We interrupt these village living posts to bring you a special Christmas post...

It being my first time away from home for Christmas, it had to be something special ~ so I joined a group going to visit Karkar Island for 4 days over Christmas. Karkar is a small island off the north coast of PNG, on which is an active volcano.

We left on Sunday morning about 8am. There were 9 of us: Chris, Matt, Deb, Juliann (my housemate), Liz (my village living partner), Joyce & Sharlene (who did POC with me), and Carolina (who lives next door to Joyce & Liz—she’s here for 3 mos from Germany to check out SIL) and ME! We all piled in a PMV that one of Chris’ Papua New Guinean friends, Ken, had arranged. Ken & his family also came along, as his wife is from Karkar and they were going for Christmas too. Our PMV was a small 15 passenger van--about the size of a minivan, they just put more seats inside. MY knees were against the seat in front of me, you can imagine how snugly the 2 guys fit. I think that we ended up with about 18 people squeezed in, plus all our stuff (we had to bring all the food we planned to eat as well—no stores on the island).

We rode the 4 hours to Madang, where we stopped for a bit at the SIL center, waiting for the Ken’s, the Papua New Guinean, family to pick up some food, and they also found a PMV to take us to the boat dock. Another hour ride, this time in truck style PMV. We crammed on, I think that even some people got off so that we’d fit.

When we got to the boat dock-no boats. We were glad that Ken’s wife was from Karkar and had been able to get a hold of here father, and he arragned for a boat to pick us up. The boat came...and it was just a small speed boad; not really the size to carry 15 people plus two mountains of cargo. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that the boat would take the 9 of us over first, then come back for the Ken’s family. So we loaded all our stuff on the boat, and then they asked us to pay in advance (unusual) because they needed to get fuel. The guy took the 20 liter container into the village hoping for fuel, but there was none, so the boat driver said they would just go up the coast a bit to find fuel. So, we watched all our stuff & food for the 4 days being driven away on a boat by someone we didn’t know...we found out, though, that they were sons of Ken’s wife’s father’s sister or something, so we thought that everything would be safe. After waiting for a bit, we decided a game of Rook might pass the time...and about an hour later the boat showed up again, with all our stuff & fuel too J The 9 of us climbed in for the 45 min ride across to Karkar Island. Here we are disembarking on the island; and a photo of Karkar from the boat.

So, we settled in. We stayed at the Lutheran Guest House, which is on the grounds of the hospital that they operate there on Karkar. Dr. Elizabeth and her husband Tony are from Germany. We actually ended up staying in the teacher’s house, which was really nice with 1 large bedroom and 2 small ones. So the 7 girls all slept in the big room (2 single beds, 2 double sized mattresses on the floor, and 1 thermarest) and we let the guys each have their own small room. Then there was a bathroom, a living/dining room, and a fairly decent sized kitchen. The power was only on from 7-noon and then again from 6-10pm. The water also went off from 10pm to 7am, and it wasn’t treated, so we had to boil all the drinking water.

Monday we got up at 6am to drive to a local plantation owner’s house. He had arranged for 2 guides to take us up the volcano (the top of which is about 4,000ft). We spent the morning hiking the mountain. We had divided into 2 groups, one that walked quickly, and then 5 of us that were a little more slow. Unfortunately when the fast group reached the top, it was all foggy and they weren’t really able to see much of anything. They headed back down and we, the slow group, met them and decided not to continue up just to look at the clouds. Oh, and there was a point when we were hiking when the sky just opened up and poured down and we all got soaked. So here we are, soaking wet, walking down the volcano. (I’m the 3^rd one back in the blue bandana).

We walked back to the house of the plantation owner, where we were supposed to be able to catch a ride back to the guest house, but no one was there. We wandered around the property and found that it had access to a really nice beach...so we all jumped in an swam around. It was REALLY wonderful after the volcano hike to be able to splash around, cool off, and relax.

Having stayed up till midnight, to welcome in Christmas, on Tuesday we slept in a bit, had french toast for breakfast. Deb made cheesecake and she and Sharlene got the two chickens in the oven to roast. Then we all walked down to the beach (3 min) for some snorkling. It was pretty nice out, and we did see some coral, fish and the pretty blue starfish that they have around here. Then back to the house to finish making Christmas dinner: cooked zucchini, roasted vegetables (carrots, potatoes, kaukau-sweet potato), lettuce salad, cabbage salad, roast chicken, gravy, and something that was intended to be stuffing, but wasn’t really :) Deb, an Australian had brought "crackers" for everyone, so we have fun pulling those--inside each cracker (after the loud popping noise when we pulled them apart) we found a silly joke, and these funny plastic crowns in Christmas red & green.

