I think that PNG Mothers know a little secret.

That no matter how hard it is - they never give up. Because they know that life is full of wonderful moments, waiting to happen.

Like watching the children they love graduate from school, or celebrating when they have a great game of netball or soccer, or seeing their kids get married and having children.

Many mothers will tell you about the loneliness of bringing up kids on their own, sleeping on other people’s verandahs, fighting with the ‘other’ women, opening their wallets and seeing that they have little money but their kids are hungry so they cook what little they have for their kids and eat buai or smoke cigarettes for dinner, go without breakfast or lunch so their babies can have some extra lunch money and wear shoes without holes to school.

They give up their friends and their social life so their kids can have friends and social lives and go to high school, college and university and  get degrees and get big and arrogant and parade and scream at their mums who did it all by themselves.

These are the women who wake up in the still of the night, trying to get their sick kid to hospital, or calling up relatives to ask for help with school fees, or attending parent and teacher meetings alone to discuss the grades of their children or to ask that their crazy child is not expelled but given a second chance.

They never give up. Cause they know, they believe, that life is full of little wonderful moments.

And it is in those wonderful moments, filled with pride and love when they watch their babies, that they know that deep in their hearts, despite all the pain, the loneliness and the struggles, it was all worth it.

Happy Mothers Day! …. and Thankyou.