Home Alone

Now that I have my own house in the village, life has changed dramatically. Before my only space was my room and my only quiet time was my siesta. Now I have lots of quiet in every day. This has its own ups and downs.

 Hanging out in the kitchen (D.Petterson)

Having more space to myself has made a huge difference to my energy levels. Before I was in a busy and noisy house. The people were lovely and I’m very thankful for the time spent building those relationships, but I felt like I was surviving each day and then crashing into bed. Now I need to be deliberate in going out to spend time with people. Often I end up back with the family I previously lived with, sitting in the kitchen and hanging out with the women as before. The difference is that when I leave, I return to a place of quiet.

Having more energy because I have more space allows me to focus more on language learning. Previously I was immersed in language all day long, but was often too tired to concentrate well. Now I have my blocks of language immersion, then time at home to go over my notes, listen to my recordings and slow language down to a speed that I can comprehend. Ideally, this means I am building up my language skills for the next round of immersion. Rather than drinking from the fire hose of language learning all day, I have breaks to try and sip at it instead. Being disciplined about continuing my learning at home is a challenge, as it is very easy for me to read a book in my own language rather than continue working at a new language.

Having my own kitchen gives me more control over my diet and the timing of my meals. Small things like familiar food and a variation from fish and sago make a big difference to my ability to focus on other things. The familiarity of food I cook and being able to eat earlier in the evening allow me to invest my energy better in the multitude of other unfamiliar things going on around me.

 Hanging out with the women (H.Schulz)

Returning from my first language learning trip, when I had lived with a family, I was exhausted. I hid in my house for two weeks as a hermit and only came out and socialised after that because I had to. Returning from my second language learning trip, when I was living on my own, I was out and enjoying the company of friends within a few days of my return. The biggest factor in the difference in my social energy levels on my return was having my own house. Having the space gave me the energy to better invest in relationships and language while in the village, even though it does take more discipline.

Language Learning Moments

 Mo gega ka. I am big, compared to locals,
I just wish they wouldn’t always highlight the fact
(D.Petterson)

Language learning is a never ending process, but in these beginning stages there are some moments that leave me somewhere between a smile and a grimace. Usually it is because I have become familiar with common phrases.

Early in my last village stay I realised I was recognising everything the person behind me was saying “Oobo gega ka. Bogobogo gega ka. Merebehe gega ka.” …but I wished I couldn’t … “The woman is fat. The whiteskin is fat. The lady is fat.” I know they were commenting, not judging, but coming from a western culture in which ‘big/fat’ is so often equated with ‘bad/lazy’, it is hard to hear it as just a description.

Another series of words I recognise but wish I didn’t hear so much was the parents in the house across the path telling off their children. “Piroha!” “Be quiet!’ “Hepui eito!”... which is literally “Go to ground!” In context is not telling people to go into hiding, but to get out of the house by going down the ladder onto the ground.

A word I hear directed at me is “Ahu!”, “Be strong!” In context, they are telling me not to fall in the mud, off the log bridge, or roll the canoe.

 My neighbours, they look far away,
but I can often hear them (H.Schulz)

Recognition of the word “bogobogo” always makes me wonder what people are talking about, as I am the only bogobogo, or whiteskin, in the village. I recognise the reference to me, but not the content of the conversation. One day I’ll understand.

If it is not common phrases causing me to be caught between a smile and a grimace, it is non-recognition of words I knew a minute earlier. As I slowly learn, I am able to use words in context. If the context changes and the same word occurs, I can find myself knowing I should know the word, but not knowing what it means. This is most frustrating.

Then there are the moments when I do manage to put an idea into words, or understand what someone has said to me, and there is a moment of victory. I look forward to the day when comprehension is more normal and confusion saved for new events, rather than every event.

Day two

It is day two back in the village and I am settling back into life here. Having my own house sure makes for a quieter life, which will hopefully give me the energy I need to really focus on language learning.

My day starts at 6.30am when I turn on the radio for the aviation sked (schedule). When the pilot had dropped me off the day before he had made a comment that alerted me to the fact they had the wrong airstrip booked for the Jesus Film dedication charter flight. I need to fix that in a hurry! Listening to the sked I find that indeed it is going to the wrong place. I thought we had changed that a few months ago. I radio in and request the change to be made. When I listen in the next morning, I am able to confirm that the request was followed through on.

