A convivial evening with the Bergmanns

Paul Oates

On patrol out of Kabwum in late 1971, or was it early 1972, I visited the Bergmanns at Ulap. We had just walked through a cloudburst and the patrol were drowned rats. It was like swimming upright. Rev Bergmann said the station received nearly 10 inches in 4½ hours that day.

The Bergmanns gave me dry clothes to wear, while my khakis dried, and put me up for the night. During the evening, Rev Bergmann excused himself and conducted a reception test of a shortwave broadcast from Germany, saying he was required to report on reception strength. He was very official during this listening test and appeared to almost sit to attention. He took readings and notes that he said he had to send back to Germany.

Mrs Bergmann showed me where I was going wrong with my bread making. My bread improved significantly after that. Rev Bergmann gave me home made beer before dinner and home made wine during dinner. He produced the beer and wine using his wife's bread making yeast. From memory dinner was a very nice meat stew.

Not long before I left next morning, Rev Bergmann allowed me to admire his home made Rosella liqueur. He held the bottle up to the sunlight and it was a lovely purple red in colour and tasted exceptionally nice. I can still remember the wonderful taste on the back of my tongue.