“Sky is the limit” is Rodney Konai’s opening line as we sit down with him today to listen to his amazing story of hardship, endurance, and victory.
Rodney is a 28 years old Paralympian who recently returned to the country from Australia two weeks ago since he left in April. He was there for two and half weeks of intense training and classification in anticipation of the next huge game in United Kingdom this coming July.
He hails from the remote in Mataruka Village, Duidui Ward on the Weathercoast of Guadalcanal. His mother passed away when he was 6 years old. He was then raised by his father, older siblings, and relatives in a good nurtured communal environment.
Rodney’s father is from North Malaita but lived in Poisughu and Mataruka villages since the 80s. Today, he speaks the Poleo dialect flawlessly and is a respected elder amongst the communities in terms of schools and church activities.
When Rodney was about 4 years old, he started to experience a rare developmental deformity, which, affected both of his legs. His parents decided to bring him over to the National Referral Hospital, but unfortunately due to lack of money in those days, Rodney missed his diagnostic chances and grew up with a rare developmental deformity condition.
In 2002, Rodney was amongst the hundreds of little kids who were internally displaced to Titinge due to the crisis on the Weathercoast. Despite his condition, he managed to hike across the biggest island in the country over rugged and steeped mountains and strong rivers for 3 days and nights. It is a tedious and tiring hike, literally not for the fainthearted. But for those people during that time, it was about survival.
At Titinge, the Solomon Islands Red Cross Society supplied them with camping tents and weekly rations of food and water. The scenery was a bit like refugee camps depicted in the Hollywood films.
In 2004, the Peace Monitoring Council (PMC) and the Solomon Islands Government helped to repatriate them back to the Weathercoast after the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) set up a police station at Mbabanakira Station, Wanderer Bay Ward.
Rodney then started to attend the Mbabanakira Primary School in 2005 when he was 10 years old. There were still fears amongst the conflicted parties in those days.
He would cross the Tina River with the help of his cousins three times a day in the morning and then vice versa after school in the afternoon. A total of six crossings in one single day, 30 crossings in a week. It took him 2 hrs just to get to school every morning. So, he would be the first to get up early due to his slow walk.
At school, he would be bullied and even beaten up badly by his older class and schoolmates. However, his cousin brothers who were also his class and schoolmates would defend him.
“I was teased, bullied, and even beaten up so badly at times because I was physically different” Rodney recalls.
“At one point, I was just going to give up school completely. My teachers didn’t really pay attention to my condition. School was more like a torture for me. But then, I was so fortunate to have the support of my cousin brothers in the same class and upper classes who stood up against the bullies” he says.
He continues “Looking back now, I didn’t blame them. They probably lack proper awareness for people like me. I mean you have to also understand this was right after the crisis so for some reason, people were a bit behaving badly.”
During the weekends, Rodney would follow his dad and siblings to their family gardens and would help out with simple gardening chores. Because of his deformity, his dad and relatives didn’t want him to do much of the daily chores. So, he utilised the time playing games with his cousin brothers. He was a competitive soccer player. He would play along the black sandy patches of the Tina River after classes.
Despite the daily hardships; crossing rivers even during the floods, heavy rains, and the bullyings, Rodney managed to pass the Grade Six Exams in 2012, and made it into Form 1 at the Mbabanakira Community High School. He continued until Form 2. His dad then managed to get a small clerical job in one of the shops in Honiara, so he requested Rodney over so he could do his Form 3 there.
Unfortunately, the daily bus fares and pocket money were too difficult to cater for his schooling, so Rodney decided to quit school and stayed with his cousin sister in town.
In 2015, his cousin sister took a little bit of her savings and decided to enrol Rodney at Bethseda RTC school with basic joinery skills.
“It was another turning point in my life, just when I thought of giving up. For that, I will always be indebted and cherish my sister’s gratitude” he says.
Rodney graduated with his certificate in joinery a year later. Next, he joined the Youth@Work program in the same year and finished in 2016.
The Youth@Work was a Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) program primarily set up to address youth unemployment in the country.
Rodney was then given a job internship opportunity at the SPC Office in Honiara as a receptionist between 2017-2018.
Then he went to Kokonut Pacific and interned as an assistant admin and logistic officer for another year. He then returned to his former internship at SPC in 2020 for another 4 months on voluntary basis.
In 2020, another opportunity opened up for Rodney. He joined the Solomon Islands National Paralympic and trained for the powerlifting game in anticipation for a Paralympic Game in Samoa. However, he was told that there was no powerlifting game in Samoa. This does not discourage Rodney, but he shifted to other track and field sports such as javelin, shot-put, and, discus.
Rodney’s first rare opportunity happened in the same year. He was selected to represent Solomon Islands for the Oceania Para athletes in Queensland, Australia.
“It was a surreal moment. I have to contain myself and take all the excitements in. This is my first rare opportunity, I dedicated it to my late mother, my dad, family, relatives and the Creator!” he exclaims.
Rodney was then selected to represent Solomon Islands in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games between 24 August – 5 September 2021, in archery. However, the Solomon Islands Paralympic team didn’t make it due to Covid-19 reasons.
Again in April of this year, Rodney went to Brisbane and Queensland for classification in anticipation of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games between July and August in West Midlands, United Kingdom.
He is expected to represent the Solomon Islands Paralympic in powerlifting, but waiting to hear any decision from the Solomon Islands National Paralympic Committee if he should be heading to Mariana Islands for the Pacific Mini Games in Paralympic next month.
“I give all the glory and honor to the Most High for his endless love and all the people who helped me along the way to where I am today. Without their continuous support, I wouldn’t be here” Rodney emotional says.
“I want to acknowledge the Solomon Islands National Paralympic Committee, my Paralympic brothers and sisters, the hardworking coaches and trainers for the great opportunity and experiences so far” he adds.
As a take-home message, he expresses “I want to be the voice for the marginalized people like me, especially in Guadalcanal. There are a lot of young and talented potential paralympic people out there who are still being bullied, teased, stigmatised, and marginalized. I want to tell them that we have support and help centres and we can also play sports and represent our beloved Province and Country in the international paralympic events” he expresses.
He continues “Games, in general, unites our country whenever we face a lot of political challenges. In terms of Paralympics, we’re happy to participate despite the challenges. But, challenges bring us together.”
“It is a different feeling when you represent your country abroad. There’s a sense of pride, emotion, determination, respect and responsibility” Rodney says.
“So, I want to kindly appeal to the other people with special needs to come out and be part of our greater and diverse community through sports. “I also want others to know our place in society” Rodney concludes.
SOURCE: GP MEDIA
