studio to continue my training, and where I earned my third degree black belt at age 28. Even when I moved overseas for study and work, and could not find TSD studios, I still trained in martial arts, trying Tae Kwan Do in Spain, and Kyuokushin Karate in India, and then Hapkido in rural Indiana back in the US. When I moved to PNG with my husband David’s work with the Rural Airstrip Agency, I was not permitted to work in my field and missed training in martial arts, but couldn’t find any
train in and get experience from other teachers, and in styles of teaching and leading. Every day we ended classes sweating and happy. We talked in the car rides about what was different and the same in the studios we visited, and also managed some sightseeing, especially in rural Pennsylvania with its sprawling farms, Amish communities and scattered towns and cities. Most memorable for Nicholas was a tour of a chocolate factory in the town of Hershey! Two days into our stay, I received a very excited message from a former student who had trained in the Goroka club years ago, Grace Ward. US expats, she, her siblings, and her dad were among the first people to start lessons at the club in 2016, but they had moved back to the USA three years later. Grace’s text read: “R u in Pennsylvania with PNG crew?!” so I happily explained Nicholas and I were heading to the Worlds. A few messages later she surprised me by saying she was going to try to come too. Her positive memories of training in Goroka five years earlier were still strong, and she wanted to cheer on her old club and country. As the date of the Worlds arrived, we drove to Greensboro,
Nicholas meets Tabitha’s old instructor Master Paul Mimidis at his US karate studio
so continued, earning a second degree black belt the same year as I graduated with a social work degree. When I moved to Chicago I found another TSD
consistent training groups. This was what led to the creation of the Goroka club. While in Lancaster, Nicholas and I also visited other studios to
“We also visited other studios in the US to train in and get experience from other teachers, and in styles of teaching and leading”
At Mimidis Karate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Nicholas joins a group practising blocking drills
VOLUME 40 2024
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