Saturday, May 31, 2008

Banquet and visit to Kainantu

This is a Willie Wagtail, one of the first birds I've positively identified here in PNG, as I have yet to find a bird book. For this one, Wikipedia came in handy. They're a rather common kind of flycatcher that rarely sits still enough to allow pictures like this.

Last night was the annual Banquet event here in Ukarumpa. It's a huge event, and it's basically all I've heard about all week. What happens is the parents of the juniors and seniors in high school here will take a week to set up and decorate the teen centre building with a theme that is kept a secret from the high schoolers. (this year was New York City, last year was Italy, etc.) The parents also make a fancy meal and prepare a play for the evening's entertainment. Then on Friday night, the juniors and seniors arrive all dressed up and in whatever dramatic form of transportation they can get. (examples: fancy police trucks, go-karts, and 3-wheeled "tuk tuk" trucks) It's a big deal, called the "grand entry." There's a huge crowd gathered to watch them arrive, and they all get introduced and show off their outfits before they go into the building. Scott and Michael Bauman were both able to go this year, as they are a senior and a junior, respectively. This week I learned that Banquet is a big part of the SIL culture, and it's neat to see how everyone comes together for the event.

I spent the rest of the evening with Mr. and Mrs. Toland, who are Arlene Bauman's parents. They served here in PNG for many years with two different language groups, and they came back for a year to work with the Rawa people again. They had some very neat stories and experiences to share, including how God called them back here again. Mrs. Toland dreamed that they were being called back, and prayed that Mr. Toland would have the same or a similar dream to confirm that it was God's calling. She didn't tell him about her dream, but a few days later, God gave him a dream that they were supposed to return. They've been able to accomplish a lot for their beloved Rawa in this past year.

The Tolands also shared how the culture here in PNG is very relationship-oriented, where most people are friendly and would give up everything they own rather than lose a friend. Life is also a lot simpler here, not only in the villages, but also in the SIL compound. Sure, things were kind of crazy this week preparing for Banquet, but for the most part, people aren't running around to 5 different activities. Instead, they're spending evenings together as families, or visiting with others. They're very open, and develop many good relationships. Those who have grown up here go to America and feel like so many people are either too busy to be a good friend, or they're wearing masks and aren't open enough to become friends.

There's also a lot less materialism in PNG. Houses are smaller, and some things that we take for granted as "necessities" just aren't common, if they're even practically available. However, there is some western industrialism and development that is starting to come into the culture, but it is creating more problems than benefits, as I'll explain below.

I don't know if I mentioned about how Ukarumpa has a security fence around the compound, and policemen with trained dogs patrolling after dark. Apparently almost everyone here has had some experience with being robbed, though it happens a lot less often inside the compound itself now that the fence is up. When people go to other towns, however, they have to be very careful with their money and valuable items, or else they will almost definitely be stolen.

The rampant theft and highway robbery has only come about in the past few decades, as people have started to see our Western advertisements. Any basic marketing class will tell you that advertisements are effective if they cause a person to feel a desire or even a need for the product being advertised. Well, these advertisements are doing just that. The problem is that while people have plenty of food (due to the excellent growing conditions), good houses, and good clothing, they don't really have much extra money. The only way for them to get these products they suddenly want is to steal. It's kind of sad to see/hear how things have deteriorated due to Western "improvements."

Today I took a trip with a group of people into a nearby town called Kainantu. There we got to experience a little of the real culture of PNG, rather than just the SIL-influenced culture of Ukarumpa. It's a small town, and actually it used to be an old airstrip. People started to put buildings on the runway because it was an open, flat piece of ground, and then it ceased to be an airstrip because it got too crowded. We were warned that there would likely be pickpockets there, and if we left the car at any time, we had to hide whatever things were in it and lock the doors so that it wouldn't be broken into. Thankfully, no problems this time.

We stopped by the Eastern Highlands Cultural Centre, where we were able to look at some of the native artistic handiwork, which was available for purchase. Here's an example of the Tok Pisin sign that announced the rules/standards of the place, which you might actually be able to understand with a little effort. It's easier if you read it out loud. At the bottom of this post, I'll give you a general interpretation. :-)

We stopped by the local market, and it was fun to be the cause of the most excitement they've had there all week. Everywhere we went, people just stopped and stared at us, and sometimes hid smiles or giggles. I didn't realize we Westerners look so funny! It was interesting to see the variety of fruits and vegetables for sale at the market. They were selling for incredibly low prices too. One of the most expensive things there was a coconut, which was 1 Kina, which is equal to about 37 cents. Most things (cabbages, groups of carrots, sugar cane, cooked chicken heads/feet, and other things I didn't even recognize) were selling for about 10-50 Toea, which is about 4-19 cents.

