A STORY OF PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE

When I was in first grade, I spent hours after school, in the Eastern highlands Provincial government  car pool while  my Dad – who was then the  Assistant  Secretary for the Eastern Highlands  – carved  for hours on two large pine logs. 
    At the time I didn’t know what he was doing.  But he was always doing stuff like that.  Carving and fixing something.   One night mum asked why he wanted to carve  around the letters instead of carving out the letters. 
So we took a short drive on our way home to  what was then PNG stationary in Goroka Town  a few meters away from Yanepa  building where the provincial  headquarters was located.  He flashed the vehicle lights on the signboard  that had the letters protruding from the pine log.
“That’s what I want to do,” he said.  
It was a lot more work and it took a lot more time.  I was at school when the logs was erected  – I think – in 1983.    The first time I saw the logs again many years later was in 2000 when I traveled to Goroka.  It had stood the test of time.
    Then again last week,  I took  a picture of  the logs. After, 30 years, the treated pine logs still stand as perfectly as they were erected long ago. They’re now starting to show signs aging.  But they still stand as a testament to the perseverance, patience and determination  of   a man who remains  my greatest hero. You rock!