BOOKS
BOOKS. And, more books.
That was what was on my mind on Saturday, May 16.
On Friday though, I was looking for a book and visited Vision City in Port Moresby. Sadly, I could not locate it on Friday, May 15. I was after a book on mathematics, particularly for junior high school students.
I then made plans to visit mv Doulos Hope the next day, to check for all sorts of books.
Missing its first visit
The mv Doulos Hope last visited Port Moresby in February 2026 and left in March. I was then just getting back to Port Moresby from Wewak, East Sepik, and was just settling in. I was not able to visit it then. If I was settled, I would have visited the floating book fair or bookshop and buy some books.
The last time I bought publications from a ship like mv Doulos Hope was back in the late 1990s, in Wewak.
I think it was it was its sister ship, mv Doulos.
Back then, I had bought a lot of books, both on Christianity and some were for academics. I was then teaching science at a high school.
I felt bad at missing the February opportunity in Port Moresby. But, as if the heavens had noticed my wish to visit the ship, it returned on May 8 and will be in Port Moresby until May 27.
Saturday visit
On Saturday morning, I had two things to do. First I had to visit a shop along Waigani Drive and get a quote for something. Then, I had to catch a bus to down town and board the ship.
I was able to complete my business at Waigani Drive at 11.50 am and made my way down to town.
Yes, and we quarreled a bit with the crew on a bus for charging us an extra K1 due the fuel issue on that day.
“There is no fuel and we are struggling,” one crew said that earlier in the day to possibly justify why they were charging an extra kina.
Well, I finally made it down to town. It was quite hot then.
Meeting some students
I met some journalism students from the University of Papua New Guinea who I knew – and their friends – as I was about to enter the gate into the Old Wharf area.
“What are you all doing here?” I asked them, with a smile. “We came to visit the ship,” they said.
“You will have to go to the other side and pay K5 to board the ship,” they advised me. “Thanks,” I said and they left.
I then walked into the wharf area, past an empty warehouse and got a ticked and headed for the actual berthing area. The area was not crowded and I took some photos there as well.
Shop on top deck
The shop is on the third deck. There are volunteers at different locations to guide shoppers.
When I reached the top deck, I noticed that the shop was actually to the bow.
The section on that deck, at the stern, was a coffee or drink section where visitors can buy themselves a snack and drink and enjoy it atop a three-deck vessel, which in itself is a unique experience.
I was not there for a drink or snacks so I headed straight for the shop. There were shelves of books on different subjects, both on Christian and secular topics, including cooking, family, leadership, motivational, and management.
The shop also offered other items, such as pens, colour pencils, maps and souvenir items. Additionally, there were children’s books, journals, and Bibles. I am of the view that the books on mv Doulos were not as many as the one I visited in the late 1990s. But I was happy to visit the ship and buy some books.
The books I bought
Sadly, I could not find any mathematics book that I wanted. But then, there were a lot of other interesting books offered by the floating bookshop.
As with all good shopping, I had already budgeted for this exercise. Although I had seen many books on topics I liked, I had to keep my spending under K200. And these are the books that I bought:
· Outstanding Leadership by Stan Toler;
· The Famous Five – Five Have A Mystery To Solve by Enid Blyton;
· The 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders by Daniel Harkavy;
· Master Mentors by Scott Jeffrey Miller; and
· The Microsoft Story by Dan Good.
The books are quality material. Good, the author, is a seasoned book writer and journalist, while Miller is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.
As you can see, some of these books cannot be obtained in any shop or bookseller in PNG. And on the ship, I was able to buy three of the books at K36 each and two others at K24 each. The K162 that I spent was an excellent investment.
Why those books?
You might be asking: “Why did Thomas buy books on leadership?” That is a good question.
And my answer: “I am working with another academic on a project that focuses on the kind of leadership that we had in PNG over the past 50 years.”
We plan to study the leadership styles of past leaders to help our country forge a better path forward, past our first 50 years of being independent. If indeed everything falls on leadership, then we – every educated man and woman – ought to be talking about the need to have good leadership in our country in these very challenging times.
We have pressing issues to address and problems that need solving. And, good leadership at all levels should accomplish that.
“And, why buy that Enid Blyton book?” someone may also ask.
“Well, I am also studying children’s literature to possibly write for a younger audience in years to come,” will be my response to that question. This is the first Blyton book that I have purchased. But, that British author has impacted some of our lives in a big way.
When I was doing my Grades 7 and 8 in a boys’ high school in the city back in the 1980s, our library was stocked with Blyton’s books and I can be confident to say that in those two years we read all the Blyton books in the school library.
The books about the five children and a dog named Timmy – whose adventures and mystery-solving episodes – arrested our attention and enthused us to read, and then write book reports. We did that every week and for about 40 weeks in the two years. Those years were formative in developing our reading and writing skills.
I will write reviews
As part of my modus operandi as a writer who reads books, I will review each of the book I bought on mv Doulos for Weekender in the coming weeks.
For me, it will also be a refreshing few weeks, as I sit back each weekend and some nights to turn the pages of the books that I bought, and taking notes.
It will be work, but it will also be a learning time.
I will learn about leadership and the tech company called Microsoft.
And, I will analyse Blyton’s style to also carve my own style to write for the younger age groups.
They will be interesting days ahead.
History and an event
It is good to know the challenges that volunteers on the ship often had to endure while bringing services to us, book folks in the Pacific.
The mv Doulos Hope, is owned by Gute Bucher fur Alle (Good Books for All), a faith-based charity.
While I was doing some reading, I was reminded of an event more than 30 years ago.
A tragic event that happened to volunteers who were on a sister ship, mv Doulos Phos, back in 1991.
On Aug 11, 1991, while it was at Zamboanga City, in the Philippines, an Islamic terrorist group threw a grenade during a cultural performance by volunteers who worked on the vessel.
Two young women – Sophia Sigfridson of Sweden and Karen Goldsworthy of New Zealand – were killed in that attack. They were both 19 at that time.
Many other people were also injured in that tragedy.
It was claimed that someone in the group had called Prophet Mohammed “a liar”, which infuriated his followers.
A spokesman for the volunteer group said nothing like that was said.
At least one Muslim cleric condemned the attack, saying that it was not right.
Go visit Doulos Hope
If you have nothing to do in the next few days, why don’t you go down to the Old Wharf in Port Moresby and get on board mv Doulos.
It should be quite an experience.
And if you have time to spare, buy a drink and a snack and enjoy that atop a three-deck ship, which once operated as a cruise vessel.
It will indeed be a unique and memorable experience for you.
My only hope is that in the ship’s next visit, they could stock it with more academic books for students in high school or university.
And such books can be on science, mathematics, business, journalism, artificial intelligence, information technology, or history.
But then, thank you to the Doulos team for bringing us those books.
