James Yogomul Gaima

The PNG extended family thing gets a bit too much for me at times. People in
and out of the house, the sleeping over and then of course there's the
communal meals. All too much for this once self confessed eternal bachelor
and single man. For the past couple of weeks Arini and Isaac Boss have been
living with us, Mama Olgan has been sick the last four days and Uncle Joel
came knocking on our gate at 7:30pm tonight after missing the last PMV back
to Kaubasis.

Mostly I rather enjoy it all but now and then it just gets too much. Home
was once upon a time haven, a place to get away from it all, no one around,
no conflict, no issues, certainly no crying babies, basically lots f peace
and quite. The good old days have are long gone. Version 2 has definitely
gone live and into full production.

One of the things I miss is having Eli and “me” time. Weekends in Lae were
great, we would just hang out together, head into town for a coffee and a
shop, wander around and chat with the street boys and whom ever else we
would bump into. So this afternoon the two of us did the bolt and we
“escaped” from Isaac Boss and from sick “Mama” and headed into the markets
together. Just like the old days! Have now discovered that quality and
private times for couples – is a sure must for a happy and joy field
relationship!

We finished our shopping, bought some herbs for Mama, had a chew, stopped
and chatted with a myriad of folks, bought a can of Lemonade and headed to
the park for a sit and a rest. And as we were sitting there and having a
giggle about a bunch of trivia a couple of fellas from the Genoka settlement
walked our way wandered over and joined us.

Joseph, the younger out of the two, I met last week at a Drug Awareness day
organised by the Sisters of Mercy. Joseph is a street boy that used to do a
lot of crime and smoke a lot of drugs – for the past year he has been
working a program organised by the Sisters of Mercy and his life is slowly
finding its way towards the straight and narrow.

The older bloke, his name: James Yogomul Gaima – was certainly a character.
A fitter by trade and once employed by the department of works in Lae, he
lost his eldest son five years ago and has since been finding it very
difficult to get back into the “stream” of things. It also turns out that he
is related to Eli on her Dad's side. PNG – em liklik hap tru ya!!!

I got a good feel about this James character and we sat and chatted for
close to an hour. Story after story with a few good belly laughs thrown in
for good measure. Nothing like a good bit of PNG “bung” and social
interaction to dissipate and release those worries and so called issues!

Here's a photo I took of James earlier this afternoon…