Following the Freys

2 down, 34 to go

2012-02-03T17:03:00.000+10:00

I (Susan) have really been enjoying my new job doing audio recordings of Scriptures in the Highlands languages. It's exhausting, but fun. This week I was working with David and Albert, two speakers of the Fore language.

We spent a total of 10 hours in a quiet corner office to record four chapters of the New Testament. One of the men would read aloud into a microphone, while the other would read along and stop him if he heard a mistake (like a mispronounced or skipped word). I was manning the laptop, basically just pressing "record" and "stop", as well as deleting the bad parts and inserting the re-recorded bits, and checking to make sure the audio was coming through clearly.

Why are we doing this? Why just four chapters? The Fore New Testament was published in 1974. 38 years is a long time to expect a book to last in a village setting. Today there just aren't enough Fore New Testaments left to go around. These recordings will be put onto solar MP3 players and used to do testing in the villages. The idea is that for the languages like Fore that have already had New Testaments for a while, we can determine how good the translation is or if the language has changed enough that a revision is needed. We also hope to raise interest in the communities about using the vernacular Scriptures, or perhaps even to get support for doing a recording of the whole New Testament.

My boss tells me that there are 36 languages just in the Highlands region that he would like to have these recordings done for. Now I've crossed two off the list. Only 34 more to go. I know I won't get them all done before we leave on furlough, but hopefully I can at least make a dent in it! I can't do these recordings every week, because Greg gets pretty cranky if he spends too much time in childcare. So I have to take breaks in between, as well as allowing myself time to do the editing. But I'm hoping to get at least one or two done each month.

Now that the raw recording is done, I will spend a few hours editing it. I'll remove background noise, breaths and lip smacks and things like that. I'll also take out all the extra pauses that you get when you record someone who isn't a totally fluent reader.

Here, for your reading enjoyment, is an excerpt from the Fore New Testament. It's Luke 15:8-10, the parable of the lost coin:

Pigoya, Isu to meto kamana maya untiye: Waya ka'waina nayatura'mu mone u'ma mintakana, ka'anto tumiwakanaba kaikiya, a. Kampaye. Aeba kane igi'ma nama paga puma aogima aguyosagakiye. Aguyosama aborama waya aokina kega'e uma maya uwaimikiye: Monene kaka'waipa pi ago abatama maeyuwe. Pika ta'mu peno, ukiye. Pabiyama yekiri abiyo: Mantari Koti nkenisori kina igeba pabiyama agunta yagara ka waina agu a'wae pekiniba i'mu pikibewe, Isu piya untiye.

the eating habits of toddlers

2012-02-02T14:30:00.000+10:00

I’ve always heard that toddlers can be very picky when it comes to food. Greg has been asserting his independence and creativity in that area lately. Not only does he have very particular ideas about what to eat, but he also is very particular with how he eats it.

He takes great pride in choosing the correct utensil for each meal. Applesauce? A measuring cup is the obvious choice. And last week, he insisted on eating this dinner roll with the giant spoon from a salad serving set:

This week Greg decided that a slice of cheese is best eaten while lying on your back on the floor, staring at the ceiling. And if you can convince mom to join you on the floor, so much the better! And toast must always be eaten on the front porch, preferably with mom safely inside the house, where she can’t interfere with the process of feeding said toast to the neighbor’s cat.

Of all his mealtime quirkiness lately, my favorite is that he discovered that he loves hummus with veggies. I had made some for myself as a snack one day and we ended up sitting on the porch together, just quietly dipping our carrot sticks into the bowl and watching people walk by on the street. It’s not just that I’m thrilled that he’s actually eating some protein and the occasional bite of vegetable, but rather just the act of sitting down together and enjoying our little routine.

When he woke up from his nap this afternoon, the first thing Greg noticed was the lunch dishes that I hadn’t washed yet, and that the bowl of leftover hummus from last night’s dinner was now empty on the counter. He acted like the world was coming to an end! But luckily I had a bit more hummus in the freezer and so I thawed it out and cut up some carrot sticks. We went out on the porch and after I settled him into his chair he patted the one next to him, so that I would know where I was expected to sit.

Of course, when I went inside to download these pictures and write this blog post, I soon heard Greg making cat noises out on the porch. Sure enough, he was letting the neighbor’s cat clean out the hummus bowl...

what it takes to have a date in PNG

2012-01-27T10:33:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, Brian and I celebrated our fourth anniversary. I’m so blessed to have such a great husband!

In fact, he’s such a great husband that he planned a day trip for me to Goroka, a town nearly two hours drive away from Ukarumpa. We left Greg at home with a babysitter for the day, and so it was just the two of us. Going on a date in PNG is not such an easy thing to do. There is almost nowhere for us to go! Kainantu, the town closest to where we live, is a pretty rough-looking place. It doesn’t offer much in the way of entertainment unless you consider secondhand clothes shopping to be a good date activity (Brian definitely does NOT!). There is one restaurant at the local hotel, but it’s not exactly what I would consider special. So we decided to spend the four hours in the car to get to Goroka and back.

The day didn’t start out too promising when our septic tank started to back up first thing in the morning. Brian tried to figure out the problem and when he was stumped he proposed calling the plumbers. Then he looked at his wife’s face and realized that postponing the anniversary outing was not the best idea. So instead he arranged for them to come first thing the next day.

It’s a beautiful drive to Goroka, and it was so nice to have just the two of us in the car for once. We had heard about the J.K. McCarthy Museum, and so we decided to hunt around and find it. We’re glad we did. They had a pretty big collection of interesting cultural items, WWII artifacts and a whole room full of photos of the Highlands of PNG from as early as the 1930’s, when Westerners first started to explore the area. They even have a glass case containing necklaces made from human fingers. Interesting!

Then we went to our favorite place to have lunch in Goroka – the Pacific Gardens Hotel. It is a very lovely and peaceful place surrounded by greenery. And they have good food as well.

By that time we realized we had better head home, knowing it would take us another 2 hours on the road. So we headed back, stopping at the pineapple market on the side of the highway to pick out this big “two-headed” specimen.

We arrived home hot and tired from all that driving in a car without air conditioning, but still very happy that we had a chance to get out and have a real (PNG style) date.

30 Days of Christmas (and counting!)

2012-01-23T10:20:00.001+10:00

The postal system here is anything but predictable. An average letter or package takes 4-6 weeks to get here from the U.S., but there are no guarantees. Here in Ukarumpa, we didn’t get any mail the whole month of December! There have been different explanations for this rolling around, but no one is 100% sure what exactly happened.

Once our mail reaches Port Moresby, it is transferred to our airplane hanger there. Our airplanes make flights to Port Moresby every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Passengers and their cargo get first priority, and then if there is space, the planes bring up the mail. So if the flight schedule is busy, then it might take a while to get all of the mail up here. In December, there was no mail delivered to the hanger, so the planes didn’t have anything to fly up.

That means that many of us are having a late Christmas this year. Our families sent packages with presents, and they sent them with plenty of time (they thought). My mom said that she got a notice that her packages cleared customs in PNG in early December. But we haven’t started getting them until now! Who knows what they were doing for more than a month in-between.

We got our first Christmas package on January 12. Then on the 16^th some Christmas cards arrived. One package on the 19^th and one more today. They funny thing is that the package that arrived today was mailed December 12 – a full week after one of the packages that we haven’t seen yet supposedly cleared customs in Port Moresby!

So, in Papua New Guinea, Christmas is the holiday that just keeps on giving. We think that there are still a few more packages on the way, so we’ll just keep checking our mailbox.

18 Months

2012-01-08T14:52:00.000+10:00

Greg is 18 months today. My little guy is growing up so fast!

Look how much he has changed in the past 6 months. This is him at one year:

Our son is such a joy to have around. He’s always making us laugh.

His favorite place to be is in the back yard with our dog Ruby.

Ruby plays very well with Greg. She’ll snatch the ball right out of his hand, but is always gentle with him.

Box 1 of ?

2012-01-05T10:52:00.000+10:00

Let the furlough packing begin! Umm…Susan, furlough isn’t for another 7 months. Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. I’m the type of person who likes to have things planned out in advance and well organized, and so when Brian and I recently started seriously talking about our first furlough coming up in August, one of the first things that popped into my head is that I’d better start thinking about how to pack our stuff. (Brian’s first thought was what kind of car we need to get while on furlough, so that gives you a look at our completely different priorities!)

We plan to be back in the U.S. for a year, and we hope to have renters in our Ukarumpa house while we are gone, so that means that all of our personal belongings have to be packed and stored in a way that mildew, cockroaches and other vermin can’t destroy. But it gets more complicated than that. In the back of every missionary’s mind when they go on furlough is the possibility that they might not be able to come back. We plan to return to PNG after furlough, but there are no guarantees. What if our financial support drops and our organization won’t let us return to the field? Perhaps something unexpected may happen while we are in the States, and we can’t return to PNG for medical or family reasons. It sounds pessimistic to think like this, but the honest truth is that it happens all the time. We’ve seen it happen to our colleagues here. I figured that if I started packing at least some thins now, then hopefully our last month before furlough won't be as hugely stressful as we have seen it be for others.

And so, I’m packing with the possibility of not returning in mind. In the event that we didn’t return, we would probably have to ask someone here to dispose of all our stuff. We want to make this an easy task, so as I pack I’m labeling each box with a number, and also whether the box is “Ship” or “Sell”. Boxes marked “ship” will contain items that we would want to have shipped back to us in the States, and the “sell” boxes are things that can easily be replaced in America or which aren’t worth the expense and effort to ship internationally. I’ve also created an Excel spreadsheet to keep a more detailed list of what is in each box. (I love Excel… I’m such a nerd!).

This morning I started with something easy – the drawers in Greg’s room, which were full of things that he has outgrown or no longer uses. I divided them into three piles: The “ship” pile, the “sell” pile and the “yard sale” pile, (the third pile is for things that I plan to get rid of before we leave). While working on this, I realized how very few things I would want to have shipped back home. So many of our material possessions just aren’t that important, and I could easily live without them. So even though we have accumulated a lot of stuff (especially since having a baby!), it’s nice to be reminded that the most important things I have are going to be sitting on the airplane with me when we go.

Christmas Eve Photos

2011-12-25T19:16:00.001+10:00

I realize that other parents or grandparents might beg to differ, but I am pretty sure that my son is the most handsome of them all, even when he’s in a serious mood. We took these photos Christmas Eve (yes, even though it was raining, it was hot enough to take off the sweater we made him wear for the family photo.) He’s getting so big! Can’t believe that he’s almost 18 months…

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T17:41:00.001+10:00

PNG Jingle Bells and earthquakes

2011-12-22T16:23:00.000+10:00

Christmas comes during the rainy season here in

Papua New Guinea

, and we’ve had lots of rain lately. And when we have lots of rain, we tend to have more earthquakes. Most are pretty small, but last week we had a big one - 7.1! (No damage at our house). Brian and I were both at work when it happened. Brian was in the Auto Shop and when he saw the cars up on the hoists start to sway he ran out into the street. I was doing some Scripture audio recording with two men, and we all stopped and waited in silence as it shook…and shook… and shook some more. The babysitter told me that Greg slept through it.

I also had to share a photo of the nativity display that is featured on the front lawn of our store every December. Gotta love the PNG man in traditional costume, along with the cassowary on the right. You can’t really see it well, but there is also a black pig to the right of Joseph. I know that the Jews would not have had a pig in the stable, but in Papua New Guinea they are the most common and most valuable domesticated animal.

Below is a tribute to Christmas rain and mud. A big thanks to Krista, who wrote the lyrics to the Ukarumpa version of Jingle Bells below, and gave me permission to share it with you!