7am and it is Wednesday, the regular sked is replaced with the Director’s sked. The Director of Language Programmes comes on the air to encourage us all and give us updates about the work going on in different places around the country. It is good to hear her voice as I eat my breakfast by the radio. After the Director’s sked we have the regular sked and I’m finally able to officially open my radio station… having already used it a few times! Monday and Thursday are my roll call days, when I call in to confirm that all is well. I can call in any day if I have a message to pass to someone (‘traffic’), but those are the days I must call in.

8am and I am outside greeting people whom I have not seen since I arrived the day before, and showing them the DVDs, SD cards, books and bookmarks I have brought with for the Jesus Film dedication. There is general excitement that the film really is done and here in their hands. I am told there is a meeting ‘at 11am, in two hours time’ about the dedication plans. Although 11am is three hours away, the ‘two hours’ is an indicator that the organiser really would like people to be on time.

8.30am and I’m nailing down the floor of my kitchen. The boards had been laid but never secured, and their wobbliness is annoying me. Armed with hammer and nails I set out to fix the problem. Soon enough someone turns up to do it for me and I hand over my hammer. I’m not sure if this is a gender thing, a help-the-white-person thing or something else, but I chose to hand over the tools rather than argue. A village carpenter also comes to fit out my kitchen with shelves, as until now it is just an open space.

People talk of ‘galley kitchens’ as if they are a real estate highlight. Having worked on ships, I disagree. My favourite definition of a galley was the cook who said she had got herself a job cooking ‘in a wardrobe full of pots and pans that move’. At 2m x 1.2m my kitchen has all the space of a galley, but the crockery is unlikely to attack me unawares. By then end of the day, my kitchen is tidily fitted out and has since proved itself most useful, but only big enough for one.

 The kitchen before… (H.Schulz)

While the kitchen is being built, I put together the two burner cast iron stove which I had brought with me. Hopefully the gas bottle arrives with the Jesus Film guests coming from Kapuna Hospital. There have been numerous plans made and remade about that bottle.

Having defeated the stove, but still having workmen in the house and it not yet being time for the meeting, I have to decide what to do next. First I review all my language learning flash cards. The vocabulary is slowly coming back to me, but it is going to take time and effort for me to both recover what I knew before and learn more. Flash cards done, I move on to reading a theology book. Reading books like this is professional development for me.  A plumbing book would probably be more practical as I set up my house, but theology is what I have available.

At 11am the committee chairman arrives and tells me he is going to go and inform the others that it is time to gather for the meeting. I do my preparation, by putting together supplies of mugs, hot water, tea, coffee, sugar, milk powder and crackers. All meetings go better with a cuppa and a snack. We probably started with the cuppas at about noon, with the meeting then going till 3pm. Most of the meeting was in Kope, with occasional changes to English when I needed to be included. Last minute details were finalised, prices of DVDs and SD cards were negotiated and a second round of cuppas consumed.

 …the kitchen after, including the gas bottle
(H.Schulz)

By the time we were done, the kitchen fit-out was done too. Wow! With basic tools, timber off-cuts and the nails that I provided, I have a lovely little kitchen. I packed all my things into it in no time and set to making curtains to cover the front of the shelves.

The kitchen got done efficiently under the handy excuse of ‘getting ready for visitors’, with my toilets next on the list to use that excuse. Indeed, by the time the day was done, the finishing touches (ventilation pipe) were put to my loos and I could commission them. The luxury of having an indoor toilet is not fully understood unless one has first slid through the mud and walked precarious walkways to reach one, or deliberately dehydrated in the afternoons just to avoid having to go after dark, when an escort is required to go with you. Now I can pee in comfort and privacy, day or night!

During the afternoon I head down to the riverbank to attempt to send and receive messages on my phone. With visitors coming in two days, communication with the outside world is a higher priority than usual. This time it is a case of win-some and lose-some, as some messages got out, but others refused to send. Sitting by the river, waiting for messages to send, I chatted with some village ladies. Apparently I’ve been away too long, as the kids are all scared of me again.

While sitting with the ladies, two pigs arrived in a canoe. They were exchanged for two good canoe-making logs and will be dinner for the dedication feast. One pig seems resigned to its fate, but the other protests with piercing squeals. The discussion turns to the size of the pigs and if they are a bit small for the logs exchanged and the people expected at the feast.

