Tyler and Emily in PNG

Gude bruta na susa. Yupela stap orait? (Good day brother and sister. How are you?)

Today, we visited the village church nearby POC. POC is apart of the NobNob community and the church is a short quarter mile walk. The church has a bell ringing system of three rings. First ring, time to get ready for church. Second ring, time to start to go to church. Third ring, church is starting. Since PNG is an event orientated culture things do not start at a specific time. White skins are very much time orientated people. We are driven at an early age to be prompt and on time for school, dinner, ball practice, and bed time. Here in PNG they are all about relationships. People mean more than anything else and if church doesn’t start exactly at 10 am then so be it.

This past week I continued to learn Tok Pisin and had my first dialogue to memorize and recite to my teacher. There are a total of 6 dialogues that all students must memorize. Tomorrow we will be going to the town market with our Tok Pisin teacher to buy a few food (kaikai). The kitchen cook is giving us a list of items to buy. This will be another learning lesson on how to buy in the market and using our Tok Pisin that we are learning. FYI: You can’t barter for food that is being sold in the market but you can barter for non-food items such as clothing. There are also 400 different types of bananas but no matter which kind it is they are all simply called – bananas.

Other words:
rokrok – frog
pukpuk – crocodile
kakaruk – chicken
kokonas – coconuts
ananas – pineapple
popo – papaya

We also went swimming this past week and I swam 1600 meters or 1 mile. It was not a timed event so you could go at your leisure. Water are nice but not much of a reprieve from the heat. Water temps are low to mid 80s, I assume.

Saturday was a big day and that we constructed our ‘haus kuk.’ A haus kuk or kitchen is typically outside the home where all the meals are prepared. All materials were gathered for us plus the ‘sail’ or blue trap for rain/sun protection. Most materials were bamboo and sago which was used to build the table top. It is actually from the grass family. The ‘wokman’ or workmen built a demo on Thursday which took them 45 mins from start to finish. Saturday it took me and John (roommate) 6 hrs + to construct a full haus kuk. Later on in the course (next weekend) we will be responsible for cooking all meals with open fire and eat in our haus kuk.

Overall, things are going well. I am learning lots. I am feeling good about myself from this morning church service. I think I was able to pick up a good portion of the main words from the service. We had a chance to introduce ourselves at the end of the service and everyone did an excellent job with their 1 week of Tok Pisin. The church was Lutheran and had the typical readings and many prayers. They ended the service with ‘tok save’ announcements and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

I can’t say I miss the arctic temps in Alaska or anywhere else in the continental US. I heard another winter storm slammed the Midwest. It is pretty hot here at least when the sun is out. It was 95 in the direct sunlight Thursday afternoon. It cools down to 78 overnight which is welcomed but still warm.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Keep praying for me and all participants here at the Pacific Orientation Course. Check out my online photo gallery for pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/thewitt05

Prayer Requests:
Learn Tok Pisin
Learn culture/anthropology

Praise:
Good Health