PNG Jingle Bells
Traipsing through the mud
In another heavy rain
Can't believe this much
Is coming down again
I wish I had a car
To keep me dry today
I don't think I'd get very far
In a one-horse open sleigh

O jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
O what fun we'll have today
If we don't get washed away!

The jingle bells they shine
But I can't hear them ring
The rain falls harder all the time
And I can't hear a thing!
It's not like this back home
Where snow is 2 feet deep
But at least if this were falling snow
We all could get some sleep!

O jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
O what fun we'll have today
If we don't all float away!

When lightning breaks a lull
The thunder really shakes
That jingle wasn't bells at all
But damage from the quake!
Our umbrellas all have leaks
The kids just want to play
It's the fourteenth time they've changed this week
And it's still the second day!

O jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle merrily
Christmas em i narakain
When here in PNG!

And last of all, I just had to share this photo of Greg with Santa, taken at our store’s annual Christmas sale.

Home Improvements

2011-12-15T16:44:00.000+10:00

Ok, how about a little trip back in time to when Brian’s parents were still here?

Nothing shows hospitality more than putting your house guests to work fixing up the place, right? Actually, Brian ran out of projects down at the shop for his dad to work on, and to be fair, Bob had specifically said “I want to get dirty,” so we decided to take him up on his offer and have him help us pour a new concrete pad under our verandah. Thanks for all the hard work you did – I know it turned out to be a bigger project than you expected!

It’s handy being married to a guy who has the keys to the center who can go get us a scoop of gravel on a Saturday. Greg was thrilled that the “do-bah!” (his word for dump truck or any other really big cool machine) came right to our house.

Everyone hard at work.

The finished product – doesn’t it look nice?

And Brian let me drive the loader back to the shop! (he didn’t let me back it out of the driveway, nor did he let me back it into the shed where it lives, but I got to drive it all the way there and dump a load of rubbish into a trailer. I think my next goal is to learn to drive the road grader – what do you think?

Goodbyes

2011-12-15T12:19:00.000+10:00

We live in a great community here in Ukarumpa, but one of the difficult things is that people are always coming and going. You make good friends, and then suddenly they have to leave for furlough, or medical reasons… or whatever. You might not see them again for years, if ever. On Monday we had to say goodbye to our friend Joy, who was in our orientation group at POC when we first came a little over three years ago. You can check out her blog for an interesting look at life in PNG, both in the village and in Ukarumpa.

Joy was a literacy worker with the Onobasulu language group in the Southern Highlands of PNG. Brian and I were her support team, which kind of meant that whenever Joy was insanely busy getting ready for a village trip she could call us with a list of things that we could do to help her, and we would reply “of course Joy, whatever you say!” We even got to go visit her in the village for Thanksgiving in 2009.

Sadly, Joy’s time in PNG came to a close, and she’s off to bigger and better things somewhere else in the world. Best of luck wherever you end up Joy – we’ll miss you!

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas

2011-12-15T12:06:00.000+10:00

Buckeyes are a Christmas tradition in my family, one that Brian readily adopted upon marrying me. As a kid, we always knew they would be at holiday parties, because all of my relatives made them. Brian and I decorated Christmas sugar cookies last week, but they are really good and I’m pretty sure they are not going to last until Christmas. So today I promised Brian I would make buckeyes.

So…. I didn’t have enough powdered sugar, and our store is out. It’s the holidays, and everyone who was smart bought it up in advance. But never fear – there is a resourceful missionary cook in this kitchen. Did you know you can make your own powdered sugar? You’re going to wonder why you never tried it yourself when I tell you how easy it is. (Actually, you probably won’t ever make your own because powdered sugar is one of those things that is cheap and readily available in the States, but that’s a whole different story.)

Ok, here is the secret: You take regular sugar, and whirl it in the blender until it becomes a fine powder. Easy!

Here is my dough with the homemade powdered sugar (the sugar didn’t get completely powdered, but hey, close enough for Papua New Guinea…)

And the final product. Somewhat misshapen and not completely coated, but the best I could do with my helper (see below) at my side insiting that he was going to die or worse if he didn’t get some more of that sugary dough!

And here is the recipe, if you want to try this at home:

Buckeyes

1/3 c. butter

3 ½ c. powdered sugar

2 c. crunchy peanut butter

3 c. Rice Krispies

Mix ingredients together and form 1-inch balls.

Melt in a double boiler over simmering water:

12 oz. chocolate chips or other chocolate

Coat peanut butter balls in melted chocolate and let cool on wax paper.

His father's child

2011-12-08T07:07:00.000+10:00

Grandma and Grandpa Frey brought Greg a toy nativity set, and he’s been having lots of fun with it. But he puts his own twist on the Nativity story. A shepherd is driving the Lego wheel loader, hauling hay and sheep. Poor baby Jesus often gets dumped unceremoniously on the floor, as Greg’s favorite piece of the set is the manger. Also notice the Lego Indian chief standing next to Mary.

A real vacation: Part two

2011-12-04T08:59:00.000+10:00

On Sunday, we drove an hour and a half up the coast to visit our was family in the village of Karmanang. This is the family that we lived with for 5 weeks during our POC orientation 3 years ago. This was their first time meeting Greg.

Greg with Jane, our was mama

Greg loved the village - so many interesting things to explore!

Drinking kulau (green coconut) - nature's Gatorade!

Sitting around in the haus win catching up with the family. We brought rice and Highlands vegetables, and they cooked us a nice meal to share.

We also went to church at the little foursquare church that our family attends. Ted, our was papa (on the right), carried Greg to church and he fell asleep in Ted's arms.

Back in Madang, we visited the market. Shopping for new meri blouses - the sellers don't mind if you try them on over your clothes.

Another day we visited POC - the place we lived during our 3 months of orientation when we first arrived in the country.

I had forgotten how lovely the view is from there!

After a little trial and error, we found this WWII plane wreck near a village a short drive away. We had to stop and ask people along the road where the balus japan (Japanese plane) was, and we eventually turned down the correct dirt track and found the family who are caretakers of the wreck and will let you see it for a small fee. Apparently the area was a Japanese airstrip during the war, and all over the place were little "ponds" that were actually bomb craters. Pretty neat!

A bit of local color.

Another day at the beach - this time at a place known to the locals as "Scout Camp". We ended up coming here because the resort we planned to swim at no longer allows non-guests to use their facilities except on weekends. It was a bit tricky finding this place too, as we had to drive for nearly 10 minutes down a "road" with grass as tall as our truck brushing the sides the whole way. But it was worth it! We had the place to ourselves all day, except for a few of the locals who live there who stopped by to say hello.

Enjoying the sand and water

Three men on a log, letting the surf lap at their feet.

And at the end of the trip, Greg, Sharon and I flew back, while the men drove. Greg isn't used to riding in a car seat for long periods of time, and we figured it would be less stressful for everyone if we flew back. I'll take a 40-minute flight over a 4-hour drive any day!

A real vacation: Part one

2011-12-04T08:56:00.000+10:00

Brian and I are not good at leisure. Our pastor told us this during premarital counseling and it still holds true today. We like to stay busy. And so, even though our organization allows us a generous amount of vacation time, we often get to the end of the year and realize that we haven’t really used any of it. (In my opinion, overnight shopping trips to Lae are often equal parts stress and relaxation, so I’m not sure I’d classify them as real vacations.)

Thankfully, this year has been a bit different. In June my mom visited, and we spent some time on the island of West New Britain. And last week, with Brian’s parents here, we went to the coastal town of Madang for five nights. We had gorgeous weather, a marvelous time, and I can say it was a very nice, real vacation.

We all drove the 4 bumpy, dusty hours to Madang squished into our truck together. This is us at the guesthouse in Madang, very thankful to be out of the car!

As you can see, Greg lost no time losing the shirt and getting dirty!

Looks like a football, but it's a young coconut. Go long!

I'm soooooo thankful that we brought the pack-n-play with us to the beach. Greg sure needed a snooze after all the swimming.

Greg is a little freaked out by the singing, dancing Santa at Papindo (the local department store)

And what's a trip to Madang without some beach time? We spent a great day at Rempi, where friends have a little house right on the water. Great snorkeling too. Some local kids came to watch us, and Greg loved waving at them and saying "hi."

Someone from Brian's church sent this swim float for Greg. It was perfect! It kept the sun off of him, making mom happy, and Greg got to float in the ocean and kick his legs, which made him very happy.

Ready for some snorkeling! We also witnessed a minor miracle that afternoon. Brian had lost the strap off one of his flippers while taking them off in the water, and we didn't realize it until hours later. Without much hope, Brian and I grabbed our goggles and jumped back in the water to look for it in the cloudy water near shore. The tide had been going out, so what were the chances that we would find it? Just as we were about to give up, Brian found it!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T15:19:00.000+10:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our loved ones back home. Today is just another work day here in Papua New Guinea, but Brian took the afternoon off of work so that we could enjoy a lazy holiday afternoon together. We are especially thankful this year that we have family here to celebrate with. Brian’s parents arrived last Friday, and Greg has been having tons of fun with grandpa and grandma.

Our Thanksgiving spread. Turkeys cost about $70 here, so we stuck with a plump chicken. But all the other staples are there – sweet potatoes, steamed green beans and carrots, rolls, stuffing and pumpkin pie – all homemade, of course.

Right now Greg is out for a post-lunch walk with grandma and grandpa, and Brian is asleep in front of the fire. (It was a rather cold and drizzly day, which just added to the Thanksgiving atmosphere). Here are some of the other things that we’ve been doing since Bob and Sharon came:

The morning after they arrived was our annual Craft Fair, and I had a table selling some things that I had made. Sharon brought some of her homemade cards and was my helper all day long.

Sunday after church we we out to lunch at the Kainantu Hotel - basically the only restaurant nearby.

They have a nice grassy outdoors eating area at the hotel, so Greg was happy to run around while we ate.

And of course Greg has been enjoying all the attention from grandpa and grandma. He thinks they are lots of fun.

Playing cards with grandma.

Catching a ride on the "tuktuk" at dad's shop.

Cinderella

2011-11-18T07:31:00.000+10:00

I think this is the first time I’ve mentioned our Ukarumpa Community Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella on this blog. Funny, since it’s been such a big part of my life the last few months! Every other year, the community does a theater production. Two years ago we did Fiddler on the Roof, which I had a small role in. This year I got to be one of the stepsisters in Cinderella (the one with the annoying laugh). Theater is something that I thoroughly enjoy being involved in. Who knew that it wasn’t going to be one of the things that I had to give up to be a missionary in Papua New Guinea? Thanks God!

Brian, on the other hand, is quite relieved that it is over. Now he gets to have his wife home in the evenings, not off at rehearsals.

Here are some photos from last week’s performances:

Ah... the evil step-family. Don't we look pleased with ourselves?

The gal who made the costumes did her best to make us stepsisters look ridiculous for the ball. Don't you love the hats? (She had a magazine with photos from the royal wedding for inspiration). I don't know how many people told me I looked like I had a big piece of wrapped candy on my head!

Obviously the prince is very impressed...

Uh-oh, trouble. Why is he so infatuated with that mystery girl? (This is right before our song, "Stepsister's Lament")

Cinderella and the fairy godmother were played by a mother and daughter, both with beautiful voices. Also Becky (a.k.a. fairy godmother) was the amazing seamstress who made all the costumes. It's absolutely incredible what she could make out of old clothes and fabric from the secondhand clothes stores in Kainantu!

We got to help Cinderella with her magical transformation backstage. We had four people helping and about 30 seconds to turn her from rags into this beautiful ball gown. The dress, by the way, was made from two dresses and a curtain, all from the secondhand clothes store. Becky did all the beading by hand.