My solar control panel, for those of you
who like such things (H.Schulz)

I’m home before dark so that I can wash off a day’s sweat and dirt in time to put on fresh mosquito repellent before the twilight round of mossies attack. As the daylight fades I turn on my new LED light that is connected to my solar power system. The light is lovely, but it draws another round of bugs into the house. This includes beetles with poor navigation, who crash into things until they knock themselves to the ground and end up stuck on their backs with their legs waving in the air.

As I don’t yet have a gas bottle, dinner is cooked for me by my neighbour, who also boils hot water for me to put in my thermos and use at breakfast time. I’m looking forward to being my own cook from tomorrow!

The village quietens down for the night. Crickets and frogs are the main soundtrack, with the flapping of a bat or a kid in a distant house joining in at times. I sit in my chair (another luxury item) and enjoy the quiet after a busy day of preparing for ‘the programme’. I’ve done little language learning today, but it has been a good day for relationships.  Tomorrow the first visitors will arrive, and I am in bed by 9pm.

Faithful Women

Sitting with the women in Goiravi (H.Schulz)

After the dedication of the Jesus Film, when I would go to Goiravi (next village) for my weekly language learning session, I also started doing a short Bible study using the film, the film script and an English Bible. We would watch a portion of the film on my tablet, read the equivalent portion of the Bible and then answer some study questions. I would also write out a section of the script to use as a memory verse.

With the studies, we began at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start), meaning we began with the birth stories of John the Baptist and of Jesus. As we studied these stories, the theme of God choosing unexpected people in unexpected places for the fulfillment of his plan stood out to me. I’ve read these accounts dozens of times, but reading them with village women in an out-of-the-way place gave them new meaning. Being able to say to the women, that God cares about and uses women in places other people consider to be worthless, was an encouragement to both them and to me.

Time with women and children when the YWAM ship
visited and ran an immunisation clinic (Ella May)

I really do enjoy the moments where I can speak hope into the lives of people around me, especially the women. I had another opportunity in the village earlier in the year, to stand in front of the church and remind the congregation that women and men are both made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) and that God must value mothers if children are told to honour them. Jesus himself talks of gathering in the lost like a mother hen (Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34). These may seem like small things, but to women who are used to being considered insignificant, they mean a lot.

The studies have been an encouragement, a challenge and a lesson to me. Although I use ‘easy English’ questions, they are often too hard for my audience. This is an obvious reminder to me about why I am working hard to learn the local language, and working with them to translate the Bible into it. I’ve also seen just how few women can read in any language, inspiring me both to do audio recording of the translations we will produce, and to think about adult literacy classes.

Learning to weave a pandanus mat with the
women (H.Schulz)

 The feedback from the women has been that they are learning a lot about God, while improving their English. I am happy with this outcome! It may seem odd for a worker in indigenous languages to be happy about English acquisition, but I recognise that while their language is critical in many fields, English gives them access to other things such as healthcare and further education.

So, each Christmas, as you hear the familiar Christmas story, spare a thought for faithful women in out-of-the-way places. Remember that before God we are all equally loved as children. Shepherds and wise men both came to worship the Christ-child, for earthly criteria of worth have no place at the manger.

A belated Happy Christmas to each of you. I had this written before Christmas, but enjoyed having a break too much to post it online.

Ubuo Housewarming

 All aboard for the trip from the airstrip
 to the village (R.Petterson)

Among all the ceremony of the Jesus Film dedication, one thing I very much enjoyed was having outside friends come to visit my village, meet my village friends and stay in my house. After months of living in my Ukarumpa house, I have not organised to have a housewarming, but my village house had a housewarming in my second week of occupation.

Coming from Kapuna were Robbie and Debbie, my mentors and friends as I work in the region. Aunty Barb, Segana and Nilza came too. As the hospital is my second home in Gulf Province and these are people who support me both prayerfully and practically, it was really good to have them here. They were able to renew their own local connections and to see the outcome of their help with getting toilets and water tanks installed in my house.

Coming from Ukarumpa were two couples from my Bible study group. My Bible study is my Ukarumpa family and now some of them have seen my place and met the people I spend my time with. My regional director came as the official representative from our organisation, but she too is a friend. One person came from the media department and spent all her time behind a camera (there will be a video produced eventually). As we used to have offices across the corridor from each other, we are good friends. We had a visitor who was only in PNG for two weeks, but managed to squeeze the dedication trip in and experience village life. Another woman who is part of a family that Robbie and Debbie are close to, came as their representative. As there was space on the plane, a father and son pair came to experience the village side of our work. This was not a man I knew well, but he represented all the people who work quietly in the background at Ukarumpa to keep things running. It was nice to share with him the field side of what the support of our office workers makes possible. I really appreciate the work these people do, even if I don’t understand most of it.

