting wind down.

The above photo shows students lining up at the Cashiers office last Friday to collect their air fares back home. UNITECH students come from all over PNG mainland and islands. Part of their enrollment (for some students) entitles them, at the end of the academic year, to free travel for their journey back home.

The end of semester is both a happy and a sad time. It is a joyous time on the one hand for the students to have completed another year of work and study, an achievement. The sadness kicks in when people start doing goodbyes, especially if they have worked together for 4 years and their time at UNITECH has come to an end.

All things rise and all things fall….

As a visitor to PNG and someone in the position to guide and “enter into a dialogue” with these students, I am just starting to appreciate the effort involved by the students and their families. Having to learn and study in english, a language that is not their 1st language. For some, the effort that goes into raising the money to pay for the education, is enourmous. Some students are from well to do families, but not all. Most students are from rural areas and have been brought up in a village environment. In some cases these students are the 1st person within their clan or tribe to have the opportunity to better themselves through a university education.

To all UNITECH students, job well done !

I arrived mid April in PNG with few expectations but with hope. The hope of being able to make a difference, to have an impact, to add value, to guide and above all to learn. See, I have had a dream for many years, to live and work amongst tribal people. To experience a way of life that is fast disappearing from this “crazy” planet. And this dream…  is slowly coming true.

Thank you PNG and thank you students. The privilege has been mine.