Papa Ganig has worked at POC as long as it has existed at its current location (since 1977). He actually worked at the Lutheran girls school before POC was there. He is an incredible guy. He is the hardest working employee we have. On a good day he can still outwork 2 or 3 of our other employees put together. He takes care of all the grounds work (cuts the grass and bushes). He also chops all the fire wood used at POC; that’s a stack 10 feet wide 14 feet deep and 12 feet high every 4 months. The guy is a machine.
One of the other things that our employees do is take the students on various hikes in the jungle (pictured above). It is generally my responsibility to assign employees to hiking groups. I can only assign Papa to the most advanced groups of hikers. He will leave all the rest of them in the dust. When we were students at POC Papa led my group on our 3 day hike. We had a very fit group and it was still tough to keep up with him. I love hiking with him but every time we take a group of students together we end up getting in trouble with the director because one of them says we were trying to kill them
Papa is also the adopted father of my best friend Miani (see previous post). So he sees us as his children. He address us as his children and our kids as his grandchildren. We intern call him Papa, and our children call him “grandfather” (in the local language).
(Papa’s youngest son 2nd from the left)
Papa’s youngest son went through a “haus man” ceremony a year or so back. The picture above is from the celebration at the end. During these celebrations shelters are built at different houses in the village for the families of the boys involved. Papa insisted that we sit with his family and eat with them when the feast was served. What an honor it is to be so deeply loved by so many. these pictures make me long to be back there now.
Up next Hensen.
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