We also stopped at the most Western place in the town, a little "fast food" restaurant called Highlands Fried Chicken, where you could get anything you wanted, as long as it was fried chicken, and as long as they still had some left. (apparently our large group ate them out of their inventory of chicken) Most nationals only go there to buy drinks or ice cream, because it's too expensive for them to buy the chicken meals. They also served some decent french fries, which are called chips here. Oh, and chicken sandwiches are called chicken hamburgers. Above is one of the signs that was hanging in the little place.

There's so much more of the culture here/there that I could tell you about, but I don't want to make this any more ridiculously long than it already is. :-) You'll probably hear a lot of those things in later posts throughout my time here.

Oh, I almost forgot. The sign at the EHCC says roughly this: 1) Leave your bags and bilums (popular bag/purse-like things that almost every woman here has) at the door (when you come in); 2) If you break something, you buy it or pay for it; 3) You can't have anything for nothing (as in, shoplifting); and 4) You'll get caught stealing. Kind of a fun language, isn't it?

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Sunset stroll

Late this afternoon I decided to take a walk with my camera because it looked like we might have a decent sunset. There were a few nice panoramas, such as this one looking to the south of the compound. It makes a good picture, but it was a lot more spectacular in person.

Last night I went with Scott Bauman to a Bible study for some of the young men here. The topic was money, and Biblical stewardship of our finances. It was very interesting to discuss that with guys who had grown up here in PNG. Almost all of them had been to America at some point during furloughs, but the materialism and wealth of the United States was foreign to them. There wasn't the usual "Sunday school answer" of "I'll give money to missions," because these are the missionaries. Their families use their money to be missionaries, not to write checks to support someone else somewhere overseas. Like I said, it was interesting, and it was neat to look at it from a different perspective - it was more real.


I had to include this picture for my good friend Adam Aljets. He wasn't sure how pineapples grow, and when I found this during my walk tonight, I had to take a picture of it. Sorry Adam, they grow above ground. And no, I did not find one laying around and stick it in a bush to fake the picture. This is real. :-)

I also found the post I was trying to upload from Australia, and I put it up tonight. It shows up chronologically from when I started writing it, so you can scroll down to Sunday to find it.

P.S. You may have realized this already, but you can click on the pictures that I put in my blog, and they'll show up in a larger version. Some of the landscape pictures are better that way.

P.P.S. A certain individual asked whether the timestamps on my blog were my time or your time. They had previously been your time, but now they are all on PNG time. It's for that reason you may be reading this before 8PM Thursday and wondering where I found a time machine.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Winter weather?

Technically it's almost winter here right now, and we're at about 5200 feet elevation, but being so close to the equator means that we still had a beautiful day today. Sunshine, and temperatures in the mid-high 70s... just like it is almost every single day, all year long.

I spent most of the day in the finance office working on posting some cash out transactions (they have a little bank here), but I had time to walk around the compound on two separate occasions. I think I have a lot better idea of how to get around here now. The first time out, I took a road that definitely didn't end up going the direction I thought it was going to go, so I got to explore some new ground. The second time I took some new roads as well, but had a much better idea where they were going to end up.

My checked bag arrived today, and while it was missing the nice little name/address tag I had on the outside, everything appeared to be exactly as I had packed it. I got a laugh out of the ID label someone along the way had stuck to it, which read: "do not refrigerate." I also got my computer back from the computer center this morning, so I should be able to update a lot more regularly now.

So how can I put the last few days' experiences into a few short paragraphs... I'll go light on the details of the trip itself, since that's less exciting. Suffice to say it went well (now that I have all my luggage), but I was quite ready to be done sitting in planes by the time it was all over. The flight to Ukarumpa was the highlight of the trip, because I got to fly in a little KingAir plane and see a lot of the country. (by the way, the picture at the top of this page is the airstrip near Ukarumpa where we landed, and the plane there is not too much unlike the KingAir. The picture below is an aerial view of Ukarumpa, with the runway in the background.) When I got to Ukarumpa, I was greeted by the Baumans and then I had lunch/visited with them for a while. Coincidentally, I arrived on the same day as the team that's auditing SIL over the next few weeks, so I spent part of the afternoon with them going through some basic orientation.