Trying on the slipper. This photo is a bit embarrassing because my foot is all dirty on the bottom. I mean, my feet are dirty all the time here (sandals + dirt roads = yucky feet), but I should have thought to wash them before the performance. Oh well...

the Ferris Wheel

2011-10-31T11:23:00.000+10:00

Last Saturday was Carnival – the High School’s annual fundraiser. It’s kind of like a fair. They sell food, have face painting and a dunk tank, among other games. Live music, pony rides, and of course, the ferris wheel.

Ukarumpa’s ferris wheel is a homemade contraption with 4 seats, and it’s powered by High School boys. Although we’ve been to Carnival before (see this post from last year), none of us has ever ridden the ferris wheel. So we decided it was time to take the plunge.

One of the operators said apologetically, as he was having trouble fastening the seat belt, “These aren’t very good belts.” This photo is of me replying , “Well that’s reassuring!”

Greg did surprisingly well. He cried a little bit, but for the most part seemed to do ok as I prattled reassuringly about how fun it all was.

With a man-powered ride, getting a good weight balance is important. Unfortunately there were no other adults when it was Brian’s turn to ride, and so he was on with three small-ish boys. More work for those spinning the wheel trying to keep it going at a steady rate!

Greg tries on mom’s sunnies.

belly button

2011-10-28T16:35:00.000+10:00

Greg has been learning his body parts. The current favorite is belly button. If you are familiar with the Veggie Tales Belly Button song, then you will appreciate the fact that when we say “Belly Button!” to him in a South Asian accent he replies “Ah, ah!” just like in the song.

A close second is teeth. Greg loves brushing his teeth, and also loves to watch us brush ours. At bedtime he’ll excitedly say “theeth, theeth, theeth!”

When you ask Greg where his head is, he responds by smacking himself on the forehead. This comes from many, many readings of the book “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” (..one fell off and bumped his head)

Toes are popular too. Like teeth, this is one that he can actually say (sort of). Toes are important because that’s where your shoes go. And shoes mean you’re going outside!

Phew! Got to take a rest after showing off all my knowledge!

jealousy and mandrakes

2011-10-28T13:34:00.001+10:00

This morning was very refreshing for me (Susan). The Imbo-Ungu translation team is here in Ukarumpa this week for a work period. It is often very hard for translators to get translation work done in the village because of so many other responsibilities and distractions. So we invited several teams to come to Ukarumpa for two weeks to have some time to give their undivided attention to their translation work. Kerry, Jonathan and Rombe have been working hard all week translating rough drafts on their own, but today they wanted to have an advisor check on chapter 30 of Genesis.

There are many steps in getting translated Scriptures to the point where they are ready for publication. The translation is checked over several times by different people along the way. The advisor check is generally when someone other than the translators takes a good hard look at the first draft of the translation. And this morning I got to be one of the advisors helping to go through the chapter.

Kerry had already provided a “back translation” of the text. Basically, she translated the Imbo-Ungu text back into English for us whiteskins to read. We sat around a table heaped with different versions of the Bible, commentaries, and of course, laptop computers, and we went through the text verse by verse, asking the translators to explain anything that was ambiguous, or asking about parts where we weren’t sure that their translation captured the actual meaning of the text. I was pleased to realize that I still remembered quite a bit about the Imbo-Ungu language. I’m very far from being able to speak the language, but I know enough to be able to recognize key words and the little markers that show things like possession, or who the subject is in the sentence.

Genesis 30 is all about Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel, and their struggles over bearing children. One of the issues that came up was the word they chose to translate jealousy. We asked them to give examples of various situations in which they would use that word in their language, in order to determine if it was fitting for the Biblical situation they were trying to portray. That wasn’t too difficult.

Other passages proved to be more of a challenge. It was harder to translate verse 3, where Rachel gives her maidservant Bilhah to Jacob, telling him to “sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.” We had to make sure that it was understood that even through Bilhah was the biological mother, the children would be seen as Rachel’s.

And then of course is the whole bit about Leah buying the rights to sleep with Jacob with a bunch of mandrakes. That turned into a long discussion, because of course the Imbo-Ungu had no idea what a mandrake was. They had originally translated it as “grass seed.” Thankfully Ruth, one of the other advisors present, had done some research and came prepared with a drawing of a mandrake plant, and the explanation that the Hebrews thought that the mandrake held medicinal (or magical) powers to help a woman to conceive.

It’s has been far too long since I’ve been involved in an advisor check, and I’d almost forgotten how much fun it can be. At this point in my life, with a small toddler at home, it’s hard to be involved in this kind of work. Typically when a team comes here for an advisor check, it’s the sort of thing where you all work very very hard for a week or so, and then the team goes back to the village. Our daycare here at Ukarumpa is only open 4 mornings per week. And even if I arranged for other childcare in the afternoons, it would be hard on Greg not to see his mom all week long. (It would be hard on mom too!). But, as I left this morning, Kerry said she hopes we can arrange another time to get together to do more advisor checking, since they have done a lot of first draft work that needs to go through an advisor check before they can move towards getting it checked by a consultant and eventually published. So pray that we can find a workable solution – I’d like to be able to do some more of this!

Lego Men

2011-10-17T11:50:00.000+10:00

Right now Greg’s favorite thing is the big yellow tub of Duplo Legos that Grandma Kathy gave him. And while the cars and blocks are fun, the best part is the people. He likes to bend and straighten their legs and stand them up in a row on the floor. He also carries them around the house and puts them in odd places.

These are some the places that I found Lego people this morning, and this was just before 11am! Who knows what other adventures they will have before the day is through.

Carefully arranged on a plastic bag on the floor of the pantry.

Going for a ride in the dump truck…

I found this one in with my measuring cups when I was baking bread this morning

Hiding out in Greg’s hat.

all wet

2011-10-16T14:32:00.000+10:00

Greg had a great time helping Dad wash his work truck this afternoon. He got a little surprise from the hose though…

A bumper sticker you will never see on my car

2011-10-14T08:59:00.000+10:00

I had to laugh when this bumper sticker fell out of the newspaper when I was cleaning up this morning. Regardless of the brand, I will never put a bumper sticker on my car saying “I prefer the taste of milk powder”!

The ironic thing is that since Greg has been raised on powdered milk or boxed UHT milk (the kind that can sit on your shelf for months and only needs to be refrigerated after it has been opened), I’m afraid that he won’t like good ‘ol homogenized, pasteurized milk when we go home on furlough. That makes me kind of sad…

Brian's Birthday

2011-10-13T17:35:00.000+10:00

Today I got an email from my mom. “I still haven’t seen any pictures of the cake on the blog…” she said. Oops. I had forgotten about it!

So here it is. See, I told you not to get too excited. It sure tasted good though. All that butter and chocolate did the trick.

The birthday present I had ordered for Brian did arrive – the day after his birthday. But luckily there were some packages from family that arrived the day before, so Brian had some presents to open at breakfast.

One of the packages contained some Peeps. We gave one to Greg, just to give him that little extra sugar boost to finish off his breakfast. At first he just thought it was a great new squishy toy. But then dad demonstrated that it was edible. Wow! He wanted more of those! (Needless to say they were hidden when he wasn’t looking, or I know he’d beg me all day long for them)

Kodiak #3

2011-10-11T13:32:00.001+10:00

Yesterday the PNG branch’s newest Kodiak airplane arrived – number three for the aviation fleet. Eventually the plan is to get four Kodiak airplanes to replace the old Cessna 206’s that are becoming too expensive to maintain and fly.

Cake Decorator

2011-10-10T14:31:00.000+10:00

When it comes to decorating cakes, I live in the shadow of my wonderful mom. She’s not a professional per se, but she has always produced fabulous cakes. As kids, my brothers and I always looked forward to seeing what amazing creation she would come up with for our birthdays.

Here is me on my first birthday with my lion cake. I wouldn't be caught dead in a bikini that skimpy these days...

She has also done several wedding cakes, including our own.

So, tomorrow is Brian’s birthday and wouldn’t you know it – the store is out of cake mixes! So today I have been on a quest to make a delicious from-scratch chocolate cake for his birthday. For my first attempt (yes, there was more than one…) I tried to go the frugal route, choosing a recipe that didn’t use a lot of expensive ingredients. (we're always trying to save money on groceries here) The results were disappointing. It barely tasted chocolate enough to deserve being called a chocolate cake.

I had to try again you see, because I was feeling bad that the birthday present I ordered and had shipped via DHL has still not arrived (there is no such thing as guaranteed delivery time for mail in PNG!). If he wasn’t going to get a present on his birthday, then he should at least get a nice cake! So the second recipe I tried didn’t cut any corners. A huge brick of butter, a whole cup of cocoa powder plus some melted dark chocolate and some strong coffee to bring out the flavor went into the mix. I must say that I am happy with the results as they come out of the pan – it looks awful chocolaty and it came out even and tall enough that I should be able to do three layers.

After it cools I’m going to do a crumb coat and then I’ll do the actual decorating tomorrow. It’s going to have an Oreo cookie filling. I haven’t decided how exactly I’m going to decorate it, but I think I’ll keep it simple. Nothing that you would see on a reality TV show. Besides, now that I’ve written a post about it I have the pressure to show a picture of the final product!

Sugar Art

2011-09-21T10:44:00.001+10:00

I was making some cookies this morning to give to the neighbor kids as a thank-you for feeding our dog while we were out of town, and when I reached for the sugar container I noticed that the different colored layers were kind of pretty. The sugar we buy in PNG is produced locally, and it’s not the fine-grained, snowy white stuff that you buy in America. Ours is more like what you would get if you bought “natural” sugar in the grocery store – larger grains and a brownish color. The fun thing is that the sugar is a slightly different shade each time you buy it, and that’s how I ended up with the nice sugar art in my canister.

It is possible for us to buy American-style sugar here. It’s called ‘caster sugar’, and it costs about twice the price of the PNG-made sugar, since it’s imported from Australia. Brown sugar is also available, but it costs four times the amount that the PNG sugar does! So I have learned another trick that I use when baking. When a recipe calls for brown sugar, I use white sugar instead, and then just add a little bit of molasses or treacle to the recipe. You can hardly tell the difference, and it saves a lot of money.

Where the sun goes down in PNG

2011-09-16T19:13:00.000+10:00

Some of you may have heard that I, Brian, got to have a little adventure this past week. The adventure included trips in both an airplane and a helicopter and took me to some of the most remote parts of PNG and to places I had never been before. What was I doing? Well a translation team who works in the Sandaun Province of PNG had an airstrip lawnmower that was no longer working and they needed a mechanic to go and diagnose and repair the machine where it was. The province is called Sandaun (i.e. “sun down”, or “sunset”) because it is on the far Western edge of the country, right next to the Indonesian border. Since our normal small engine guy is away at the current time I was selected as a good candidate to go. I must say that I didn’t complain about a trip across PNG when someone else was footing the bill! So I HF emailed (that is, sent email messages over the HF radio) to the translators in the village to try and figure out what was wrong, then gathered some parts and tools.

I left on a beautiful Monday morning and flew about an hour by airplane, sharing the ride with a single translator lady to a bush strip halfway between Ukarumpa and the town of Wewak in the Sepik. There we met up with our helicopter (well actually it is another mission’s helicopter that we were borrowing while ours is in the shop for some repairs, ours is blue and white instead of red and white) for the half hour ride to Wewak. We refueled and added some more of the translator’s cargo to the chopper and headed out to her village another half hour away. We dropped her off and flew to yet another airstrip to refuel again. By this point I was getting really good at jumping out of the chopper with the rotors turning, grabbing the hand fuel pump and hose out of the rear compartment on the chopper while the pilot went to find a drum of fuel.

This is the Wewak coastline.

This is part of the mighty Sepik River of PNG.

