It was half past five in the afternoon and I was walking back home along the sea wall at Ela Beach. The sunset must have been beautiful but there was too much cloud cover to see it significantly towards the western ‘Paga Hill’ vista. It was a cool afternoon and the sea was slightly choppy. The stirring south easterly wind created miniature dust devils along the sea wall. I plodded along the sea wall and paused at the concrete pier for a breather. There were three ‘pikininis’ leaping off the edge of the pier into the sea amongst the white mould covered dinghies tethered there. They were having the time of their lives. None more so than the youngest boy of the trio he was naked ‘wantaim nogat sem’ and ran about the pier screaming as he dive bombed his brothers below. Liklik asnating mangi had fully blond Melanesian hair, probably from the salt bleaching of the sea and displayed a high level of confidence in the deep water. I remembered holding onto floaties for dear life when I was his age in the calm shallows of the ‘Coronation’ pool back home in Lae. I started grinning to myself when I realized they where children of the mountains, but they might as well have been born with the sea in their blood. # Just another day in Paradise.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 09:56:14 +0000
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