Photos of Christmas dinner: Chris, Juliann & me -- Deb, Sharlene & Liz

Tuesday we also played some games: Pit, Farkle (a dice game), more Rook J and stayed up late again...so hard to go to sleep when you’re having fun hanging out.

Wednesday we got up early to catch an 8am boat off the island. Here's a photo of the girls waiting for the boat.

When we got back to the mainland, Liz, Joyce and I separated from the rest of the group (who came on back to Ukarumpa), and we walked to the villages where we had done our village living, about 1hr up the north coast. (Joyce was in a village about 15 min from Banana Bush village, where Liz and I were, and many people in our two villages are related.) I was a bit nervous to go, but it was SO GOOD to see everyone again! It really did feel somewhat like coming home--seeing our was famili and friends again. Our was brother, whose house we'd lived in, and his family were away visiting his wife's family for Christmas, so we were even able to stay the night in our same house. Everyone in the village seemed happy to see us as well. Our family even killed a chicken for us for dinner! So we hung out with them all afternoon and evening, and then got up early to try to catch a PMV back to Madang town. We spent a lot of time waiting, but finally caught one, and 2 of our brothers (Joseph & Tedor) and our sister, Cris, brought us into town. Our brothers then waited with us until our teachers from POC met us, and we rode with them back to Ukarumpa. Here are Liz & Joyce with folks, walking down the road to a village to catch a PMV. The guys were really nice, and carried our packs for us.

So, thus ends our trip. Times of trusting God to work it all out, an all round unusual Christmas, but loads of fun!! Here is a photo that I took of the group on the hike on Monday, so you can meet everyone: L to R: (our guide), Matt, Liz, Juliann, Carolina, Deb, (another guide), Sharlene, Joyce, Chris

Evenings on the veranda

Probably 5 out of 7 nights each week we served “tea” on our veranda to all who wanted. To them “tea” was any hot drink--we mostly served coffee and Milo (like hot cocoa). We usually made 12 cups!

 

The tea time was followed by singing, accompanied by guitar, or story telling. Sometimes the stories were silly stories that the younger guys had heard, sometimes we answered questions about our home countries, and other times we just talked about nothing much in particular, just enjoyed hanging out together.  The really funny part was that even though we didn’t have a clock to watch, we usually called it a night about 10 minutes to 10pm every night.  Somehow, no matter how we tried, we still didn’t get to sleep very early, so those roosters crowing under our house at 5:30am were NOT our friends!

 

Cris - pt 3

Cris taught us how to make a “bilum” – a bag traditionally made from natural rope. It is now generally made from thin plastic-y string by lowland/coastal people (which is where I was for POC/village living), and wool-yarn by inland/highland people (which is where I am living now, at Ukarumpa).

The bottom picture shows some string bilums that were given to me as gifts when we left the village. There are different patterns associated with different provinces in PNG. The two on the left are a "mountain" pattern that is from the Sepik; the one on the right, if I remember correctly, is from Morobe (incidentally-I didn't get any with the Madang province pattern, which was where we were living; that one is more complex/time consuming, so they didn't have time to start and complete it in the amount of time they had to make them before we left)

The bilumin my hand is the one that I started when I was learning how to make a bilum. After I got the hang of it, Cris helped me, so that it would be finished by the time I left the village.

Cristofelda - pt 2

Cris taught us about collecting firewood: how to cut it with a bush knife, tie the sticks together with rope made from tree bark, and carry the bundle on our head.

Note the bush knife on my right in the bottom picture—it is a knife generally about 1½ ft--used for anything from chopping wood and opening coconuts to cutting the grass.

Cristofelda

Our oldest “was susa” (watch sister) and the one who looked out for us and helped us most with cultural cues was Cristofelda--Cris for short. The oldest unmarried girl in the family at 25, she was a really good friend to Liz and I and we felt free to ask her all sorts of questions about how and what we should do in all kinds of situations.

Here, she sits with Liz in our kitchen; washing pots with her 2-year-old brother, Tony; and making tapioc wraps (tapioc mash which is wrapped in a leaf and then boiled in cocnut milk—pretty good stuff!)