After this last refuel we finally made it to the Yanebi airstrip which was our final destination for the day. So I left Ukarumpa at about 7:30am and we arrived at Yanebi at around 2:00pm. We had a bite to eat and then I starting working on the mower while the pilot left to sling load (that is to have cargo carried under the helicopter by a long rope) some drums of fuel from the translator’s house with the helicopter. From the airstrip, the translator’s house is about an hour and twenty minute walk through the sago swamp - or about a five minute chopper ride over the trees. It took me a couple of hours to figure out and repair the problems with the mower. Basically the carburetor main jet had become plugged with crud and needed to be cleaned and they were using the wrong spark plug. However, before I point too many fingers I have to tell you that I didn’t help the situation because I just brought more of the wrong spark plug instead doubling checking with the book and bringing the right one. So after I got the mower running and the belts all adjusted the mower worked good except for a small constant backfire from having a too-short of spark plug. However, we have new plugs scheduled for a flight this next week and the team on the ground there can change it out quickly and easily.

After the mower was running and the locals were cutting the grass for an hour it was time to fly over to the translator’s house for the night. This was probably one of the most fun parts of the whole trip. When the pilot was sling loading the drums of fuel he had also taken the front doors off to make the chopper a bit lighter. So with the pilot and I in the front and the translator and a few of the Papua New Guineans in the back we took off and did some fun maneuvers right over the water of the river that flows through that area. The pilot loves to do this whenever he gets a chance, so with a light load and a short trip we zipped through a few oxbows before popping up over the trees. Even with the noise canceling headphones on I could still hear the cries of the nationals as we did 60 degree banking turns as we followed the river. The pilot and I just grinned.

Parked for the night.

The village where we stayed the night.

After a nights sleep we took off for the trip back to Ukarumpa. We stopped off in Wewak to drop off the translation couple after their village stay and I continued on in the helicopter. We went to a couple of air strips that are in progress of being built to do some survey work and take pictures. Then we also stopped off in a village to pick up school materials that needed to be delivered across a mountain to another location that didn’t have an airstrip. I stayed behind while the pilot made the shuttle. Then we got back in the chopper for the final flight home. On the second day we left the village at 7:00am and returned to Ukarumpa at around 4:30pm.

Loading up school supplies.

Recipients of the school supplies

At one of the airstrips we surveyed there was this old Ford tractor (along with a bunch of implements) off in the weeds. The government had flown it in some years ago by helicopter to build the airstrip, but it had broken down (they told me it was the clutch). Now the people are finishing the airstrip by hand. I'm sorry to say that I don't think that this tractor will ever run again without some serious parts. The engine oil and transmission fill plugs were both long gone and I think both systems are probably full of water. I have to admit though that I kept thinking about the identical tractor that I have in Ukarumpa, and how this one would sure be nice for parts!

It was two full days and I was ready for my own bed, but it was a great experience and it is so amazing to see how much tools like lawnmowers and helicopters make a difference to people who live in the remote regions of Papua New Guinea.

The pilot with some village kids.

Cleaning up after Brian

2011-09-05T16:33:00.000+10:00

After Greg’s first birthday, I decided it was time to start intentionally looking for some work outside the house again. While staying home with Greg, I have had various from-home work assignments, mostly of the boring-but-necessary computer variety. And then I was teaching Spanish at the High School last semester, but that ended in June. Well, one weekend I was cleaning out our attic, and I forced Brian to go through some boxes and get rid of a bunch of stuff that he never uses. The next day he was talking with his office manager and they thought, “Hey! Susan is so good at throwing stuff away, she should come down and clean out our offices!” And that’s how I started working at Industrial one morning a week.

The Industrial department is in the process of merging with the Construction department in order to work more efficiently. Part of that is going to eventually involve a bit of office remodeling, and moving all of the Construction office staff to the Industrial office. Before that takes place, Industrial badly needed someone to come in and clean and organize all of the paperwork – and throw a lot of stuff away.

My first few days were spent in the previous manager’s office. I organized employee files, sorted through and cleaned the bookshelves, and then tackled the computer and organized all of the electronic files too, deleting things that were no longer needed.

Last week I got to start on Brian’s office. I wish I had a “before” photo, but here are the newly organized shelves. Ok, so this the Industrial office, so imagine not only a large collection of paperwork, service manuals and books, but also random greasy machine parts strewn here and there around the office and on the shelves, muddy rubber boots in the corner, and about a half-inch of dust covering everything that isn’t used daily. I was dusting the shelves and went to move a small bag of blue powder. It had some holes, and so when I touched it – POOF! – bright blue chalk powder for chalk lines went all over everything. Aargh! Good thing there is a huge pile of rags out in the shop!

Now the shelves are organized. Two shelves for textbooks, three for service manuals, two for parts catalogs. A few empty shelves for accumulating the inevitable junk. I threw away a ton of old catalogs. I even found a 1993 telephone directory for Cairns, Australia (that went in the trash!). But the 2010 Granger catalog was definitely a keeper – Brian and I paid good money to ship the 4-inch thick monster back from the U.S. last year!

There were actually some really interesting things in the textbook section. Industrial has seen countless different managers over the years, and they all tend to leave things behind. I found several old technical books from the 1940’s, including this one, which is one of Brian’s favorites:

It’s a 1944 War Department Manual for building airstrips and bridges out in the bush. Very interesting reading, if you’re into that sort of thing. Brian has a sort of growing fascination with bridge building, since it’s something that he knew nothing about when he came, but now there is an important bridge near us that is in danger of falling into the river, and Brian is afraid that he might get called in to help fix or replace it one of these days.

bye-bye curls

2011-08-30T16:11:00.001+10:00

It was a spur of the moment thing. Greg was napping, Brian had gone back to work after lunch, and I decided to give myself a little trim. I don’t normally cut my own hair, but it really needed it, and I figured, hey, why not? How bad could it be? But this post isn’t about my haircut - because just as I was finishing up my own hair, Greg woke up from his nap.

I have been wanting to cut Greg’s hair for a few weeks, but Brian has been very non-committal whenever I brought it up. Brian is the one who is sentimental about the soft little baby curls, and I’m the one who wants him to look neat and tidy. Which is pretty funny when I think about it – I would have expected it to be the opposite! Brian would certainly never let his hair get long!

This is curly Greg from last week.

How did I manage to keep my almost-14-month-old still long enough for a haircut all by myself? Well, I’m super mom, didn’t you know? Actually, it’s amazing what cooperation a usually-forbidden treat like an Oreo cookie will buy! Since it wasn’t really planned out, I didn’t get any photos of the haircut itself, but here is the final result:

From the side

The Stink Eye. This is Greg’s favorite look to give to people right now – especially random people who say hello to him while we’re out and about. I’m glad I caught this on camera.

Now I just hope Brian doesn’t kill me when he comes home from work and sees what I’ve done!

What a mess!

2011-08-24T08:49:00.001+10:00

Greg has become pretty attached to his daddy lately. When he hears Brian come home from work, he runs over to the door to be held, never mind the muddy boots and greasy coveralls. In the mornings, he just wants to hang out with dad, and he’s pretty sad when the time comes to wave goodbye to daddy as he leaves for work.

This morning Greg was feeling sad after Brian left, so I decided to cheer him up by letting him make a good old fashioned mess. I had an extra kilo of rice in the pantry that I keep just for things like weighing down empty pie crusts when I’m baking. I put it in the big green Tupperware bowl and gave Greg some spoons and cups and the whole kitchen floor in which to make a mess. Needless to say he had a grand time of it, and some good practice scooping and pouring.

And, inevitably, it ended with picking up the whole bowl and pouring it right into his lap!

The Medevac Pack

2011-08-17T09:30:00.001+10:00

Like a good boy scout, a good missionary should be prepared. They call Papua New Guinea the “Land of the Unexpected,” and so it’s hard to prepare for everything. But this morning I decided that our family needed to be prepared for a medical emergency.

“Medevac” is a common word in our vocabulary here in PNG. It’s short for “medical evacuation.” Medevacs are actually fairly common. Our clinic in Ukarumpa really is wonderful, and we get great service here. But they are not equipped to handle major medical issues, and unfortunately neither are many of the hospitals in country. In short, any medical situation that would require a trip to the emergency room would qualify for a medevac. It’s just that our nearest emergency room is in Australia!

A medevac can cost anywhere from $20,000- $70,000… yikes! (That’s why we have medevac insurance!). If insurance is paying, their procedures must be followed to the letter. You are allowed to take one person with you, and only one. No exceptions. That means that if Greg was sick or injured, either Brian or I could go with him, but not both. It also means that Brian and I have needed to talk about who we would leave Greg with if the situation required that both of us needed to go. It makes me nervous as a mom to think of leaving my baby behind while I go to another country!

I’ve always intended to put together a little kit of essentials in case we ever need to pack and leave in a hurry, but have never gotten around to it. But there were two medevacs last week, and I decided that I really needed to get it done. So this morning I compiled my “medevac pack.”

What’s in it, you ask?

- Basic toiletries in airline-approved sizes

- Lists of important personal, medical and insurance information

- List of personal contacts

- Cash, both Australian dollars and PNG Kina

- Financial information (I can never remember my ATM PIN number, and Brian can never remember the passwords for our online banking, so I figured we should have it written down!)

- An itemized list for each family member of other things to pack and where they are located: clothing, medications, diapers, etc – so that if Brian and I (or someone else in the case that we aren’t able to do it ourselves) can get the essentials together quickly.

We have heard the stories of others who weren’t prepared, and when the time came to leave, they were understandably under a lot of stress, and they found the simple task of packing a bag very difficult, or they got to Australia and realized that they had forgotten important things. Hopefully the list will make it easy in an emergency to gather the things we need. And here’s hoping that we never have to use it!

Fun Outdoors

2011-08-13T11:14:00.001+10:00

It’s a nice, sunny Saturday, so mom and dad took me outside to play.

I don’t like wearing hats, but mom insisted that I wear this one. It lasted about one minute.

Water is fun!

Here Ruby, smell the pretty flowers!

Ruby is a good pal. She doesn’t like it when I take her ball, but she lets me do it because I’m the baby.

making do with scraps

2011-08-06T09:53:00.001+10:00

As we’ve said before, there is not a lot to do in Ukarumpa in your free time. Everything shuts down at 5:00, and nothing is open on weekends here on center. It also gets dark at 6:00pm, so there is not much to do outside of the house in the evenings either.

After Greg goes to bed, Brian and I spend our time reading books, playing games, or watching movies. We’ve discovered the joy of watching TV series on dvd or that people have downloaded from the internet and mailed here (no commercials!) There is no way we could afford to download TV shows ourselves from PNG - it would cost about $30 per episode - but some kind family members have mailed us a flash drive with some new evening entertainment on it.

My new hobby this year is quilting, and it’s been an enjoyable way to spend my free time. I just started after we returned to PNG with Greg last year. There is quite a large group of ladies here who enjoy quilting, and they are a great resource for advice, fabric, and the most valuable and rare quilting commodity here – batting!

The problem with any craft hobby in Papua New Guinea is that it’s very very difficult to find the materials. For quilters, the biggest problem is fabric. It’s nearly impossible to find good cotton fabric here. So what do we do? We head to the secondhand store for a bit of recycling! Yesterday I joined some other quilters for a trip to Kainantu, where we browsed the secondhand stores for fabric. It’s kind of fun to shop for clothes that way. You don’t care about the sizes – you’re just looking at colors and patterns and the labels to find out what the fabric is made of. Here is a stack of some of the new fabrics I found yesterday to add to my stash. I’ll cut up the clothes, saving buttons and zippers for future use.

And here are a few of the projects I’ve done this year:

A baby quilt for my new nephew.

I taught myself the paper piecing technique. This is my first attempt...

…and here is a more recent one.

A scrap quilt I’ve been working on

And (I’m pretty proud of this) my first attempt at hand-quilting

What is it that I do?

