By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
JUST Imagine how someone can speak three foreign languages fluently after been born from an illiterate parent from a remote part of Papua New Guinea.
And the same person can be able to also win four international scholarships.
Well, John Bare or Ahmed Deedat (his Arabic name) can. In fact he won Australian, Malaysian, Saudi Arabia and Indonesian scholarships to study in Australia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesian. And can speak these languages despite not knowing about his real age.
“I was born in Dulai village of Salt-Nomane-Karimui electorate, Chimbu province into a very illiterate family. Right now I don’t know my age but I’m believed to be 43 years old. I’m the third born in my very large polygamy family. My father has several wives other than my mother and so I have many siblings and step siblings. But my father was very committed to us and ensured that all my siblings and step siblings went to school and my parents worked hard in our coffee plot to pay for my school fees. And so I attended the community school in my village and did grade one in 1980. I passed my Grade six and in 1986 I want to Gumine High School, a boarding school in another District.”
“I completed my Grade 10 National examination with good grades and won a scholarship in 1989 to go to Australia (my first international scholarship) to do grade 11 and 12 at St Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane Queensland. Later got transferred to Tae Koralybyn international school also in Queensland.
I then applied to do Pree employment Trade Training (PETT) course in Electronics at Port Moresby Technical College in 1994. After completing my one year PETT course, I was accepted to do my apprenticeship with Porgera Gold Mine. Unfortunately I didn’t take up my apprenticeship offer due to personal reasons and hanged around Port Moresby doing odd jobs like security guard. And in 2000 I attended the Islam mosque at Hohola and became a Muslim. I became a Muslim because I was interested in that religion specially to read books about Muslim. I read about the Gulf war. I admired how they dressed. I then went back home due to a raging tribal fight that was threatening my village. And during the fight I got injured and came back to Port Moresby in 2009. I then went to Hohola mosque and the brothers there helped me to get a scholarship for three months in Malaysia to-do basic management course (my second international scholarship). I returned and stayed around the mosque and applied for scholarship at Medina University in Saudi Arabia (my third international scholarship).
In Medan no English, only Arabic, but how I learnt and mastered Arabic is something I can’t believe. It was a six years course (2014-2018). But I withdraw in 2016 because my villagers want me to lead a hydro dam project, however, it never eventuated.
And in 2018 I came here (Indonesian Embassy) to learn Indonesian Bahasa for one year and now I’m a tutor in Bahasa class. I have won a scholarship to study advance Indonesian Bahasa in Indonesian and will go to Indonesian soon.”
Mr Bare who is married with one daughter and a granddaughter said that he can go to the Middle East, South East Asia and the Western countries like Australia, United State and United Kingdom.
“If I go to Middle East I can speak Arabic, in South East Asia, I can speak Bahasa Indonesian and UK, USA and Australia I can speak English.”
