On basketball, classic guitar & the Public Service Commission
30 December 2015
ED BRUMBY
PLAYING basketball had been the central feature of my high school days.
While neither tall nor particularly fleet of foot, I possessed good hand-eye coordination and peripheral vision.
Countless hours of practice gave me half-decent jump and long shots and constant membership of high school, city and regional representative teams as a playmaker-guard.
By 1966 I was in Papua New Guinea and, with the aid of some cases of SP as gris, a few fellow basketball enthusiasts and I persuaded the Public Works Department to lay some tarmac.
Then Elcom, through their largely Manus Island apprentices, installed the hoops on their pylons and provided suitable lighting in the Wewak local officer compound.
And so the Wewak Amateur Basketball Association was born. It soon joined the PNG Amateur Basketball Federation, began organising twice-weekly night competitions and sent teams to national tournaments and championships in Madang and Lae.
This is where I meet the onetime head of the Education Department’s publications and broadcasts branch and stalwart of the Port Moresby Basketball Association and the Kone Tigers basketball club, Pritt (Frank) Hiob.
At some time during 1968, Keith, then editor of school publications, decided to pursue a career in broadcasting with the ABC schools broadcasts division.
His predecessor, Hiob, tasked with finding both a new editor and eager for some new blood in the Kone Tigers basketball team, bypassed the usual Education Gazette advertising process and persuaded the Director of Education, Ken McKinnon, to summon me to take up the editor’s position in Konedobu.
Being perfectly content as head teacher of Passam Primary T School – and quite in love with a fellow New Hanoverian teacher – I was loathe to leave the idyllic life of Wewak and its hinterland.
Thankfully, in retrospect, I had no recourse but to obey McKinnon’s command and duly moved to Moresby where, as well as beginning a new career (and assuming custodianship of Yokomo from Keith), I transfer my BEd studies from the University of Queensland to a BA program in linguistics and literature at UPNG.
In between work, study and playing, refereeing and administering basketball – and writing pre- and post-game game reports for the Post-Courier and the ABC, I continue to develop my classic guitar playing skills.
Over time, I was persuaded to share my rudimentary classic guitar competence with a small number of friends and colleagues in weekly lessons.
Somehow or other, this came to the attention of the wife of the then Public Service Commissioner who invited me to provide lessons for her daughter.
We agreed on the princely sum of two dollars for a half-hour lesson and, commencing in late 1971, after work every Monday afternoon I attended at the verandah of the Commissioner’s house on the nether reaches of Paga Hill to instruct young Kate (not her real name) on the vagaries playing classic guitar.
Meanwhile, with my BA studies nearing completion, I was motivated to pursue postgraduate studies and decided Edinburgh University offered the best applied linguistics program with elements that applied directly to my work in the Education Department.
I completed an application for a public service scholarship and submitted it to the chief staffing wallah who advised I was wasting my time because scholarships were now reserved for local officers not expatriates.
He took the application but left me with the impression that he would not pass it up the line to the Public Service Commissioner’s office
A month or so later, having just finished another classic guitar session on the verandah with Kate, I awaited her mother and the two dollars.
Out came the Public Service Commissioner himself, whom I had never met. He handed me the money and said, “I hear that you are going to Edinburgh”.
Postscript 1: I spent a year at Edinburgh University and played in its representative basketball team and also refereed in the Scottish National Basketball League.
Postscript 2: Kate, went on to study classic guitar at the Canberra School of Music.
Yes, Francis Edwin Brumblebee did return from Edinburgh to PNG as delineated in later comments above.
My wife and I travelled here and there around E'burgh with Ed in his vehicle. The petrol gauge of said vehicle hovered about one bar above "E" for empty each time we dared to venture inside.
We were taking a delayed 5-month honeymoon in '72-'73 on a tour of Europe. And like Ed. we also returned to Moresby and UPNG.
The Arts faculty lecturers I recall were Dr. Bill Gammage, Dr. Bill Standish (who kitted himself out in a sort of khaki kiap uniform one lecture to underscore to PNG students how B4 patrol officers looked) and the unforgettably named Garry Trompf. Probably also nowadays with a 'Dr' before Christian name.
Posted by: Richard Jones | 02 January 2016 at 10:31 AM
I did return, Francis and resumed my former editorial role. My efforts to apply what I learnt at Edinburgh by seeking a transfer to the curriculum development branch were unsuccessful, for reasons which I may expound upon in another Attitude piece - subject, of course, to Keith's indulgence.
My part-time student days at UPNG are among my most treasured memories, Raymond. As Keith has noted, we (and there were quite a number of expat students in those days) shared classes and rubbed shoulders over beers at the University Club with many future PNGn leaders, intellectuals and influencers. It was a time of great hope and excitement. The little I hear these days of my alma mater fills me with great sadness.
Posted by: Ed Brumby | 31 December 2015 at 06:50 AM
Keith, for the life of me, I didn't know that during the colonial era, apart from PNGeans at UPNG, there were also students like you and Ed. I only learned about this from the articles and comments in PNG Attitude. I am interested about your experiences at UPNG and what you have become years later after PNG's independence.
__________
In a nutshell, Raymond, my experiences studying alongside PNGns at UPNG (and noting that many of those early expat professors & lecturers were top class) transformed me from being a bit of a young fogey to someone who could see that PNGns had it in them to do great things - including run their own country with or without our help. None of us then could conceive that a country that had so much going for it (and still has) would fall into the hands of the corrupt and the incompetent who sell out their own people for their own greed and ego. What became of me? Post UPNG, I had a great career which I look back on with pleasure and satisfaction - it's summarised here http://asopa.typepad.com/about.html. I give PNG and its people the credit for setting me in the right direction. They were kind, courteous and generous to me - KJ
Posted by: Raymond Sigimet | 30 December 2015 at 05:58 PM
I enjoyed the Yokomo tales when I was in community school during out weekly radio school's broadcast as well as reading his tales in print.
Ed, I'm also interested that you and Keith including other Australians and expatriates during the colonial days had enrolled and taken up studies at UPNG. An expose or list of your lot (expatriate students) during the heydays of UPNG would make a good piece of history literature for PNG.
Just my thoughts and thanks for this wonderful tale.
_________
Can you imagine, Raymond, that in my final year politics honours group at UPNG in 1975, around the table with Prof Charles Rowley sat Rabbie Namaliu, Utula Samana, Ben Sabumei and Paul Pora Schmidt - all of whom were true leaders and went on to very distinguished careers. Fortunate was I - KJ
Posted by: Raymond Sigimet | 30 December 2015 at 09:20 AM
What happened after Edinburg, Ed, did you return to PNG?
Posted by: Francis Nii | 30 December 2015 at 08:46 AM