Laingim
Sandaun Province
Papua New Guinea
1989 

Background-wise there is next to nothing more I can say about Laingim other than what can be deduced from the map above: a small mission station mid-way between Walamu and Lumi in the Sandaun Province. I will update this background if new information comes to hand.

Thanks again to the preliminary and hard work of Brothers Michael Vella and Charles Barry, the programme of training young men as Patrician Brothers got off to a very fine start in 1987. Initial training took three years, one year in what is called postulancy, followed by two years in the novitiate. After those three years a person would be professed and become a full member of the Congregation.

In 1987, Michael was full-time involved in formation. In 1988 Brother Philip Turner arrived in PNG and St Francis and assisted Michael while also teaching in the school. Towards the end of 1988 it was agreed that a third group could not be accommodated at St Francis and so it was decided to locate the first year novices at a new location. These young men would be under the care of Philip. (Photo (L-R): Brothers Michael Vella, Aengus Kavanagh who was visiting as Superior General, and Philip Turner.)

Laingim was selected as it was the most isolated and therefore providing a healthy atmosphere for a year of reflection, but it also had road access, and a very important factor was that there was already a house waiting to be occupied.

Brother Charles reports on Laingim: "Phil Turner...moved into Laingim in January 1989 with 4 Novices, Steven Ambai, Norbert Yeku, Peter Sowai & Vincent Melero and quicklly endeared themselves to the local people...." This left Michael back at St Francis with the new postulants and the second year novices.

The Laingim Community (L-R): Norbert Yeku, Sebi Poki (visiting), Steven Ambai, Vincent Melero, Peter Sowai, and Philip Turner

The new community at Laingim were faced with two major challenges, living space was minimal - Philip having to sleep underneath the inside stairway - and there was an insufficient water supply. They did what they could to perform some basic renovations to the house in addition to teaching catechetics in the local schools and trying to establish a healthy and nurturing community with ample opportunity for spiritual exercises essential to formation in a novitiate.
 

	The house needed a great deal of renovation to cope with five men. Here Steven Ambai is making repairs to the outside walls.
Cleaning up around the house is not always the job of the PNG male, but in religious life it is.
	A place dedicated to community and personal prayer was a priority and the novices soon got into constructing one.

By May word came through that Bishop's Hill in Aitape was available to the Brothers if they wanted to use it for their formation programme. Bishop's Hill had had quite a history, it had been the location for Bishop Ignatius Doggett's house and then became where the male lay-missionaries lived.

In August Philip and the novices moved to Bishop's Hill. While certainly not as isolated as Laingim being that it overlooked the bay of Aitape, and Aitape was itself the second largest town in the Sandaun province and the nerve centre of the Catholic mission in the province, the amount of living space and the availability of water made up for that. However, a huge amount of time and money were to be spent on renovations. At least Philip didn't have to live under the stairs any more, no, now he lived in the hall at the top of the stairs.