2011-07-25T12:40:00.001+10:00

I get this question from time to time from people wondering what it is that I do here in PNG. Often I spend my time making repairs to one of my many machines or in the office sending emails, ordering parts or talking with people who need to schedule work. However, recently I have been spending a large bit of my time putting together the new electrical vehicle. Previously we had a 20-year-old Toyota pickup with a ladder rack and some spot lights that only worked part of the time. The truck was constantly in the workshop for repairs and many times was just not reliable. A little over a year ago I began researching what it would take to replace this vehicle and how would we outfit it. I looked at many of the different vehicles available in country and I drew up some sketches as to what they might look like. I then put together a proposal for project funding through JAARS to help buy a new vehicle. Similar to writing a grant project, but on a smaller scale, I put together the needed information and figures for the proposal. The project was accepted and JAARS proceeded to fund raise half the needed money to purchase the vehicle. The PNG branch came up with the other half and a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier was purchased. These vehicles are designed to haul about 10 people over very rough terrain and are used by the police, mining companies and individuals who want a reliable vehicle for work in PNG.

We started by having all the rear windows extra dark tinted to prevent people from seeing what was stored on the inside. Then we removed the standard bench seats from the right side of the vehicle. We installed a cargo barrier to keep items stored in the back from hitting the driver and shelving that could be used to store spare parts and tools. Both the barrier and shelves were custom kits that are designed for the Troop Carrier and were purchased out of Australia. We also installed auxiliary LED interior lighting so that when the electricians are operating at night then can see into the bins to get supplies and tools easily. We even wired it so that the lights will come on and off with the door switch. Before, the electricians would just throw their stuff in the back or the cab of their pickup (neither of which was secure) and head off to jobs. Often since they could not haul many supplies with them they made several trips back and forth to the workshop to gather items. This made for many wasted trips, so with installing the bins we will be able to haul stock on the truck and keep it organized while cutting down on trips to the shop.

On the outside we made a custom ladder rack to haul ladders and poles. Again this is something not seen much in PNG so we measured and fabricated to make a rack that was functional as well as looking nice with the vehicle. We added the reflective yellow safety strip down the sides to help for night visibility since it is a dark vehicle. There are SIL decals on the doors and twin spot lights mounted on the ladder rack. The spot lights are a marine grade water proof lights that are designed to be able to throw a beam of light through fog and rain and they are rated a 400,000 candle power each. By mounting the lights on both sides we can shoot at least one light 360 degrees around the vehicle.

The other thing that the Land Cruiser has over the standard Toyota pickup is that it has a six cylinder engine and a heavier chassis. This makes pulling our cherry picker for repairing street lights much easier and safer than the previous vehicle. In our testing we found that the Land Cruiser was able to pull the cherry picker up all our hills in two wheel drive where the pick-up struggled in four wheel drive. We also added wide off-road tires and wheels to help with stability and add traction for traversing rough terrain.

All in all we are very happy with this new vehicle and it was a fun yet challenging project to put together. It is something a bit different, but in PNG every day has something different in it.

little visitor

2011-07-24T11:11:00.000+10:00

This morning when we came home from church, we found this little kingfisher sitting on our porch right by the front door. He didn’t fly off, and so we all went inside and I hurried to get my camera. I went back on the porch and he was still there, but I realized that my battery was dead (must have accidentally left it on when I put it away), so then I went back inside to get the spare battery. Amazingly, he was still there when I came back, and let me take several photos from about a foot away before he flew off. We had heard a ‘clunk’ as we came up to the house, so maybe he flew into our window and was stunned. Who knows. But I’m glad I got the photo!

Another Birthday

2011-07-20T13:35:00.001+10:00

There is another July birthday in our family… mine! July 18^th, to be exact.

Brian made me the cake I wanted. Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? You know that amazing chocolate-almond cake that the husband eats by the handful? Well, that’s the cake I requested for my birthday. The amount of candles on there is scary though. 30 years old! Yikes!

I got some nice gifts, but the best by far is my new Kindle e-book reader. Brian and both sets of parents all pitched in to buy this for me. It will be great for traveling, and if there is a book I really, really want to buy, now I can just download it, instead of waiting 4-6 weeks for it to be shipped to Papua New Guinea.

A Public Apology

2011-07-12T09:17:00.001+10:00

Below is a letter from the SIL Director about something that happened here recently – a really neat picture of God’s grace at work in the lives of Papua New Guineans. Our family didn’t actually attend the ceremony – we were in Lae the day that it happened. This type of public gathering, with an exchange of food, is a very cultural way for Papua New Guineans to seek reconciliation.

God began something great on Easter Monday that took another major step last Saturday, 2 July. Backing up a bit before that – through most of last year, the SIL centre at Ukarumpa was under significant criminal activity – house break-ins and invasions on an almost nightly basis. This calmed down some in October 2010 when a security guard was murdered, and the valley was crawling with additional police.

However, real change began at Easter 2011. One of the Ukarumpa village pastors conducted an evangelistic crusade, resulting in these young men, most of whom had done jail time, wanting to publically apologise to me, on behalf of all of SIL. The village pastors recognised that even if the former criminals had done jail time, and even if they had apologised to me, as director of SIL, they still needed to make a public apology to the people who were impacted by their former criminal activities. That happened last Saturday.

On Saturday a number of us went over to Ukarumpa village. The local pastors led in prayer and gave a message from the Bible. A drama was presented demonstrating their former criminal ways, culminating in them turning their lives over to Jesus, with a closing song in their local language, in Tok Pisin and in English, speaking of Jesus being their only friend. Then, each former criminal publically apologised for their crimes and the hurt that this caused. A few of them made a particular point of going to the owners of houses they had broken into, to apologise – including one young man who broke into my house in April 2009.

The community then gave a gift of lots of garden food, as a practical element of their apology. The size of this wonderful gift caught us a little off guard! We decided to use two vehicles to bring it to the meeting house for church on Sunday – to enable all to see the outworking of Ukarumpa village’s apology, and to receive some of this gift to SIL. They also gave several hundred kina in cash!

The former criminals were very conscious that a number of people have already left Ukarumpa on their furloughs, or left finish, and likely are still harbouring hurts. These former criminals would have liked to give their public apology to all who were impacted, but their hope, and my hope, is that this letter telling of what these former criminals did last Saturday will go some way to helping others begin to heal from the hurts of their criminal activities.

Church the next day was a testimony service! A few of the testimonies were related to these security events – people recognising and repenting of our own lack of faith and belief in the power of prayer; people commenting on a lack of balance between justice and grace and forgiveness. We are all on a journey, us in SIL and the Ukarumpa village community. My prayer is that this report will be an encouragement and help for you, along that journey.

In Him,

Tim Lithgow

Director, SIL-PNG

The gift of food that the people of Ukarumpa village gave to our commmunity.

One of the former "raskols" apologizes for his former crimes.

Greg is Growin'

2011-07-09T14:10:00.001+10:00

Happy Birthday Greg! I can hardly believe our little guy is a year old already! He is so much fun right now.

Here is the last of the tiger photos:

Just to compare, this is the first one that we took, when he was 2 months old. (We were in the US and the tiger was in PNG at one month, so no photo):

We celebrated his birthday a bit early before my mom left. Originally mom planned to be here for his birthday, but then my brother and sister-in-law announced that they were expecting their third child in mid-July. Mom wanted to make sure that she didn’t miss that, and since Jess has the tendency to have her babies early, Mom arrived back in Colorado the evening of July 5. It’s a good thing too, since she got a call at 4am on the morning of the 6^th saying that the baby was coming! Poor mom, jetlagged and with only a few hours of sleep under her belt, had arrived home just in time to greet Greg’s new cousin Rylan. I’m super excited that Greg will have a cousin just a year younger than him.

Greg got this awesome Carhartt jacket from Grandma and Grandpa Frey. He needs a little time to grow into it…

Grandma Bordewyk brought Rody with her – an inflatable bouncy horse. Here dad is showing Greg how it works.

Dad, you’re so embarrassing!

This is the first ride on Rody – and the only one so far. A few seconds after this photo was taken, Greg got “thrown.” He has since carefully avoided the green horse. He hasn’t yet learned that you need to get right back in the saddle! We’ll give it a little time.

Mom helped me to make this train cake for Greg. This is a photo when it was freshly made and not leaning yet.

As the cake settled, we were really afraid the engine would fall over. Luckily it make it to the table in one piece. Greg didn’t hesitate at all when we sat him near it. He went straight for the Skittles!

Yum!

And here are just a few more shots of Greg looking all grown-up (sorry, no smiles today):

Bola Bible Dedication

2011-07-07T12:00:00.001+10:00

The Bola Bible was dedicated on June 25. Six of the Old Testament books and all of the New Testament are in the Bola language. The remaining portions of the Old Testament are in the trade language Tok Pisin. The Bola people preferred to print a whole Bible rather than just a New Testament, even though the Old Testament translation is still in progress.

We had to walk a few kilometers down the road to get to the dedication. Typical for PNG, we woke up that morning not knowing when it was supposed to start. We finally reached someone that we knew by cell phone around 9:00, and they told us that things were starting to happen, and we’d better start walking!

We found a crowd at the side of the road getting ready. They were “decorating” their special guests, including the Wiebe family (the expat translators who have been working with the Bola for years on this project).

There was a group dancing and singing while people gathered for the procession.

As the only white baby, Greg was pretty popular.

When the procession finally got started, this lady just picked him up and joined the parade. But hey, it freed me up to take photos!

We all marched slowly down the road for a while, led by the dancers. Finally we reached a big open area where a grandstand had been constructed. But first, the procession had to be handed off to two other groups of dancers.

After lots and lots of dancing and singing, the guests were finally seated at the grandstand and the rest of us scrambled to find any shade that we could. It was hot!

There was a drama that told the story of how God’s Word was first written in Hebrew, and then explained how it traveled around the world and finally reached Papua New Guinea. And then, of course, there were lots and lots of speeches.

Greg kept getting whisked away to be held by different ladies. He didn’t seem to mind it too much.

After the ceremony was finished, people could go and buy their own copy of the Bola Bible. They sold a lot of copies, but another hot item was the reading glasses that were being sold along with them. I heard lots of people talking excitedly about the reading glasses, which were selling for only two kina (about 80 cents).

We were given a huge bundle of mumu tapioca and pork meat, which we tasted and then passed on to another group nearby.

It was a great day, but we were happy to be back in our bungalow with ceiling fans and cold water that afternoon!

West New Britain

2011-07-07T11:38:00.001+10:00

While my mom was visiting, we had the pleasure and privilege to travel to the island of West New Britain to attend the dedication of the newly-completed Bible in the Bola language.

It was my first trip to the islands, and the first time for all of us to see West New Britain. We flew in one of SIL’s Kodiak airplanes, and we all had to wear life vests since we were flying over the ocean.

We stayed at an environmental research center called Mahonia Na Dari, which was about 1.5 kilometers down the beach from where the dedication took place. Our bungalow was right near the ocean (Kimbe Bay).

A sunrise view in front of our bungalow.

We stayed for 4 nights, and so we had time to do some other things as well. Right next door to where we stayed is Walindi resort – a very nice place that was a little out of our price range. We did have dinner there two nights, and we took advantage of their dive boats to book an all-day snorkeling trip.

We thought that this sign was pretty funny.

Greg taking a nap on the boat. Brian, mom and I all took turns staying with Greg in the boat while the others snorkeled. We got rained on a bit, but overall the snorkeling was awesome!

For a kid who loves his bath so much, Greg wasn’t too interested in the water at the beach. He was very into the rocks and sand though!