Working "Copra" - Drying Coconut

Our village, Banana Bush, is located on plantation that grows coconut and cacao (other wise known as cocoa). Part of the stipulation allowing them to live here, was that they would work on the plantation. There were different kinds of work, but one that was a project of the whole family was working “copra”. It is quite a process. They collect the mature coconuts, husk them, and cut them in half, as mama is doing using a bushknife. Then they are loaded into large bilums and carried to a “haus coppra” for weighing and drying.

When they are dry, then they are “shelled” and the dry insides are loaded into sacks and sold to the plantation. In this last picture, Papa is holding a split coconut on the left, and dried “copra” on the right.

What to do for fun? Volleyball!

Volleyball was a big deal in our area.  One of the men in our village had a net that was put up on many afternoons for everyone who wanted to play.  On most weekends the young folk walked about 45 min to another village to join in a volleyball tournament that was organized by one of the managers of the local coconut plantation.  The tournament had about 16 men’s teams and 8 women’s teams from the surrounding villages. Our village had a men’s and women’s team.  Our women’s team had 8 undefeated games, and I think our guys only lost 1 (because of a bad ref :)

 

Introducing....Liz

My Village Living teammate was Liz, an awesome gal from Australia!  I thank God for putting us together for these five weeks in the village as we both have fairly laid back personalities, and enjoy spending time with people.  She was also a good encouragement to me spiritually, and just a good all-round friend.

 

She has come to PNG for two years in a graduate program.  She would like to help out in the area of literacy, working with experienced literacy workers.  Often a literacy specialist will work concurrently with translators in a language group, teaching people to read, while at the same time the translators help to translate the Bible into the mother tongue ~ after all, a Bible is just a paper weight if you don’t know how to read it.

"Meri" blouses

I can’t remember if I’ve explained these yet, so if not…the long tops that Liz and I wore much of our time in the village are called “meri blouses” (meri = “woman” in Tok Pisin) – they’re all that not that attractive to Western eyes, but they are quite comfortable.  Meri blouses are the traditional tops/dresses in PNG.  They are generally quite roomy, falling anywhere from mid-thigh (blouse length) to mid-calf (dress length).  In PNG culture, it is important for women to wear clothes which are baggy in the thigh area. I also often wore coulottes--making myself doubly-baggy.

Our House

Our house was a fairly new construction, built mostly of bamboo by our brother, Bruno, for his family (wife Belinda and 2 little girls Cris & Vero).  It was really nice with four large rooms—two bedrooms, a kitchen-cooking area and another room that we used for storage.  The front had a large covered veranda where we spent a lot of time chatting, drinking tea, singing and just hanging out with friends.
There was no running water or electricity in our village, so we cooked over a fire; we had a little outhouse/pit toilet just down the hill from our house that we had sole use of; and we walked to another place to wash dishes, our clothes and ourselves (stay tuned … I’ll include pictures of those activities later).  Not having water and electricity was a new experience for me, but it was not too long that I was able to feel more comfortable without them.  It gave me a new appreciation for how much longer everything takes without them, and has made me more thankful for the blessings that I have (such as, the electricity to run my computer, allowing me to type this to you…and the phone line that allows me to post this on the internet for you to read).

Intro to Village Living

Our "Was Famili" ("watch family") has 12 children ranging in age from 27 to 2 yrs old. They took care and loved us like one of their own. They didn't always smile for pictures, but in everyday life there were lots of smiles and laughter!

In the top row are: Joseph-Wasem, Tedor, Simon (a cousin who barely made it in the photo), Cris, Papa, Mama, Vero (6 mo old daughter of Bruno), Joseph-Maran

Bottom row: Tony, Leoni, Tomas, Cris (daughter of Bruno), Bruno, Eric, Me & my teammate.

There are actually a couple people missing from this photo--a brother, Peter, and Bruno’s wife, Belinda.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Today is a great day to let you all know that God over and abundantly answered all your prayers for my five weeks in village living!!

My teammate and I had an awesome time in our village, Banana Bush. The family who looked after us was wonderful, and every one else in the village for that matter! I'll plan to begin posting some stories and pcitures from that time over the next while...so many memories and photos (550 photos!) that it's hard to know where to begin.

