Untrained Wonder Workers.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, the dry season coming to an end, the training school at Hohola has a monsoon drain right through it. It's really just a wide ditch dug in soft red clay that washes away every year in the wet. I stood looking at it, Kundu looked at it, the labourers looked at it. A small trickle of water in the bottom to make it slushy and mucky to work in.1

" Yu yet e got savvy long work 'im concrete an' stone?" I asked in my version of the local Melanesian Pidgin I knew Kundu understood and spoke along with his tribal language. We were given the task of putting a concrete bottom in the drain and lining the sides with stone. The surveyor and his experts said 4 feet wide at the bottom, 4 feet deep and 6 feet wide at the top. I had to figure out how to do it in six weeks when the 'wet' was due.2

" Yu work 'im first, masta, an' we work 'im finish." Kundu was the boss boy of a number of labourers I was given charge of to do the job. None had ever been to school, none spoke English, none were experienced in the job ahead of us. Whoopee! I thought, this is going to be a lot of fun.3

Nothing else for it but to get down and dirty, literally. I gathered what gear I needed and clambered into the drain. The boys, I will always call them 'the boys', came into the muck with me.I set out the formwork for the concrete bottom big enough to take five cubic meters of concrete. That went in well and somehow we got it done by knock off time. Meantime two bloody great truckloads of blue metals chunks had arrived from the quarry. Bugger this, I went home to get the mud off and have a quiet beer.4

7.00 am, "Morning boys, morning Kundu" The usual friendly greetings exchanged we all got down in the trench again. It wasn't a drain, not yet, anyway. I put up profiles and string lines etc and got the boys to mix some concrete. I started laying the stones with the flat side to the lines and secured them in position with the concrete. Half an hour after I started with the stones Kundu decided it was time to take control.5

" Em enough, masta, now work bilong us. Yu go luk out long arra pella job." I was a bit dubious, but watched for a few minutes, then left. I did have other gangs working on other sites around the area.6

I returned late in the afternoon. The boys were coming along very well. They had completed about 30 feet right to the top of the ditch. I started to set up the formwork for the concrete along the top to hold the whole thing together. Didn't get far when the transport driver arrived to take the boys back to the compound where they lived. Another day gone and the wet one day closer. The boys all climbed aboard the truck which left to finish the pick up run. I surveyed what had been completed. Their work was amazing, The sloping surface of the walls of the drain had hardly a bump in them. I went home very satisfied.7

Next morning no one wanted to get down the trench first. I put my foot on the one nearest the edge and gave him a gentle shove. Down he went, into the muck at the bottom where there was no concrete. With a few chuckles and a lot of chatter, the work of the day started. I just waved and left them to it. Kundu gave me a massive smile as I left; maybe I had done something right.8

So It progressed, 30 feet on day 1, 47 feet on day two, I did some calculations 5 days a week x 35 feet = 175 feet a week.9

Not quick enough, I had nearly 2000 feet to go. The wet would be here before the drain was ready and there would be weeks of work to clean up the washaways. I talked to my boss and the surveyors who had been there much longer than I. 10

"What's your boss boy like"11

" Good worker and catches on quick", I said.12

" Tell him he's in charge and leave him alone with it for a few days. You'll be surprised what he can do"13

" OK, I'll give it a shot" was all I could say. I had many other jobs to take care of and if Kundu could do it, good luck to him.14

Come next morning I arrived at the site later than usual to find the whole crew sitting down on the top of the drain. I went up to Kundu just a trifle upset about the fact that no one was working. 15

" Yu are boss boi. How's it all work man sit down an' not work?" I fired at Kundu.16

" Masta, yu no kick one boi down to start work." I was taken aback by this. Apparently I was supposed to shove somebody down the drain each morning to start the day.I calmed down.17

"Kundu, yu now boss boi. Yu kick one down an' start work. OK?"18

Kundu got the message and set things in motion with a swift kick at the nearest of the labourers. Work proceded. I went off to supervise repairs to the power station. I was away until the friday, payday, only two days but I worried a bit about progress.19

There was no need for me to worry.20

Pay was handed out in cash to each man and my partner from the Office checked that everyone was paid as they should have been.This week I had a new girl from the office to keep an eye on me. I paid all and got them to make their mark on the paysheet. No problems until everyone was paid and my young lady wanted to get back to the airconditioning in the office. I waited.21

" Why can't I go now, they have all been paid", she said.22

" That's the first part done, now watch", I said. I went to my land rover and pulled out a stack of bank deposit books and sat down on the running board. One by one they came and collected their banks books which I held in trust for them. I still waited.23

One by one they came back and handed me back their banks books, this time with money in each one. I wrote it all down in my notebook. After what may have seemed like forever , they all went back to work. Then I walked over to my office lady and said quietly: " I am their banker. Each week I bank whatever they put in their own bankbook, in their accounts. That's why I take time out and wait every payday"24

" Let them do it themselves. They seem to know how."25

" When will they get to the bank? These guys work every day for longer hours than the banks are open, they have no cars and its about 3 miles from here to the bank. Would you want to pay them to walk to the bank and back once a week?" 26

" They would be away from the job all day, wouldn't they?"27

" Yep, and I would be short another days work here. This way is better" We left the boys to it and went.28

I was to realise the real value of my small service to the boys in the following two weeks. Two days into the next week I got a message via the labourers driver. More readymixed concrete was needed. I was a bit doubtful as they had a five metre load on Monday and usually took three to four days to catch up with the stonework. I went around to see. They had the next area ready to pour concrete and the stonework was almost up to the end of the existing concrete bottom. I went and ordered another five metres quick smart. 29

The work went ahead much faster than I thought was possible.30

Mind you, there was about 20 of them. With Kundu in charge and me only visiting to check things twice a week, they worked like demons. The whole drain was completed in four and a half weeks from start to finish. Just the pathway on the top to tie it all together and the job was done. I set out the first bit and Kundu took over. WE had just one wet day before the whole kit and kaboodle was finished.31

The big boss went out to inspect the work and passed it with flying colours. Then the rains came. Wonder of wonders, it worked; and the bridges across were not washed away. And so to the next project. 32