The well owner

3^rd June 2010

“When the water supply workers of Tulagi first installed our water two months ago, they were very surprised. As soon as they connected the water it rushed down through the pipes but then immediately retreated back to the reservoir. In other words, nothing came out at the end of the pipe. At that time, I was at Isabel attending a church activity. When I came back and they told me, I apologized and said I was to blame. I didn’t get permission from the old woman who owns the source.”

Fr James Bosamata of Dende village, small Gela, aroused my curiosity getting me perplexed and confused. I really wanted to hear more. What does he mean by not asking permission from an old lady?

“Even the team leader of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation workers of Tulagi said this was the first time ever he’d experienced such a thing. Water rushing down but then suddenly retreating back to the source. When I got back from Isabel and they told me, I apologized. So, I eventually went up to the hills and asked the old woman’s permission,” he continued without giving me a chance to ask any question.

I couldn’t hold back my curiosity when he paused. I asked what he meant and could he explain?

Fr James Bosamata is a retired Church of Melanesia priest. Using his retirement money, he bought some petrol for his chainsaw and went up to the hills above his Dende village. Up there he found a big vitex (vasa) which he considered sufficient to give him enough timber for his new permanent house. Just next to this vitex, he found a fountain good enough to be piped for the more than 500 residents of Dende.

Given his holy powers, Fr Bosamata said he saw an old lady by the source when he first arrived. As soon as he saw her, she vanished into the pool. He knew right away that the old woman owns and looks after that source.

When he returned from Isabel and heard the story, he took some custom money – a dolphin tooth and a dog tooth – and went up the hills. As soon as he reached the source, he sat down and spoke in language saying he was sorry he didn’t get approval from her in the first instance. After having said that he picked up the dolphin tooth and dropped it into a small pool the left of the reservoir and said that was for her.

“As soon as I said that, the tooth disappeared so I knew she accepted. Then I took out the dog tooth and dropped it into another pool on the right and said the same thing. That too disappeared. Then I told her that I was not an ordinary person and that I needed to do my part to help my people. So I prayed and blessed the water before I stopped. But I also asked that she continues to look after the water for the people so nobody could spoil it. As soon as I did that I returned to Dende and asked the RWSS workers to connect it up. That’s what happened,” he said and smiled.

‘It’s interesting that a church priest should believe in custom things,’ I thought. But that’s how it is. All the good teachings of Christianity already exist in traditional practices. Good virtues, respect, love, being kind and so forth.

Fr Bosamata said he worked as a marine engineer, qualifying as a 300 horse power diesel mechanic during the colonial period. However, after a few years, he said he felt God calling him so he left to become a priest. And so he did and served for 35 years before retiring several years ago.

He also told me the water supply his people of Dende now enjoy today is only possible through his own struggles.

“I was lucky to have already filled up a form for a water supply. I have to admit the water supply could have been achieved man years ago if the Provincial Rural Water Supply and Sanitation people at Tulagi hadn’t sat on my application. I took the application form from the EU micro funds. Anyway, we were lucky the CSP supported us. This was after I retraced the application and retrieved it from Tulagi. When I gave it to the CSP coordinator also in Tulagi, she said I was lucky as applications for such projects were going to be closed in a week’s time. Fortunately, when screening took place, mine was the first to be approved,” Fr Bosamata said.

So his trip up to the hills above Dende, he said, was done a few years ago. The water supply only got to Dende early this year.

He said however that he and his committee need to extend the supply to a clinic to the east of the main village.

“If my committee had not weakened down, we would have completed that already.”

Fr Bosamata also added that now water is available, his next dream is to add sanitation and solar lighting for his people although he’s now 76.