On Nov 13th I completed the Pacific Orientation Course (POC), and moved from living in Madang, a large city on the north coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG), to living on the SIL* center of Ukarumpa. I'm sharing a duplex with another gal who went through POC with me, and we're still trying to settle in a bit.

Today marks my first day of "work", as Thanksgiving is not a national holiday here in PNG. A few of us do have plans to get together for dinner and have our own celebration this evening though.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! And THANK YOU to God for how amazingly far He has brought me this year and the great care He has taken of me the whole way!!!

_{*SIL is a partner organization}

Five Weeks of Village Living

Early Friday morning we will be leaving for Village Living. My teammate and I will be spending 5 weeks in a small village called Banana Bush. We'll have a 7 minute walk to our drinking water source, and a 10 minute walkt to the place where we can wash/bathe. We'll have some assignments to do while we are in the village (written cultural observations, maps, transcribing and translating a short story in Tok Pisin, etc.), but mostly we will just be living--spending time with our was family cooking, working in the garden, chatting.

Talk to you again in November!

Day 3 of the 3-Day Hike

I realized today that I am getting used to BUGS. As I was walking along today, backpack on my back, hiking stick in hand, I realized that I felt the tickle of an ant inside my clothes. While at home I probably would have felt the need to stop, take off my backpack, and remove the offending bug, instead I just smashed it right where it was and kept on walking :)

COLD SHOWERS have never felt so good as they did after we returned from our last day of hiking!! We left in the morning about 8:30 and spent the next three hours climbing hills to reach, at last, POC on the top of our mountain. That last mountain was all about determination and the promise of a cold shower at the end, though I must admit that I was wondering if I would have enough energy to stand up in the shower. But we made it, got our cold showers, and had a light lunch and a nice loooong nap.

Day 2 of the 3-Day Hike

EYEBROWS. I never knew how important eyebrows were until day 2 of the 3-day hike. The gear hike was nothing. I've never been so gross in my life :) One of the gals said she'd never smelled quite like she did, and that she felt like her clothes were molding on her! It had rained all night the night before We awoke in the morning to a light drizzle. When we left in the morning it was still raining. we slipped our way uphill for about fifteen minutes to where there should have been a beautiful view of Madang...unfortunately it was completely covered in mist--but the mist was pretty in its own way.

Then it was downhill. One look at the steep muddy slope, and myself and one of the other gals just removed our shoes, figuring that we would have better grip without shoes than with. Still precarious, but shoeless and with ealking sticks in hand we made it down the hill. The huge rain the night before made rivers where there were none before and we ended up crossing about 11 rivers; some little trickles, others knee high. We again luched by a river, this one a sandy bank, so we sat on leaves to stay slightly cleaner. When we arrived in our night's stop, we students didn't understand that we had arrived. Thinking that we were just taking a break, we milled around for a good 45 mintues. Then we finally asked one of the ladies, is this Baitabag? Yes, it was. Oops! So, we felt really bad that we hadn't been trying to talk to the lady in the village. We decided that she was a bit busy with her two very cute 6 month old babies, so she didn't really have much time to talk.

The family that we stayed with was really nice. They had been working in their garden, and not in the village, which was why we weren't introduced to them right away. We had some great conversations that we didn't know were possible at our level of Tok Pisin, such as when our was papa asked about segregation in the U.S.!

Day 1 of the 3-Day Hike

We were packed up and ready to go in the morning by nine o'clock, but because we didn't actually have very far to walk before lunch, we delayed our startint time. After taking our "before" picture, we headed out of POC at 9:50. Myself, 3 other ladies, our national guide and two ladies made up the "namel" (middle) hike group.

After hiking for about an hour, we arrived at our first "malolo" (rest). The "isi isi" (easy easy) group, who had left a full hour before us had just arrived. We discovered that they had already had a small accident, someone had slipped and twisted their ankle. Luckly, one of the gals in my group had brought some medical tape to tape her own ankles, and was able to share some of that with the other group.

After another hour of hiking we arrived at our lunch stop for the day. It was along a beautiful little river, with some really nice rocks sprinkled freely alongside and throughout the river. We were so thenkful to be able to sit on the rocks and dangle our feet in the cool river water while we munched on our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After lunch we had plenty of time for a nice little snooze before heading out on the final leg of our hike--destination, our first overnight stay in the small village of Batab.