Grandma Kathy

2011-07-04T11:00:00.001+10:00

Sorry that we haven’t updated the blog in a while! We’ve been busy because my (Susan’s) mom Kathy came to visit us for 2 weeks. She hadn’t seen Greg since he was about 6 weeks old (and I guess she was happy to see Brian and I too…)

I wish I could say that this was a photo of Greg running to hug grandma when she got of the plane, but the truth is that he took about two days to warm up to her. He would enjoy playing games with her, but wouldn’t let her hold him for the first few days. Having my mom here made me realize what a big sacrifice it was for our parents to let us take their grandchild halfway around the world. But I’m grateful that Greg and Grandma Kathy were able to have this special two weeks together.

And as you can see, they soon became fast friends.

It was a lot of fun to show her around PNG. Now when she reads our emails, she'll have a much better idea of what we are talking about.

Mom left early this morning, so now we’re back to our normal routine. We did lots of fun things with grandma – more pictures to come.

Greg is Growin'

2011-06-12T10:51:00.001+10:00

He’s not a baby anymore… each day it’s becoming more and more apparent that he’s a toddler. Yes, Greg is eleven months now.

Here is his 11-month tiger photo:

Greg is walking everywhere. He started walking at 10 months and 10 days, and the first day he was already up to 30 steps in a row. Now it’s impossible to keep him on your lap during church. (We don’t have nursery here).

He likes to play the piano…

And look down at the dog from on the porch.

He knows that the quickest way to get mom’s attention is to go and play with something that he knows he isn’t allowed to touch! He can lift the lid on the toilet and likes to experiment with dropping things into it. He’s a handful. But you have to admit, he’s a pretty cute handful!

Joy's granola

2011-05-28T17:17:00.000+10:00

Brian and I are a “support team” for our friend Joy, who does literacy work with the Onobasulu language group. This means that we help her out with all of the little things that she needs when she is getting ready to go to the village or when she comes back, and we’re also who she can contact while she is in the village if something comes up. Well, Joy is going out soon for an 8-week stay with the Onobasulu, and she asked me if I could make granola for her.

When you are flying out to a remote area you have to carefully consider both the size and the weight of all of the things that you are bringing with you. You pay for your cargo by the kilo, and it all has to fit in the airplane too! So Joy does a lot of calculations to figure out exactly how much food she needs to bring. She asked me to make her 16 cups of granola. She brought over the ingredients, and I spent an hour or two mixing it up and baking it. It’s just a small thing to do, but it’s one less thing that she has to do before she goes.

Agarabi New Testament Dedication

2011-05-23T09:03:00.002+10:00

Yesterday we had the privilege to witness the dedication of the New Testament in the Agarabi language. A large number of expats and Papua New Guinean employees from Ukarumpa were there because the Agarabi language group is a close neighbor to us – it was just a 30-minute drive down the road. It has been a long road for the Agarabi. Three different expat translation teams have worked with the people over decades to see this work accomplished, and there were lots of setbacks. But the national translators (pictured above) were dedicated and stuck with it, and now they have the New Testament in their hands. They aren’t stopping here, however. They are committed to continue working on translating the Old Testament.

Some boys decided to find seats up on the roof of a nearby house.

As is typical in PNG, the program started an hour late and lasted three hours. There was singing, marching, a drama, and lots of speeches. The drama was very well done, and first showed a bunch of men in ‘traditional’ dress, symbolizing their life before Christianity, when they still followed their traditional beliefs.

PNGns love drama, especially when there is humor involved. This drama was no exception, and as the son of the current expat translator came in with two “porters”, symbolizing the first time that a white man had come to them, one of the “porters” stole the show by acting goofy.

The drama portrayed how the white man brought modern things like salt, axes, and clothes, but how he also brought the Gospel message and began the work of translating God’s Word into their language. That man was an Australian school teacher, who lived among the Agarabi in the 1950’s, when PNG was an Australian colony. Remarkably, he was able to return to PNG to be present at the dedication!

After a few hours of preliminaries, the big moment arrived, and the boxes of New Testaments were carried in.

Here is a family photo that we took yesterday.

Praise the Lord for this great work! As one of the speakers reminded us yesterday, however, the printing of this book is only the beginning. In order for the lives of the Agarabi people to be changed, they need to read this letter from God and take it to heart. Please pray for that to happen.

An Alphabet for Ma Manda: Part 4 (The way out)

2011-05-14T16:21:00.004+10:00

After we had such a successful week in the village of Kesengen we were all ready to head back home to Ukarumpa. Friday night we celebrated by eating the rest of our snack goodies and watching a movie on Ryan’s computer. Shortly after going to bed it started to rain and not just the nice little light rain, but a torrential downpour that lasted for hours. There was thunder and lightning and I don’t think any of us slept very well. In the morning however it looked fine and the sky was clear and bright. We started the closing ceremonies for the workshop. The participants sang a tok ples song and had the words written out in the new alphabet for all to see. Each participant was presented with their own copy of the mini-dictionary that we completed. During this ceremony however, several people from the community came up to us to tell us that the road to get out was all messed up. We began to worry, but we let the ceremony finish before we really started to ask questions.

In Papua New Guinea you never really know what “messed up” really means until you have seen it with your own eyes. We asked if anyone had actually seen the bad spots in the road and most had not, but had heard it from some other people. Since we already had the car loaded to go home and we really wanted to leave we decided that we would at least try it and see how far we could get. Because of prior experiences in PNG we have learned that sometimes you can still make it through even if they all have decided that you can’t.

We left Kesengen and when we were barely out of the village we got stuck in some deep ruts carved out by the heavy rain. It took us about an hour to dig our way out and push though.

We kept traveling down the road and came across some other “bad” spots, but nothing we were not able to handle. At one point there was even a tree over the road, but when we arrived there was already a group of people cutting it out of the way. So after helping them a bit we were on our way again. Well at least for a few yards. Then we had to help get a PMV truck through some mud and turned around to get back down the mountain.

Once getting through all these obstacles and traveling about 4 kilometers we came to our first big obstacle - the big river crossing. This river crossing is notorious for high water and trucks getting stuck. Back in 2004 a large log bridge had been built so vehicles could easily cross, but it had broken a few years ago and was no longer passable. However, after the big rain on Friday night you can see that it isn’t even there any more!

We spent three hours sitting at the crossing waiting to see if the water would go down enough for us to cross. As we waited the locals that were with us began building a log dam to help fill in the washed out portions of the river. What this does is stops the rocks and sand flowing down the river and backs up the area behind the logs. This is a typical practice in PNG for fixing water crossings. As we continued to wait there were multiple times where we thought that we could probably get across, but the guys would be like “No, no, not yet. Let us fill in a couple more holes.” Well the holes kept changing as we went. Finally it started to rain and I had just about had it. The people all wanted us to go back up the nasty road we had just come down to go back to Kesengen to sleep and try again the next day. I really didn’t want to leave the car where it was since if another heavy rain came the whole road might go into the river. We opted to try our luck at fording the river. We piled the kids and ladies back in the car. I told the girls to pray and off we went. I “stood on the throttle” in third gear four-low and into the water we went. We crossed without too much trouble and came roaring up the other side of the river. We stopped at the top of hill on the other side and got out to see what the river looked like. People came running up to say that the dam that they had built had broken as soon as we were across and thus making the river totally impassible that night. We felt like God had truly sent His angles to watch over us as we crossed. We could just imagine a multitude of angels holding that log saying “When are these people going to finally go across” and once we were over were allowed to let go. Pretty awesome stuff.

Just five minutes walk down the road revealed big obstacle number two. There was a six foot wide ditch across the road! Since it was getting dark there was no way we were going to get across that evening so we loaded up enough clothes and supplies for the night and started hiking off for Tinibi (the next village about one kilometer down the road). About ten minutes into our hike the rain started pouring again. And this time it did not stop. With me holding a backpack and Susan holding Greg with a banana leaf over their heads as an umbrella we trudged down the road. It took over an hour in the soaking rain and dark to hike to Tinibi. In a couple of places we had to cross knee deep mud bogs that had flowed across the road in the heavy rain on Friday night. We arrived in Tinibe soaking wet and not sure where we might sleep, but we began to see what the wantok system can really do.

In Tinibe lives a man named Wesley who used to be a member of the PNG Parliament and is well liked by the local people. His house is where we would later end up, but first they had us “dry out” in a traditional style house with a fire. The fire was hot and felt good, but this is where we also learned that most of the clothes items we had brought with us were also soaking wet. The kids were crying and tired and we had quite the despairing moment. However, after about a half hour wait Wesley came to greet us and invite us to stay the night in his home. Needless the say we were shocked and wonderfully surprised to see our accommodation for the night. A first class home built out in this remote village with beautiful wood floors, electric lights (run by a generator), soft beds and hot food. The Papua New Guinean culture of hospitality and helping those in need is an amazing thing to see and experience. We filled our bellies with rice, tinned meat and 2-minute noodles and went to bed.

In the morning we devised a plan of attack on how we were going to get the rest of the way down the mountain. On the drive in we had calculated the complete drive from the highway to Kesengen to be about 30km and we had only driven 4km and hiked 1km to get to Tinibi so that meant that there was 25km more to go before we would see asphalt. Since we were running low on energy, kid friendly food, and the kiddo’s were starting to get sick we decided that Ryan should hike one direction to try and get cell phone reception and call back to Ukarumpa. He would try and get a helicopter to come and pick up the girls and the kids to fly back to Ukarumpa and also let them know that we were all still safe and sound. I on the other hand would hike back up the road and see what we could do about getting the car at least to Tinibi. (At this point we had no idea what the rest of the road looked like and we wanted the car to at least be in a safe place.) The girls would stay at Wesley’s and watch over the kids and rest.

As I hiked a few minutes up the road we can to the worst of the mud bogs. Me and three other guys started by diverting the now little stream to flush the mud away and roll away the boulders that had moved in with the mud. It took us three hours to clear the stones and wash away the mud using two spades an iron bar and a few hefty sticks. A few youths came to help too but it was still a big job. However, we were all happy to get it cleaned out and move on to the big washout.

While we were cleaning out the bog we thought that another group was coming down from Kesengen to begin work on the washout. On our arrival on the scene no one was there nor had anyone started the building of a bridge that we could use to cross the ditch. To make matter worse the rain the night before had washed it out more, so that instead of six feet to get across it was now eight feet and the narrowest part at a bad angle to build a bridge. So the four of us split into two groups, one to go cut trees to make a log bridge another to clear out brush from where we wanted to make a way for the bridge. We cut logs and hauled them down the creek pulling with jungle vines. We lay the logs down across the divide and marked out the wheel spacing on the car. We then dug out the area around the ends of the logs and made the tops of the logs were even with the road surface. Once the logs were together we lashed them together with more vines, filled the gaps in the logs with stone and sand and made a very strong and smooth road surface for driving the car over.

During all this time Ryan had finally hiked over a ridge or two and was able to get enough cell signal that he was able to send out some text messages to one of our friends in Ukarumpa. He told them that we were okay, but needed a lift out. Sadly though we found out that both of our helicopter pilots were out of the country and the one chopper that was at Ukarumpa was down for service. So needless to say we were not going to be flying out. However, the autoshop was willing to come in another vehicle and try to drive in to get us out. During this time they had also learned that the road below Tinibi was mostly clear except for one bad spot. So the Landcrusier with three men headed our way from Ukarumpa and arrived about 3:30 in the afternoon. They had picked up Ryan who had hiked back to Tinibi and had come to check on me. While they were at the bridge site one of the trees we had tried to fall earlier which had gotten caught in another tree decided to let go. We were standing next to the bridge and looked up at the sound of cracking and saw a massive tree falling right at us. Miraculously everyone got out of the way in time, but one boy did get hit by a few of the branches. The tree fell right between the last two logs we were laying in place and thankfully we hadn’t lashed them down yet or it might have destroyed hours of work. All it did was crack one of the logs, which we were able to brace underneath to make it strong enough to drive across.

