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Moorhead missionary’s years in Papua New Guinea stir desire to help the island nation

MOORHEAD-Paul Fuglestad is compelled to tell others about the 12-year-old boy he knows who walks through the jungle, two hours each way to and from school each day."Boka" leaves around 6 a.m. from his family's bush hut in a village with no electr...

Paul Fuglestad of Moorhead talks about his home away from home in Papua New Guinea.David Samson / The Forum
Paul Fuglestad of Moorhead talks about his home away from home in Papua New Guinea.David Samson / The Forum

MOORHEAD-Paul Fuglestad is compelled to tell others about the 12-year-old boy he knows who walks through the jungle, two hours each way to and from school each day.

"Boka" leaves around 6 a.m. from his family's bush hut in a village with no electricity and no plumbing. Walking barefoot, he makes nine river crossings during the trek.

He carries only a bush knife to cut away jungle brush and kumara, a yam-like vegetable to sustain him.

"It's raw there. Really raw. Nobody ever complains," Fuglestad said, reflecting on his time in the South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea and the people who live there.

Fuglestad, 61, was introduced to the area by his missionary parents; his dad was a surgeon and his mom a nurse. The family first lived in the East African country of Tanzania before settling in Papua New Guinea just north of Australia.

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"That's when I fell in love with the nation," Fuglestad said.

He loved it so much, he turned to mission work himself. And with his wife Wendy, they raised their four children there for a time.

Though they moved back to the Fargo-Moorhead area in 2001 to care for an ill family member, Fuglestad has continued to make frequent trips to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

As a pastor, he's ministered to the people and immersed himself in the tribal culture and language.

Fuglestad learned to speak their trade language, neo-Melanesian, quite well.

"They would tell me at times, if they had their eyes closed, they would think I was one of them," he said.

Now a part-time hospital chaplain and substitute teacher in local schools, Fuglestad loves telling others about his experiences in the South Pacific.

"I wouldn't trade it for the world," Fuglestad said.

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Adventure and apprehension

Living in a tribal village in Papua New Guinea brought its share of tense, even frightening moments.

Fuglestad said he's been threatened with homemade guns and knives by masked bandits who were out to rob him.

His wife told of the time she was in a mission hospital for the birth of their daughter when tribal fights over land were happening in the area.

"There were people that had arrows or spear wounds, and other people were ripping out their IVs to escape," Wendy Fuglestad said of her fellow patients.

Adventure awaited around every corner, whether it involved taking part in tribal dances and rituals or sampling the native foods.

While Papua New Guineans mostly eat rice, greens and starchy root vegetables like taro and cassava, they savor the limited high-protein foods available to them.

These include eels, sea turtles, bush rats, birds and wild pigs-whatever they can catch or shoot with a slingshot or bow and arrow.

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Fuglestad said he enjoys grub worms, once eating as many as 15 in one sitting.

"They're very juicy, very oily, and they've got a characteristic crunch when you bite down on the head," he said.

On a mission for books

The school systems in Papua New Guinea are "tough" and limited, according to Fuglestad.

Many children will receive only a sixth-grade education, and if at any point they don't pass their exams, they're out of the system for good.

They're referred to as a "sixth-grade leaver" or an "eighth-grade leaver," and so on.

Only some get the opportunity to attend a provincial high school and then a university.

While their options may be few, the students aren't lacking in determination. "They're all motivated, but they're limited by what's available to them," Fuglestad said.

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Whenever he returns to visit, tribal members beg him for books.

He's been able to secure some, but wants to collect many more, package them up and ship them for distribution to children in the villages.

Any books will do, he said, including schoolbooks and children's books.

"Books that they might love to read will help them to learn to read," Fuglestad said.

Anyone wanting to donate books to the cause can reach him at this email address: paulfugle@gmail.com .

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