MRS KM GEORGE: A MATHS TEACHER WHO WAS CONCERNED

FOLLOWING my last post on a teacher, here is another one.

There are some teachers, who are more than just teachers – or, I should say, they have the right spirit and would affect you more than just helping you pass tests/exams.

(Yes, they affect your eternity!)

They teach you more than the subject they were tasked to do. They teach you habits and attitude to study or approach life.

Such a person was the late Mrs KMG – from Kerala, India.

I had her as my Maths teacher for just one year, my Grade 12, but that year made the difference in my choice of studies in years to come.

 Photo: Mr and (late) Mrs KM George taught in PNG in the late 1980s.

You know, she was of the type who really believed you had something more in you and that needed to be brought out.

She did not just tell you, she kept the motherly eye out for you and others, making sure that you completed your homework and had enough extra exercises to do when you have completed all the assigned problems.

(I found out last year when I visited her husband’s website that Mrs KMG was 56 when she taught us. I contacted Mr KMG last year and expressed my deep appreciation/gratitude for his wife's in influencing some of us. Sadly, she passed away three years after she taught us. Incidentally, Mr KMG was my Grade 11 English teacher.)

Mrs KMG keeping her eyes on us made a few big changes in me.

I learned the most important lesson on how to really master Maths at the level you’re at from Mrs KMG because I followed her tip.

She said: “Always spend one hour every day and you will do well in Maths.”

I kept the rule and found my confidence in the subject grow – and that passed onto other subjects related to Maths.

With Mrs KMG watching over, I made sure I completed my homework every evening.

And she knew I did too. When she asked around for answers in class on homework exercises and no responses were forthcoming from my classmates, she’d know that at least one person had made an effort to complete the question.

She kind of counted on me too to give an answer when everybody could not.

(That is not to say I was brighter than the others. No way! There were much brighter students in the class than me. They would go on to become pilots, engineers, medical doctors and Maths teachers.)

Anyway, thanks Mrs KMG for that special one year. I cannot thank you enough.

See you in the future.   

PS. I see myself as having a connection to India because of Mrs KMG. And, I might go there in the next couple of years.

LEARN TO APPRECIATE PEOPLE

WHEREVER you are and whatever you do, there will be people who will help you in small and big ways.

Take the time to show your appreciation for the help they give.

When you do that nature has a way of rewarding you.

Life itself will teach you that.

Bon week-end à tous (Nice weekend to everyone).

PS. I will be at the wedding ceremony (my step-sister's) on Saturday. Sadly, I will miss my language class this weekend because of that.  

A TEACHER/COACH WHO WAS CONSISTENT

A TEACHER that impressed me in school was my U13/U14 soccer coach.

CS is from Tinputz, Bougainville, and was a very quiet man. He was my English teacher too and had the best handwriting. (The last time I heard, he was still teaching in Bougainville.)

He was not the soccer star-turned coach - but took on the responsibility very well.

Every day, during practice day, Mr CS would turn up in our school colours (in shorts and T-shirt) and watch from the side, saying little but relying on the leadership of the bigger boys on our team to go through exercise routines and game plans.

We started off as the U13B team in the Port Moresby School Boys Soccer Competition; the A team was made of the more fancied players.

At the end of the season, however, we were in the top three of teams participating and got the third-placed medals. Our U13A team did not fare that well.

In the following year, we the U13B team became the U14A team. The teachers had recognised our potential and made us the first team.

In that year, Mr CS continued to be there for almost all training sessions, again saying very little – but just being around.

At the end of the season, and going through two rounds, we were undefeated – we were kind of the “minor premiers”.

I, one of the smallest on the team, by then knew how to curve long kicks from the left back to our midfielders or forwards.

Our team was the only soccer team in our school to go into a grand final in that year but we lost by a 2-0 score line because the other high school team (whom we had beaten in both rounds during the season) fielded players who were older and might have been playing in the upper divisions.

When we lost, our boys wanted to fight the opposing team but Mr CS stopped them. He never complained ... as far as I can remember, and may not have lodged a complaint with the School Boys Soccer organising committee about the cheating by the school.  

Despite that disappointment, I remember Mr CS for just ... being around. He was reliable and committed and I think that was what many of us who were new to competitive football needed.

I left that school at the end of the year and went up north, back to my own hometown, and did not continue with my team members into the U15 division competition.

PS. I have said it many times that if that cheating high school fielded the same team the following year and any other year afterwards, we would have nailed them. You know, you can cheat small boys, but small boys do grow up eventually into big boys who can stand up against you and show you who the real champions are.  

FUN RUNNERS IN THE STADIUM

HERE is another picture taken of those who participated in the 2013 Trukai Fun Run in Port Moresby.
The runners are in the Sir John Guise Stadium, the main venue for the 1991 South Pacific Games and also the 2015 Pacific Games.  

Photo: Taken at about 8.30am from the main grandstand of the stadium looking down.  

2013 TRUKAI FUN RUN: MY FIRST

ON Sunday, I participated in the 2013 Trukai Fun Run for the first time.

For the annual event that has been around since July 2000, it was quite an experience seeing Port Moresby streets around Gordons and along Waigani Drive filling up with a lot of children, teenagers, adults, toddlers and even babies in pushers dressed in the yellow Trukai-coloured T-shirts.

It was said that this year’s Port Moresby’s run saw the largest group to participate numbering about 35,000.

 Photo: Some of those who participated in the 2013 Trukai Fun Run in Port Moresby.

Everybody made their way towards the Sir John Guise Stadium as early as 6am where speeches were made in the presence of the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, the Sports and Pacific Games Minister Justin Tkatchenko and other senior officials with the PNG Sports Federation, PNG Sports Foundation and other organisations.

When the run was started at the traffic lights beside the City Hall, crowds of runners were still making their way out of the gates of the stadium opposite Vision City.

As I came out of the John Guise Drive and looked along the Waigani Drive towards 4-Mile way, I could not see the end of first lot of runners.

In fact, for most of us apart from the group in front it was not a run, but a walk, because there was no real running space.

From observation, everybody seemed to have enjoyed the event.

I found it amazing to see nicely-dressed toddlers pulled along by the parents or guardians.

“They must have woke up at 5.30 in the morning, washed and dressed up to participate in this event,” I thought to myself.

The soldiers and young people – including some sports representatives - acted as Marshalls to keep the runners going in the right direction as well as stopping vehicles from getting into the lanes where the runners were.

Other soldiers and a group of Police recruits were also involved in the run itself.

The run started at about 7.00am at the northern end of the stadium (beside the NCD City Hall) and by 8.00am we were making our way into the main stadium area at the southern end after walking down south Waigani Drive, taking the Freeway to Courts (Spring Garden Road), following the Kennedy Circuit before taking the Cameron Road back up (passing by Club 21) and again entering the stadium (at the southern end).

From my calculation, if I walked at the pace of 1.5m in one second, I must have walked 5.4km that morning, the longest I have walked this year.

Beginning in July 2000, the annual Fun Run exists to raise funds for the nation to send off teams to the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Pacific Games and the Mini Pacific Games representatives.

Trukai Rice’s websites states that during 2011/12, the annual Fun Run raised K500,000 for Papua New Guinea’s Olympic Team, while also promoting awareness of HIV/AIDS via messaging on 80,000 Fun Run Shirts. The Fun Run is one of the only social sporting events nationwide and it is particularly unique as it brings communities together to join in a fun event which supports and raises awareness of prevalent social issues.

The money raised in this year’s Trukai Fun Run would go to help Team PNG participating in the 2013 Pacific Mini Games in Wallis and Futuna in September.