When we arrived in Batab, they really had laid out the red carpet! It was a small village, 2-3 houses and a few other small sheds. They had built a little shady spot, stretching a large tarp over a bamboo frame and covering it with large palm leaves. They served us each a fresh kulau (not quite ripe coconut with lots of juice inside) which was really refreshing after a long hike--and doesn't have to be boiled like water would. They killed a chicken and cooked it for us, to go along with the rice that we had brought with us. We slept in luxury that night--they gave us a whole room all to ourselves, with one giant mosquito net and pillows and even a night stand with a candle!

Today was the "Superbowl" in the Australian Football League (AFL). Being so close to Australia and because 4 of our POC staff are from Australia we all took time out to celebrate the big day.

Our lunch was traditional AFL game food--meat pies with chips (i.e. fries). The meat pies are similar to our American pot pies only without the vegetables; ours were mostly ground beef with a bit of sauce. You eat them topped with "tomato sauce" (i.e. ketchup) by picking them up with your hands.

The game is an interesting combination of football, basketball, soccer and volleyball! The guys do a lot of running and kicking like soccer but every so often you have to either bounce the ball (like basketball) or pass the ball (with the kind of uderhanded serve/punt that is used in volleyball) and like in American football you can tackle people on the other team to keep them from catching the ball (without the protective padding that is used in American football). There are 4 posts on each end of the field. If the ball goes between the two middle posts the team scores 6 points, if it goes between the two outter posts the team gets one point. It's quite an exciting game.

As in our Superbowl, we all thought that the commercials were actually worth watching but for very different reasons...we students hadn't watched any Papua New Guinea TV yet--and the commercials really are something else. Many are so very cheesy, we had some good laughs.

Final score? 163 to 44 !!

Sundays are special days here at POC. In the morning we are free to either attend the local church or to have a time of worship on our own. The local church is about a 10 minute walk up the mountain, and it is conducted mostly in Tok Pisin although a few of the songs are in the local language, Nobnob. A few of the songs are familiar English songs, translated into Tok Pisin: Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us and What a Friend We Have in Jesus. After church we come back and make lunch in our "haus kuk" (see entry from Aug 27). Then we quickly clean up lunch and prepare to leave for the afternoon. Every Sunday afternoon we go to a small "resort" called Jais Aben where we can get in for free. At Jais Aben there is some very nice swimming/snorkling and a smallish covered eating area. Many of us take the opportunity to buy an ice cream cone or a cold coke while we are there--yum! Most days, four or five of us will also play a game of Rook--a fun card game that I have learned since arriving in PNG. After relaxing for a couple of hours at Jais Aben, we come home to cook once more in our haus kuk. About 7:30 we all gather together for a short devotional time. This Sunday after devotions we all had an ice cream cone--with sprinkles or m&m's--in celebration of my birthday :)

DRIPPING with sweat. That was me today. In preparation for our 3-day hike, today we loaded up our backpacks with the things that we plan to take on our 3-day hike and weighed our packs. The goal was 9-13 kilos (I've no idea the corresponding weight in pounds :) and I made only 7.7! We then emptied the real stuff out of our packs and filled with the same weight in wood/water. So we had a "gear hike" today, with the full weight or our packs. There are three other gals in my hike group and then we have a national guide and two national ladies allong with us. We were so gross after our hike today, but had a great feeling of accomplishment at being able to climb up our mountain with a large pack on our backs! The three day hike is next Monday - Wednesday so stay tuned...

This morning we walked over to our was famili's house to go with our was mama to market. When we first arrived she told us that she had asked her 12-year-old to climb a coconut tree to get us some kulau (young coconut). The kulau is filled with a juice that makes a very refreshing drink -- and it is safe to drink without being boiled! (unlike the water :) Kulau also has a fleshy part that is pretty good to eat. Our was brother showed us how they peel off the outer skin of the kulau with a sharp stick, exposing the hard shell part. Then our was mama showed us how to open the end of the kulau with a bush knife (a knife with a blade about 18 inches long that is a must have for every household) and we got to drink the juice right out of the shell. On our way to the market, we walked by the place that our was papa works. His is helping to put in a cell phone tower on top of our mountain. A few men have been working for two weeks digging 6 square holes by hand, mixing the cement, and filling in the holes to make a firm foundation for the 45 meter tower that will be erected later by other folks. The market was just down our road at a wide point in the shoulder. The local ladies gather to sell excess from their gardens. We were able to buy 2 kinds of bananas; Tulip greens--rather like a spinich leaf; bread fruit-like ping pong ball sized potatoes; red beans--like green beans, but 12 inches long; and kaukau--the local staple food, rather like a sweet potato.