That night I spent the evening at the Baumans' house, and they helped me get adjusted to the time zone by keeping me awake until about 10. (once I went to bed though, I didn't move until my alarm went off at 6:45 AM) We talked a lot about what it's like here, and some of the things we might do while I'm here. I'll write about those later if they take place.

Tuesday, I spent most of the day in the finance office, getting oriented and doing some odd jobs here and there. I spent the evening with the Bandys (the family I'm staying with for now), and went to bed a little early since I'm still not quite over the jet lag.

You already know what I did today so far... so I'll finish with a few descriptions of random aspects of PNG and the culture here. I've already described the landscape a little bit, since that was the first thing I was able to experience. You'll see enough pictures to know that it's quite a nice place. The people here are friendly, and it's impossible to walk around without having almost everyone smile (and sometimes wave) and greet you. Most of the nationals don't speak English fluently, if at all, but they all know Tok Pisin, the trade language, so I hear that a lot. I've picked up a few things here and there, since it uses a lot of English words or close transliterations of English words. (example, "road" is "rot" - pronounced like the English "rote", and "please" is "plis", pronounced the same way) Other words aren't so easy to figure out, but I'm hoping to learn a lot more before I leave here. There are only 3000 words in the language, and there aren't any verb tenses, so that should help.

Each afternoon I've been here, I've seen a group of kids playing rugby in an open area not far from where I'm staying. That's definitely popular here, as there was also a professional game going on at a stadium not far from my hotel in Port Moresby. I could hear the crowd cheering and chanting frequently.

The SIL compound offers many jobs to the nationals living nearby, and this morning when I was walking around, I saw many of them coming in for the days' work. A lot of them work as gardeners, so a few of the men were carrying large bush knives (rather more like small swords by their size). I was glad they were smiling as I passed. The market in Ukarumpa was open this morning too, and it seems to be quite the place to be. I'll have to stop in sometime to check it out.

I haven't gotten to experience the cultural cuisine yet, so I don't really know how it's different from what I'm used to. I can say, however, that Mrs. Bauman and Mrs. Bandy are good at cooking Western foods. Gardening is a big thing around here, as you can apparently put something into the ground, and without much care at all, it will flourish. I mentioned that it's almost winter, but since it's so nice year-round, the growing season never ends. I saw full-grown corn today, not far from a place where some others were tilling the soil around their little cornstalks that were only a foot high. Banana trees are ubiquitous around here, but there aren't too many that have fruits on them right now. The nationals even garden on the steepest hillsides, like this one outside of the compound.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I'm here!

I tried to update while I was in the Brisbane airport, but it didn't go through for some reason, and then I ran out of time. Anyway, the trip went smoothly for the most part (minus the part where my checked bag is still on tour without me somewhere in the world... it's supposed to be here tomorrow), and I've now been in Ukarumpa for about a day and a half.

There's so much I could write about... I don't even know where to start! PNG is an amazing place! I'll decide what to tell you about and write a lot more tomorrow when I get my own computer back from the shop here. (They're making sure for themselves that there aren't any viruses on it that would wreak havoc here if they got loose)

For now, I'll leave you with this description of my first glimpse of the country: coming in to land at Port Moresby, the plane banked to set us up for the final approach, and I saw swamps below (with some kind of large white birds flying around in them), a few ocean coves and villages on the coast, lots of grassland/forests on the inland plains, and further inland, hills gradually becoming mountains until there was a mountain range that disappeared into the clouds.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Good morning Australia!

Well, I happened to find the post I was trying to upload when I was in Australia. It was still stuck in cyberspace, but here it is now. This is what you would have read Saturday night Eastern time had it worked the first time!


That was the plane that took me across the Pacific last night. I'm in the Brisbane airport right now, relaxing a bit before my next flight leaves. It's a beautiful morning here, and so far the trip has gone smoothly. The PNG visa process is still upcoming, but I trust that God will work that out as He has everything else so far.

I saw the longest sunset (3 hours) and slept through the longest night (I lost track of the hours) of my life, as I was traveling west the whole time through the air. It was nice to finally see the sun rise this morning as we were landing. I feel pretty good right now, despite the fact that I should be very jet-lagged. Right now it's fun to hear all the Australian accents around here... and I can even watch a cricket match on TV if I want to. This is a very comfortable airport in which to have a layover.

Thanks for your prayers! Almost there!