Since the building of the bridge was going so well and we knew the road to Tinibi was pretty good Ryan and I decided to stay with the car and try to get it out, plus Jeff, one of the guys who came with the “rescue” crew, would stay too. The other two guys, the girls and the kids would drive out that night. (We later found out that they did not get back to Ukarumpa until 10pm because it was such a slow drive out and when they hit the main highway there was more rain. Driving in the dark in PNG in not advisable and in the rain is even worse.) It took us until about 6pm to finish the bridge and then try to drive across. As you will remember me saying earlier that the angle wasn’t that good. Well if we had a little Jeep CJ-5 we probably would have been just fine, but our long bodied Nissan Patrol proved more difficult. We could get the front half of the truck over the bridge, but the back tires would just not line up. Since there was a big bank and boulder next to where we were trying to cross we couldn’t get the truck straight enough to get all four tires on the bridge. We ended up using the tree that fell on the bridge to make it a little wider, but the success in crossing came when all the people that were there came and lifted the back of the truck and moved it over twelve inches while the front half was out on the logs. Oh did I mention that it was dark when this was all happening? Thankfully Jeff had brought a good flashlight as that was all we had to use to see the alignment of the tires on the log. Once across everyone cheered and hugged at the amazing accomplishment that had been made that day. Ryan, Jeff and I along with five nationals piled into the car for the slow drive back to Tinibi.

The last night out on the trail was most relaxing. Since it was dark we decided to stay one more night with our host Wesley and tackle the rest of the road in the daylight of Monday morning. We again ate greens and sweet potato for dinner, but we were so tired that we didn’t care. Plus Jeff had brought out a few snacks to help tide us over. Since Sunday had been sunny all day and the evening looked clear we were most hopeful for our Monday departure. After a good night’s sleep we were on the road at 7am. An early start, but we still were behind a few PMV’s that were on their way to Lae. We made it to one bad spot in the road where two PMV trucks were stuck. We too stopped and got out to watch the two trucks get through. It took about a half an hour to see the two trucks though the mud. When it was our turn I again hit the hole hard and fast (we got video instead of pictures so sorry to all of you as we can’t post videos) and made it through without problem. There was a third PMV that came up behind us that didn’t fare as well as us and was still stuck when the two trucks ahead of us pulled over to let us go by. Another hour down the road and we were back on the asphalt. Tired, hungry and dirty we were finally able to reach highway speeds again for the final two hour drive home. So after taking two days to do what it took us two hours to do going in we were finally back on the highway.

Thanks again to all who were praying for us on this trip. We know the Lord was looking over us the whole way and we are pleased that a trial alphabet is now done and ready for use in the Ma Manda language.

Oh and on Thursday this week I was down in Lae doing some department buying and I saw the PMV truck from Kesengen in town. So even though the road was bad at the beginning of the week it looks like they had it fixed enough so they all could get back out to town.

An Alphabet for Ma Manda: Part 3

2011-05-12T08:22:00.000+10:00

Here are just a few random snapshots from Kesengen:

Using the new alphabet for the first time! This is a sign advertising the closing ceremony for our workshop.

Greg did not enjoy cold water bucket baths.

This is where we bathed. It was pretty luxurious. Often in the village the men and women have separate bathing spots along the river, and bathing is a rather public thing. You bathe with a sarong or something wrapped around you, and people like to come watch. However, some of the teachers in Kesengen kindly allowed us to use their bathing spot. The photo is a bit dark (it was 6am when I took the photo), but there is a bamboo enclosure that is built over a drainage ditch. A long bamboo pipe runs from a water spigot to the bathing enclosure. Running water, and semi-privacy. Awesome!

Greg and Chloe looking out the window together. Greg loved following Chloe around and taking her books or crackers.

Brian reads Greg a story in our room.

I wanted to get a photo of this old lady’s head. Women in PNG carry heavy loads in bilums (string bags) that hang from their heads. This woman has a permanent crease in her skull from a lifetime of bearing heavy burdens.

Greg loves attention, and so he didn’t mind being passed around from person to person in the village. When I walked out of church on Sunday morning because he was being fussy, this gang of children happily followed and brought him all sorts of fruit to eat. Look at that smile!

And here is Greg with some of the men from the village. He was a popular guy.

Greg is Growin'

2011-05-10T10:25:00.001+10:00

Sunday, the day we came out of the village, Greg celebrated his 10-month birthday. So this morning I set about taking the usual monthly photos to document his cute self. I tell you, it’s getting harder and harder to get him to lie still next to the tiger. This morning he acted as though it was the most horrible thing I could have asked him to do, second only to having his diaper changed. But at last I was quick enough to get this photo:

For comparison, here is last month’s:

Poor Greg is having a rough time. He’s got three new teeth starting to come in, is feeling a bit sick, and is still adjusting to being home again after an eventful week in the village. Here was the first reaction to trying to get him to pose for a picture:

Having a flower to dismantle stopped the tears, but don’t expect me to look at the camera or smile Mom.

Finally, out of about 30 photos – I got one with a bit of a smile.

Hope you’re feeling better soon Greg!

An Alphabet for Ma Manda: Part Two

2011-05-09T21:37:00.002+10:00

How do you design an alphabet? What is there to design anyway – can't they just use the English alphabet?

You might be wondering why it took us a week to come up with an alphabet. Actually, it really takes a lot longer than a week. The alphabet that the workshop participants decided on at the end of the week is only a trial alphabet. After a few years of trying it out and testing it, they will probably make changes to the alphabet itself and to the spelling rules so that it is easier for people to read. English has been written for so many hundreds of years that it's hard for us to imagine what it would be like to have an unwritten language. And the English alphabet just doesn't fit the sounds of their language. They don't have a Z or C or Q or X, and they have 7 vowels instead of the 5 in the English alphabet.

The workshop participants were representatives appointed by the different villages. We also had a mix of men and women, to try to get a broader range of input.

We started out by having the participants write stories in their language. We didn't tell them how to write it. We just let them struggle through it. In this example, you can see how this person tried to represent some of the sounds that aren't present in English. The colons that you see in the middle of the words and the "â" symbols represent vowels that we don't have in English, and the "ŋ" represents and "ng" sound.

Then we walked through the different "problem" areas and shared as a group the different ways that people had chosen to write those particular sounds. There was a lot of variation. In this example, you can see that out of 13 participants, there were 7 different ways that they chose to write a particular vowel sound. We facilitated discussion in the group until they came to a consensus about which symbol they wanted to use to represent that particular sound.

Here Ryan is explaining why English is not a good alphabet to imitate. In a good alphabet, each letter represents only one sound, and each sound is only represented by one letter. But in English, one sound is represented by the "ph" in "photo", the "f" in "foot", and the "gh" in "laugh". The opposite is also a problem in English. Think of how our letter "C" has two different sounds, as in "cat" and "city." Ask anyone who learned English as a foreign language, and they will tell you how frustrating it can be to learn to read and write it correctly!

Brian and I helped out by being scribes at the black board during group discussions.

We also helped with data entry.

And even performed a skit (Brian doesn't usually carry a machete to class!)

By the end of the week we had produced a booklet that described the trial alphabet and the spelling rules that had been decided upon, along with sample stories written in the new alphabet. These booklets will be distributed around the different Mǎ Mǎndǎ-speaking villages. On Saturday morning we had a closing ceremony, and the participants each received a certificate. Here is the proud group with their booklets and certificates:

An Alphabet for Ma Manda

2011-05-09T20:44:00.001+10:00

We spent the last week in a village called Kesengen with our friends Ryan and Crystal, translators working with the Mǎ Mǎndǎ language group. There is so much to tell - where do we begin? (This is always the problem when coming back from the village!)

To start off, here is a photo of the Penningtons with their daughter Chloe. (I totally stole this photo from Ryan's blog.) The purpose of the trip was to hold an Alphabet Design Workshop. In other words, we were helping Mǎ Mǎndǎ speakers to come up with their own alphabet for the very first time. Exciting stuff!

Note: this is the same language group that Brian hiked to last November (read more about Brian's previous visit to Kensengen here). At that time we called the language Saut Manda, but since then they have changed the name to Mǎ Mǎndǎ.

Brian drove us to the village in a borrowed vehicle (our truck being too small for four adults and two car seats). The drive is two hours on the highway and then 24km up into the mountains on a rough 4WD road (another 2 hours with "good" road conditions.)

Here is Greg, sleeping peacefully through the mild bumps at the beginning of the off-road part. Towards the end the ride got rougher, and I was multi-tasking trying to sing to him to keep him from freaking out while at the same time trying to keep a large box that had bounced free from it's formerly secure position from falling on top of him. And Brian wonders why I didn't notice certain landmarks along the road!

The truck when we arrived, suitably covered with mud. Don't worry off-road driving fans. There are much more dramatic pictures to come when we tell about the trip home!

And this is the house that we stayed in. It was actually built by Habitat for Humanity. It was pretty nice for a village house. Inside there was a small common room and four 8'x8' rooms with plywood walls and floors.

There are a lot of pretty places in PNG, but the area where Ryan and Crystal work is gorgeous. Kesengen is on a plateau, and all along the edges of the village the ground drops away in steep cliffs. It's surrounded by big rugged peaks on all sides. Sadly, I'm finding that none of my photos really do it justice, because often the tops of the mountains were covered with clouds, or I just didn't have my camera with me at the right time (like at 6am when I was walking through the quiet village towards our bathing area as the sun rose).

The view from the front of our house. Greg has just had his bath and is quickly working on getting dirty again.

poison

2011-04-29T10:54:00.000+10:00

This morning my yard meri Teya came to my door close to tears. Her second-born child, a daughter, died on Wednesday. She was coming to collect her pay and to let me know that she wouldn’t come to work for a month.

According to Teya’s story, her daughter was working in the garden, and just fell down dead. I wasn’t too surprised to hear what came next. “Ol I poisinim em” (they poisoned her). You see, in a traditional Papua New Guinean mindset, no one ever just dies of natural causes. Death is not blamed on germs, or disease or old age. Bad things happened because of some sort of imbalance in the spiritual realm. And “poison”, or black magic, is often blamed for these sorts of unexplainable deaths. Unfortunately, this is often the start of many tribal conflicts. The grieving family must find out who is responsible for the poison, and retaliate.

Teya and her husband have worked for us for over two years, and we always had the impression that they were very devout Christians. But it’s amazing to see how quickly these traditional beliefs surface when something like this happens.

Teya’s daughter was married and had a young child (less than two years old). It sounds like there is some conflict about who will care for the baby, since there had been some marital problems. Please pray for this family, that they would meet God in their time of grief, and that they would not resort to retaliation for this young lady’s death.

Happy again

2011-04-27T18:01:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was rough. Between lunchtime and bedtime, Greg turned into the booger-man… and a very crabby one at that. He was running a fever and had a major “number 11” going on (the phrase we use here to describe kids who run around with boogers hanging out of each nostril.) He was not a happy camper, and neither was I, since Brian is out of town and we’re also planning to take a little trip to the village this weekend. Not the time to have a sick kiddo.

So I asked our prayer supporters to pray about it, and today has been so much better! I was really surprised at how well he has done today. Still has a bit of a cold, but he was smiling and playing again. What a relief!

Greg is quite the bookworm lately. He spends about half (or more!) of his play time surrounded by books – turning the pages over and over, and yes, turning the books inside out sometimes too.

This is the reaction I get when I say “oops!” I found out by accident yesterday when I was reading him Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton that he thinks it’s hilarious. All of a sudden, the miserable, sick baby in my lap started giggling every time I read the word “oops.” (I must have read it to him 10 times in a row yesterday.)

He’s really gaining confidence in standing alone. I have yet to get a great photo of him doing it. This one is still a bit blurry, but it’s the best I have so far.

It’s so nice to have him almost back to normal. Thanks for praying.