Thursday night I, along with my haus kuk partners, L & J, stayed the night with our was famili. I was a bit nervous but it turned out to be a really nice time! We sat around outside and chatted for a while. When the sun started setting, we went inside and watched our was mama told us how she makes rice with coconut milk. Then our 12-year-old was brother showed us how to get the meat out of a coconut. They have a little stool with something like a large grapefruit spoon on the end. Then you just sit on the stool, and "scrape" the inside of the coconut with the spoon and catch the scrapings in a large bowl. We each took turns trying our hand at it...I could use a bit more practice! After dinner we had a fun time of singing songs in English and Tok Pisin. One of the girls is very good on guitar and brought it with her, and she is able to easily pick up new songs. So we were able to learn some new songs as well as sing some of our English songs for them. We strung up our mosquito nets in the sitting room and slept on the floor in our same clothes. In the morning we got to look at our family's pig with six little babies, and our was mama's sister had 3 and one other family closeby had a small bandycoot. After we had coffee and cookies for breakfast and headed home for a nice bucket shower.

It's not all fun and games here at POC. On Monday in our Tok Pisin class our teacher told us a short story in Tok Pisin. We all recorded the story and have the assignment to transcribe (write down) the story in Tok Pisin and then analyze the story. The analysis for "support workers," folks that will be working as teachers, radio people, Computer support, airplane mechanics, etc., consists of a word by word "English Gloss" (i.e. English translation) and a "Free Translation" which takes a thought or sentence and puts it into the way that we would talk in English. The "language workers," of which I am one, have the aditional analysis of a "Morpheme Gloss" in which we try to describe in more grammatical terms the function of each word, or if the word is made up of two parts we describe each part. (For example: in English we would take a work like "sleeping" and separate "sleep" from "-ing" and note "sleep" as the verb, and "-ing" as the suffix. Here is sample sentence from my story: Tok Pisin Nau olsem-pela bik-pela dok, ol i slip. English Gloss now all big dogs they -- sleep Morpheme Gloss now all-MSS big-MSS dog 3PL PM sleep Free Translation Now, all the big dogs were sleeping. You may notice that many of the Tok Pisin words are similar to English, although some are pronounced a bit differently. There is also a bit of different grammar structure in Tok Pisin, and some times you have to say a few more words to discribe something. For instance, when talking about my "nephew" I have to say, "pikinini man bilong susa bilong me" (male child belonging to sister belonging to me).

ahhhhhh, rest. Yesterday we were treated to a day called "Tropical Delight"--a day of no class, only relaxing. In the morning we drove 1/2 hour to our director's cottage located on a lagoon. It is a small place, three small rooms and one front room which is a mix living/dining/deck-type space. The front room has half-walls and so is quite open to the ouside. Just a few steps down puts you out right on the small beach (which pretty much disappears at high tide). The lagoon is quite large and sheltered from the ocean by a few small islands and a coral reef. I was able to borrow goggles and a snorkle and go with a group out to the edge of the coral reef. This was really the first time I have been snorkling, and it was beautiful!! The coral was amazing...the different varieties of shapes, designs and colors! And there were some really pretty fish also. Growing up in the NW I've always thought that fish were rather ugly, but the fish along the coral reef are really quite cute.The staff really treated us, so we didn't have to help with lunch setup/cleanup. Many went out swimming again in the afternoon, but a bunch of us also played a game of Rook--I tied for first place! It was a great day off.

Hurrah!!! I mentioned last week that for POC they encourage us to be able to swim a mile in the ocean. Well this week, only my second time swimming, I actually made it to complete my mile!!! They don't really care how you swim as long as you make it, so I did at least half of the swim on my back. I never really learned proper swim strokes, so I think that I am actually faster that way! Feels good to have that behind me, but I've certainly been feeling my muscles for the last couple days!!

Here at POC we live in a sort of simplified dormitory-type setting. Groups of us live in rooms (the families each have two rooms, one for the parents and one for the kiddos) and then we share men's/women's bathrooms. The showers are cold from the tap. A fire is lit twice a day (6am & 4:30pm) to heat water in small silo-type deal. Those who would like a hot shower can put this water in a bucket and take a "bucket" shower which really is a metal bucket with an attached shower head. You then just try to soap and rinse really quickly before all the water runs out! I've only taken two hot showers since I've been here as I am almost always hot and the cold shower just feels good, and also because I don't have to worry about running out of water before I get all the shampoo out of my hair!

