Adventuring to Cairns

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this was going to be a blast!

All the year eight students of Port Moresby International School (POMIS) were seated in the lecture hall, listening to our year coordinator Ms Tavil. Ms Tavil announced that for the first time ever, year eight students were being given the chance to have a school trip. The chosen destination was Cairns, Australia. Ms Tavil told us that the trip would take place after our exams were finished so that we could have a fun and relaxing holiday, after all our hard work.

After the excited buzz and chit-chat finished, Ms Tavil talked to us about the funding for the trip. Our school in Papua New Guinea (PNG) didn’t have the money to fund our trip. As a result we had to do A LOT of fundraising so the trip could go ahead. Many people believed the trip wouldn’t happen because we wouldn’t get enough money or enough students to travel. Our fundraising included many different events. The walkathon was our main fundraising event . Port Moresby is not safe to walk around, so we had to hire security guards and police escorts for this event. The walkathon required traveling students to find people who would sponsor them to go on a three and a half hour walk, in 35-40 degree heat. My best friend Jorjia and I walked around our compound over a period of two weeks getting sponsors. About two days before the walk took place, I came down with tonsillitis. I went to the doctor and she told me that I had to rest for a week and that I wasn’t allowed to participate in the walkathon. At this stage it looked as though I wouldn’t be able to go on the trip because my parents didn’t want to pay the full price for my trip. Their reasoning was that I had already been to Cairns three times and had already been to many of the places that we would visit during the school trip. After many discussions it was decided that I would have to walk around town with Dad at 5’oclock in the morning, four or five times, to walk a similar distance required for the walkathon. This made me happy as I would complete the requirements of the walkathon and keep the money that I had been sponsored.

The traveling year eight students did lots of other fundraising activities as well. We were separated into fundraising groups and held cake stalls three times a week during lunch. We also sold jewellery that we brought up from Australia. Our fundraising also took place weekends and at night. We held a dance in which year seven and eight students from our school and neighbouring international schools could come for a night of fun. We invited our parents and friends for an evening of entertainment and good food. Traveling year eight students were required to serve food and entertain (act/sing/dance/stand up comedy), on the night. On Saturday mornings there were trips to different houses in Port Moresby where students would do community service for the owners of the house. After all the hard work that we put into cleaning gardens, baking cakes and preparing for fundraisers, we finally had the amount of money that we needed. All that was left was to find a sponsor for camp T-shirts. This turned out to be easy!

The time to travel eventually came and people who thought we couldn’t raise the money were shocked! The trip was a week long and we had free time almost every day. We went to some tourist places like the Zoo, Kuranda, Go-Karting and other places. On one of the days we went to Cairns State High School to mix with students from a different country and to see what school is like in Australia. In the afternoons we could walk to the shops if we wanted, or stay at the hotel for a swim. For lots of my classmates it was their first time out of PNG and it was interesting to see how they acted in Australia. The teachers on the trip were constantly telling students that they couldn’t just sit around on the side of the road and in the middle of footpaths, as they do in PNG. This was interesting, as sitting in the middle of the footpath isn’t something we think about doing in Australia. My friends were shocked to see shopping malls (there isn’t much shopping in PNG) and that we could go to the movies! The trip was great fun and I think many people learnt that you can make something happen if you try hard enough!