 Group photos of all the visitors (H.Schulz)

With all these people coming for the dedication and a sleep-over, my house was full! It spent a few days swallowing mountains of cargo that first I, and then the visitors, brought with us. The verandah kept receiving a pile of cargo that then got sorted into various places in the house.

Robbie and Debbie used their room. The wall has woven into it, ‘Uncle Robbie and Auntie Debbie’, so there is no denying it is theirs! The Kapuna visitors were in the room with ‘Kapuna Visitors’ woven into the wall. All of the women who flew down from Ukarumpa slept under one enormous mosquito net in my living area, and the men under a collection of nets on the verandah. I kept my room to myself, as a place of escape amidst the chaos.

Chaos it was, especially on Saturday morning as everyone was waking, changing, packing and eating. I gave the women my room as a change room and offered the storage room to the men as it was the only room left available. Debbie shared her coffee supply and made a saucepan of coffee for everyone. I have a plunger to make coffee for myself, but for a crowd the saucepan did a fine job.  I had brought muesli and milk powder for breakfast and Debbie had brought bread. Her bread proved the most popular and I ended up with an excess of muesli and a shortage of peanut butter. Thankfully I had some back-up supplies I could break into.

 Farewell wave from the village (H.Schulz)

When it was time to go, the cargo was sent ahead of us to the boat and it was time for farewells. A group photo was taken at the house and we walked to the wharf. More photos were taken at the wharf before everyone got onto the waiting boats and we finally waved them off. Robbie and Debbie stayed an extra night, but the house seemed very quiet after the noisy fun of a crowd.

I have a record of their visit though, in my visitors map. A while ago I found a world map at a fabric store. It still has the USSR marked on it, so it is not very politically current, but the geography has not changed. Well, except for where a piece of Siberia has been printed in the Pacific Ocean. I’ll sew a patch over that some day… after all this is a map from a fabric shop. Around the map I added a border of plain cloth and this is where my visitors signed. A string runs between their name and their place of origin, even if that is a trick question for some of my friends. Many of them have been here so long, or moved so often, that they had to choose a place for the string to end. I look forward to adding more strings when others visit, but the map is off to a good start, after such a big housewarming.

A corner of my visitor's map (H.Schulz)

More than the fun of having people to visit though, was the fact that they went away with a much better understanding of my life, friends and work in Ubuo village. They have slept in my house, eaten village food, walked between Goiravi and Ubuo, taken a boat ride on the river and met my friends. When I share stories, they now have not just a photo in their mind, but a place with real people, sights, sounds and smells.

Who will be my next visitor? :-D

Aba Robbie

 Being led forwards (A.Evers)

During the Jesus Film dedication there was a very special event that occurred. It was listed on the programme as ‘surprise event’ and I was the only outsider who knew in advance what was happening. The chiefs of the Kope tribe had decided to honour Robbie’s work with their tribe by making him a ‘chief and patriarch’ (their words). What an incredible honour! … and it was not one bestowed lightly.

On the day of the dedication we reached the point where the special event was to occur. Robbie had no idea what was coming as the chiefs gathered in front of the stage and a respected leader, Rev Gemo, stood at the microphone. I took Robbie’s camera from him, so that I could get a record for him to keep. Debbie (Robbie’s wife) already had the video camera rolling, as the chiefs looked impressive standing as a well dressed group, and ended up filming the whole event.

As Rev Gemo introduced what was going on, one of the chiefs came up on the stage to collect Robbie and to bring him down before them all. They sat him on a specially prepared mat, which gave a loud and surprising crack. Robbie jumped up, everyone laughed, and all was exactly as it should be as a dry piece of bamboo had been placed under it for exactly that purpose. It was a light-hearted start to an otherwise serious ceremony. As Robbie sat on his mat listening to the leader, you could see he was feeling emotional. Thirty years after he and Debbie first started working in this swampy corner of the world, not seeking any credit from anyone, but seeking to make a difference, here was a community choosing to give him their highest honour when he least expected it.

 A serious ceremony (A.Evers)

One by one the gathered chiefs presented Robbie with items of his office. A headdress from one of their heads, a shield, a bow and arrows, spears and shell necklaces. Rev Gemo spoke of the significance of the role, that it places on Robbie the responsibility to act in the best interests of the Kope people. He also spoke of the tribe giving Robbie land and that the title ‘chief’ is earned and cannot be passed down from father to son. Robbie had earned it.