Boots just like daddy's

2011-04-22T13:11:00.000+10:00

pancakes to the rescue

2011-04-09T14:05:00.001+10:00

There are lots of websites and books out there that promote making homemade baby food. Most of them encourage you to do it to save money, or to make sure your child gets the most wholesome, organic food possible. Here in Papua New Guinea, we moms make homemade baby food because we have no choice! Our store has a very small baby food section. It typically has rice cereal, two types of formula, and one or two types of canned baby food. It’s enough to get you by in a pinch, but not day-to-day.

I’m thankful that we’re getting out of the “spend two hours a day cooking and pureeing and freezing vegetables” phase and Greg is more into finger food. Actually, at the moment, he’s not too keen on being spoon fed at all. He’ll tolerate it if he also has something in his hands that he can feed himself. But that can be almost as much work as pureed stuff. Oh, how I long for a box of Cheerios! Our store hasn’t had any Cheerios in stock for months. Since I don’t have any handy, healthy bite-sized cereal on hand, pancakes have become my new secret weapon. Greg adores pancakes. And it’s really easy for mom to fill them up with healthy things. These in the photo, that I made today, are zucchini/banana/oatmeal pancakes. They freeze well, and are a not-too-messy snack to bring along when we are out of the house.

Speaking of my little pancake eater… I think I hear him waking up from his nap. Gotta go!

Greg is Growin'

2011-04-08T09:15:00.001+10:00

Yep, it's that time again - Greg is 9 months today.

Here is his 8-month tiger photo:

And today at 9 months:

Since standing is one of his favorite things right now, I figured I'd let him do just that while I snapped a few photos.

Check out these teeth!

The Amazing Race!

2011-03-27T20:06:00.001+10:00

Yesterday, Ukarumpa held its first ever “Amazing Race,” patterned after the popular TV series. This even was the brainchild of Toni, one of our neighbors. She put a tremendous amount of effort into making it happen, and we are very grateful – because it was an awful lot of fun!

Here is a photo of my team – “Café con Leche.” From left to right is me, Johanna, Krista and Katy. We were the Latina team… well, sort of. Johanna is Colombian and Katy is Costa Rican. Krista and I are just gringas, but they let us be on their team because we speak Spanish. So, if you haven’t guessed, Johanna and Katy were the “café” and Krista and I were the “leche”.

We were given clues and had to figure out where to go for each “pit stop”, where we would complete a challenge before earning our next clue.

We did a blindfolded obstacle course...

I ate a plate full of such delicacies as sago, a sago grub, squid, jellyfish, fungus and sardines…

Sorting through stacks of envelopes to find a card…

I got a makeover from a blindfolded Krista…

Our skinned knees from crawling up Cemetary Hill on our hands and knees…

We learned a dance to Eye of the Tiger…

Poor Katy had to find one of our clues in a tub of whipped cream…

And more – 12 challenges total. It took us nearly 4 hours to finish, and out of 20 teams we came in at #10. Not bad. Boy was I sore the next morning though…

Lae War Memorial

2011-03-27T19:31:00.001+10:00

I meant to post these photos before this, but haven’t gotten around to it. While we were in Lae last weekend, we went to visit the WWII Memorial, which we had heard about but had not yet taken the time to go see. Papua New Guinea has a lot of WWII history, and plane wrecks are still being found around the country today.

The memorial was very well kept and clean. We were the only visitors on a Saturday afternoon.

Lae Guest House

2011-03-21T13:26:00.002+10:00

We spent this past weekend in the city of Lae (on the coast – PNG’s main port city) at the SIL guest house. Once a year, Brian goes down to Lae to do regular service on their generator.

Greg and I tagged along for a little adventure. It’s a 3-hour drive to Lae, and once we got into the lowlands, we really wished our truck had air conditioning. Greg was a trooper, even though he isn’t accustomed to riding long distances strapped into a car seat. We stopped at a crocodile farm just outside of Lae to buy some meat, and I snapped this photo, trying to capture a shot of his first two teeth that are just starting to poke through. Can you see them?

While dad was changing oil and air filters and diagnosing a gauge that wasn’t working, Greg practiced eating tropical leaves.

Lae doesn’t have a beach to speak of (not one that you would want to swim at anyway!), but the guest house does have a pool – something that is a real luxury here in Papua New Guinea. We also enjoyed such novelties as cable TV, take-out Chinese food, and air conditioning.

Here is another shot from the balcony outside our room. The compound is small, but very nice.

Greg is pretty squirmy now that he can crawl and pull himself up to standing. We were grateful that we remembered to bring along this travel high chair, or mealtimes would have been very messy!

Interact

2011-03-17T10:52:00.001+10:00

Once every two years, the language personnel in Papua New Guinea gather together for a week of seminars called Interact. With so many translators, literacy workers and scripture use workers all over Papua New Guinea, language workers tend to be isolated and sometimes it’s difficult to know what other people are doing. Interact is a good opportunity for us all to hear about each other’s work in their language programs – what is working and what does not work. We can share ideas and talk about the issues that we face.

This year the presentations were on topics like new helpful computer tools, innovative projects to get people interested in literacy, multi-language translation programs, communicating in oral societies and using board games to teach information.

Greg is Growin'

2011-03-09T13:19:00.001+10:00

8 months yesterday. How time flies.

Here’s the 7-month tiger photo:

And at 8 months:

Kainantu Shopping

2011-03-08T08:38:00.000+10:00

Here is a photo of a group of victorious bargain hunters just returned from a morning trip to Kainantu, the nearest town to where we live. (That’s me in the green).

Trips to Kainantu are often group affairs like this, and since it’s difficult for a lot of women to get off center (it’s generally not recommended for women to travel alone or without a man), they jumped at the chance when Geoff offered to rent a van and take a group to town. Packed full of 15 people, the air in the van buzzed with excitement on the 15-minute drive to town. I’m lucky enough to travel outside of Ukarumpa fairly regularly because we own our own truck and because Brian’s job requires frequent trips to Lae. But for some of the women, it was their first time into town in months.

Nearly everyone was eager to visit Kainantu’s three secondhand clothing stores. There is not much opportunity for shopping in Papua New Guinea, and about your only chance to get “new” clothes is to go to the secondhand stores. Secondhand clothing is cheap though, and it’s fun to see what you can find in the racks.

Other than shopping for clothes, the other main destination was Papindo, a grocery/household goods store. At the moment, the shelves at our Ukarumpa store are quite bare, because there haven’t been any new shipments of food in quite a while. Nearly all the women had lists of things that they wanted to buy that aren’t currently available in Ukarumpa, like powdered sugar and shampoo. Shopping in PNG is always somewhat of an adventure, because there is never any guarantee that you will be able to find what you are looking for. We also stocked up on sugar, because the Papua New Guinean company that produces all of the country’s sugar recently announced that due to bad crops, they are going to shut down sugar production for three months. Not wanting to go without in case of a shortage, a lot of ladies opted to buy extra supplies now. I confess, I did buy a few kilos myself.

And then, after two hours in town, it was time to pile back into the van, this time with every inch of spare space packed with shopping bags. We held our breath as we carefully drove over the dilapidated bridge that connects us to town, and then the van whizzed down the road towards home, past villages and coffee fields, dodging potholes and people and other vehicles that were all over the road. Everyone chatted happily about the things that they were able to find, and we all thanked Geoff profusely for allowing us this opportunity to spend a morning away from kids and Ukarumpa responsibilities.

How many mamas do you have?

2011-03-02T16:51:00.001+10:00

This is Greg with his Mama Anna. She comes three afternoons a week to babysit him while I am teaching at school, and also cleans up my house while she is watching him (even though I didn’t specifically ask her to do so. Hey, I’m not complaining!). You should see his eyes light up when she walks in the door! They get along very well. And she’s a good language influence on him too. He definitely recognizes the meaning of some Tok Pisin phrases, such as “paitim han” (clap your hands).

In Papua New Guinea, it really takes a village to raise a child. Children grow up being cared for by all of their female relatives, and not just their own mother. It’s common to call all your aunts “mama.” It can be confusing, for example, when the man who cuts your grass comes to ask you for some money for a funeral, saying that his mother died. Three months later, he again claims that his mother died. He’s not trying to take advantage of you… he just has a lot of mothers!

Greg has another mama too… Mama Iyuya. She watches him two afternoons a week.

And so, if Greg were old enough to talk, he’d probably refer to his babysitters as “mama” though of course, I’ll always be his “mama true.”

Ledcafe

2011-02-26T20:39:00.002+10:00

Sometimes, on a Saturday morning, we will go and have a latté at our favorite coffee shop.

What? A coffee shop? I thought you guys lived in the middle of nowhere!

Ledcafe is a wonderful service provided to the community by our friends Loren and Kensey (above). Since there is no such thing as a coffee shop anywhere nearby (they don’t even have a single Starbucks in the country, if you can imagine...), most Saturday mornings Loren and Kensey open up their home to the community. They have an espresso machine and make specialty coffees, as well as Kensey’s famous breakfast burritos and chocolate chip scones. They don’t make a profit off their coffee shop. The prices they charge just cover the cost of the ingredients. It’s a great way to relax and feel for a moment like you are back home.

People can sit inside or out on the porch, and can chat with the hosts or have a quiet conversation with friends.

There is usually someone who is willing to hold Greg too.

almost, but not quite

2011-02-26T07:55:00.001+10:00

Greg is at that frustrating stage where he can almost crawl. If you sit him down on the floor, it won’t be long before he attempts to move forward. Sometimes he gets himself into interesting positions…

Eventually he’ll end up on his stomach, but so far he has only been able to move backwards. Most of the time he’s content to scoot around without seeing where he is going, but then he’ll suddenly find himself stuck, as he did yesterday when he ended up under the sofa. Then mom comes and rescues him and he starts all over again.

Finish quilt - check!

2011-02-13T08:53:00.001+10:00

I’ve been so busy with teaching Spanish lately that I haven’t had free time to spend on sewing. I was finally able to find some time yesterday to finish my first “real” quilting project – a Christmas wall hanging. Thankfully the photo doesn’t really show that the top ended up almost a full inch wider than the bottom. Oops! Still, I’m pretty proud of my attempt. Too bad I’ll have to wait until next Christmas to display it. I’ve already started planning my next project though. The hard part here is finding fabric (it’s almost impossible to find cotton fabric in the stores here), but with a little scrounging and borrowing from other quilters and maybe resorting to cutting up secondhand clothes I should be able to gather enough.

Greg is Growin'

2011-02-08T11:59:00.001+10:00

For his 7-month birthday, Greg got his first cold. He’s been crabby and has been able to produce amazing quantities of snot. I tired to clean him up as best I could though to take a few 7-month photos.

Here is the 6-month tiger photo:

And at 7 months:

Check out the belly on this guy! He’s really gotten chunky lately.

Yet another Greg and Ruby photo. When I took him outside the only smiles I got were when the dog was in the photo too.

Morning Tea

2011-02-01T12:38:00.001+10:00

One of the things that I love about living in Ukarumpa is how easy it is to get together with friends. One family here on center hosts a weekly “Neighborhood” morning tea. I say “neighborhood” because pretty much anyone is welcome, and not just the people who live close by. It’s a great chance to sit and catch up with folks while the kids run around and play or watch a video inside.

Greg usually gets passed around quite a bit, as do the other babies. Here he is with Auntie Joy.

Thad is just one month older than Greg, and his family just came back from furlough. This is the first time they have really gotten to take a good look at each other:

It started out fine, but within a few minutes both were crying. Maybe Thad suspected that Greg was thinking about grabbing his phone.

Greg's first snow

2011-01-26T16:19:00.001+10:00

This past weekend Brian decided to clean out the freezer. He gathered a bowl full of “snow” and showed it to Greg.

Greg liked it at first…

But then he realized how cold it was!