We had our first haus kuk (pronounced “house cook”) weekend this past weekend. The two other gals in my group (L & J) had already built the haus kuk. Rather on the idea of a tent, the poles or buns (pronounced “boons;” think: bones) are made of bamboo/tree branches tied together, with a tarp roof over it all. They also made a table with benches out of bamboo/small branches tied together. So, for the haus kuk weekend we didn’t get fed from the kitchen. We were responsible to prepare our own meals in our haus cook. We have a fire “pit” sort of thing, and a small primus stove. There was a bread baking class on Friday afternoon, and one of the gals in our group, L, took that. So we had the bread that she made to eat for the weekend. (L and J had also already bought some food stuff in town earlier in the week.) So we did bread with peanut butter/ butter & cinnamon & sugar, and fruit for breakfast (with coffee!). On Saturday, we just kinda munched around for lunch. Other folks had leftovers so we helped them get rid of those (out of the goodness of our hearts :); the gals next to us made pizza! Also, one of the staff came and cooked some bananas on our fire and shared them with us. For dinner we cooked rice and stir fry which turned out quite well. Sunday lunch we all ate in town at the regional office here in Madang, but for supper we cooked macaroni & cheese with tuna over our fire. J also made peanut butter cookies for dessert. The cookies were a bit tricky over the fire. We weren’t quite sure about the heat for them, but now we know that we need to wait for it to cool down a bit as they were done on the outside before the inside :)

To give us an opportunity to practice our Tok Pisin and the opportunity to learn more about the culture, we are assigned a "wasfamili" during our orientation. These families have volunteered to spend 1 evening a week with us, sharing a meal and some life experiences. Last night we all were introduced to our wasfamilis. The staff cooked a yummy meal and we shared it with our wasfamili and talked with them a bit. I didn't talk much, as I'd only learned a tiny bit of Tok Pisin (I'd had 2 classes), but I am in a group with two other single gals who did a really good job of talking and asking questions. I was glad that I was able to follow along quite well with most of the conversations, I just couldn't produce much on my own. Our wasfamili is really nice. Our "waspapa" and "wasmama" have 6 "pikinini" (children). The two youngest are the same age as my nice and nephew, and they were interested to see their pictures. Next Thursday we will go to their house for dinner. They have said that they like to sing and that we will also maybe do some singing next week.

3rd day and it already feels like I've been here at least a week! In a good way. I feel like I'm settling in and feeling more at home now. I'm starting to feel more like I know the people too. Everyone here is wonderful--expatriate and national staff and fellow students. We have quite a multicultural group. Our directors and kitchen manager are Austrailian. Our academic coordinator is Malaysian. In the students there are two families from Finland, one Korean/Austrailian couple, a couple from Costa Rica, and a few families from the US. There are also singles from Austrailia, Argentina, and the US. It's really fun to be able to interact with fellow believers from all these different backgrounds, but know that we are all here to support the spread of God's word to the people of PNG.

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 So, I made it to Madang, where my 3 month orientation will take place! I arrived in the capital city of Port Moresby yesterday afternoon and was picked up at the airport and taken to a missionary guest house for the night. It was SO nice to be able to shower. I then tried to keep myself awake until after dinner and made it to stay up until 8pm! Picked up at 4:45am, I was dropped off at the airport and made it on my flight to Madang. I got here in time for a breakfast, of granola and yogurt :) I was glad to see again a family that I had done some of my initial training with, and another family that is from my same town. Every day we will have a class to learn Tok Pisin, the trade language. Since everyone else started learning Tok Pisin about a week and a half ago, I will have my own tutor until I can catch up. This afternoon was a swimming day. I was given the option of staying behind, but I like swimming so I decided to give it a try. We need to eventually be able to swim a mile, but right now it’s pretty laid back. There is a 100 meter long rope that we can do laps around (1600meter ~ 1 mile). I think I made about 1/8th today :) I apparently need much more practice. So, tonight I practice for Tok Pisin class tomorrow. We are supposed to learn a short dialog for each class, though they are giving me a bit of slack on the memorization since I'm on the fast track right now. The dialog for tonight isn’t too bad -- 6-8 lines.