 Symbols of office (H.Schulz)

The crowd watched with great interest as the man they have long called ‘Aba Robbie’ officially became an ‘Aba’. This name is also used for fathers, but when used outside the family, is a title of honour and respect. The ceremony was not long, but it will stay in my memory for a long time as a both solemn and joyous occasion.

The next morning the men gathered to discuss what land was to be given to Robbie. They decided on the block where my house is and some of the land around this. I now live on Robbie’s land and I’ve been commissioned to plant lots of fruit trees. Maybe one day there will be a translation or a literacy centre here, but we will see what develops.

Aba Robbie, chief and patriarch of the Kope tribe. Their first outside chief, their first white chief and a most humble and deserving chief.

The Event

After the big welcome to all the guests and a rest, we returned to the stage for the official dedication of the Jesus Film. By now it was late afternoon and the bite had gone from the sun. That is not to say it was cool, just hot and sweaty instead of meltingly hot and sweaty. This was a good thing for me as by then I was in a costume.

Being dressed in my new outfit (A.Evers)

I had been told that I was the ‘mother of the feast’ and as such I needed to be traditionally dressed. The chief’s wife had measured me the day before to create a skirt and top for me and that afternoon she and her husband came around to put them on me. They tied them over my clothes and then trimmed the top to fit. This meant a pile of grass gathering around my feet as the excess was cut off from the top. They also tied two festive shell bracelets onto my wrists. Being dressed in this way, in traditional clothes put on me by the chief and his wife, was a beautiful moment of adoption. In so many ways the Kope tribe has taken me in, but in this moment I very much became their daughter.

The amazing bird of paradise head-dress (A.Evers)

My costume was nothing though, in comparison to the chief and his wife. Tompkin is paramount chief over upper Kope, an area of four villages. Over his neat trousers and collared shirt he wore so many bands of shells that he made gentle music as he walked. On his head was an impressive headdress of feathers with a decorative band of shells. He certainly wore the most shells of anyone on the day. His wife also had the most amazing headdress out of all the women. Hers was topped with a rust coloured bird of paradise that her son in law had caught for her. The beautiful feathers shone in the sun as she smiled out from underneath it.

At the official dedication in the afternoon there was the usual collection of speeches. Most people kept it short and to the point, although there was at least one who took the moment to do some politicking. Eventually there was the dedication prayer, the showing of the first few minutes of the film and the promise of the full film once it was dark enough to project onto a big screen (aka bed sheet). There was also a very special event which I’ll write about next week before people dispersed to prepare their feast food and return.

The gathered crowd (A.Evers)

As the evening grew dark, people started claiming their places near the screen. We waited on the stage for our part in the feast and the wait was well worth it. I am not the first Kope daughter from Adelaide. A while ago a Kope man married an Adelaide woman and although they have separated and he has returned to PNG, his children are all still in South Australia. Two of them are cooks, and I don’t know if they learnt from their father or their father learnt from then, but either way, this man knows how to cook! I’ve since learnt that his two assistants for the day were people who have also worked in a company camp kitchen and in hotel kitchens in Port Moresby. It’s amazing what skills and histories are living quietly in the village. Between these three men, we were served village gourmet food and everyone appreciated it.

Setting up the projector (A.Evers)

Food done and plates cleared (put in a bucket to take home and wash later), it was time for the film showing. We were blessed with very few technical hitches, as the sound system, generator, dodgy looking extension cords and my projector that keeps resetting itself to Chinese all worked together well. The crowd stretched back into the darkness, all eyes focussed on the screen. Around me near the front were little children watching wide eyed. My Kope is not yet good enough to follow the words, but the story is familiar and I followed the images instead. Even then, I find this story that I have known my whole life confronting to see illustrated in this way.

As the film finished there was silence as the crowd stayed still and thoughtful. Someone prayed and dismissed everyone, but even as they walked away, the thoughtfulness remained.

I returned to my house with the last few visitors who had made it to the end of the film. As they had all had an early start and did not understand the language, many of them had quietly gone to bed once they had seen the crowd transfixed by the film. I wove my way among the mosquito nets and sleeping bodies filling my veranda and living area until I found my way to the sanctuary of my own mosquito net and mattress. Untangling myself from a grass skirt and top, I fell into bed exhausted and happy.