Tyler and Emily in PNG

It is hard to summarize or give an update when so much has happened since my last post which has been a couple weeks ago. Probably one the biggest reliefs is that I do not have to memorize any more Tok Pisin dialogues. All students were required to memorize a total of five dialogues and repeat each dialogue to our Tok Pisin teacher. If you watched my most recent video post, I included dialogue five at the very end to give you a perspective of the language.

SIL-POC is split into two courses. One is designed for six weeks and the other for fourteen weeks. The biggest difference is six week participants live in the village for five days and fourteen week participants have five weeks of village living. Currently the six week students are in the midst of their village living. After completion they will leave POC and head their separate ways, most of them going to SIL headquarters in the Eastern Highlands and a few others going to Lae with the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC).  About two weeks ago we had a tropical delight, this is where we could get away for a day and escape reality with an excursion to the ocean. It was a short drive up the north coast to the village of Rempi. Here we were able to rest, swim, and snorkel. This was the first time I really got a good look at coral, reefs, and underwater creation. There were many fish of many colors plus starfish and living coral everywhere you turned. We got to swim over the reef and see where it dropped off dramatically. The reef ranged 3 – 15 ft below water level. Once it dropped off, it was like an underwater cliff. The light blue ocean turned a very dark blue quickly. I do want to remind you, it is not every day that I get to experience the paradise of Papua New Guinea though I do currently reside on the island paradise.

Now that the course has been split into two, the fourteen week group is starting to gear up for our five week adventure in the village. There are three pretty good hikes. We just completed our first hike which was an all day hike to a nearby village for lunch. The hike was 7.5 miles roundtrip trekking through the jungle. The village of Kamba was down the mountain, across the valley and then back up on the other side. On the way back following lunch we broke into three groups: fast, medium, and slow group. Of course I chose the fast group. The record was 1 hr 15 mins back to POC. Well, our group didn’t want to set the record and we really didn’t come close but we did make it back in 1 hr 30 mins. The medium group was about 1 hr behind us though. I do have to say my hiking in Alaska has been well worth it and very profitable here in PNG. The hikes haven’t been too challenging but the heat and humidity has been a big factor. We have two more big hikes.  The biggest hike will be a three day overnight survey hike to nearby villages. I love hiking and I look forward to this little adventure.

One of our class sessions was on the local anthropology. It was lead by the expatiate translator and a few other local men who work here at POC. They shared some very interesting insights into their past and views on missionaries plus the spirit world. The topic of death was brought up and they shared about spirits and what happened to the spirit of the dead. They said when someone would die, their spirit goes either to the north to an island or south along the coast somewhere. The spirit man of the village could recall the spirit with their bones. When the white missionaries came the people thought the missionaries were the spirits coming back from the dead. Could you image coming to a foreign land and the local people thinking you are their dead ancestors’ spirit?

Another quick missionary story is when the missionaries came to the village the local people would steal the shoes of the missionaries. It was their thinking that if they ate the shoes of the missionaries they could gain the strength that they bring with them. White skins were viewed to have power and strength that was supernatural. The local people wanted to gain this power or spirit by any means. Imagine chewing the souls of Nike shoes over a fire at night.

Last weekend during haus kuk we were to simulate gathering our own water. We had to treat all water as it was dirty. We had to boil water, collect rain water, or use another purification method. Fortunately we have been lucky that it has rained every weekend so gathering clean water was not hard. However, I have found Saturday’s excellent days to go to town. I go to town mostly for high speed internet and a good meal. Not that I don’t eat good here but every weekend we are responsible to cook our own food by open fire (haus kuk). So going to town for a meal is not a bad option. To get to town, you have to hail a PMV or Pubic Motor Vehicle. These either come in the form of a van or truck like figure. The fare is relatively inexpensive costly about $.75 one way. I will share an embarrassing yet learning story later about my PMV ride back to POC.

Prayer Requests:
Continue to adapt a learner’s role – language and culture
My village allocation for 5 weeks of living
– Pray for smooth transition
– Wasfamili I will be staying with
– Chances to share the gospel

Praise:
Good Health