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.