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}