I spent an hour each morning this week with Kunik and Oksoo learning to “tok pisin” from Marcus. We learned a few nouns, verbs, common phrases, and commands. We really did not get too much into conversational pidgin, which is covered in another class. Dr. Bud has approached me about going to live for two weeks with a PNG family to immerse more into the language and culture. He will take me there to make sure I am comfortable with the family and living conditions before I make my decision. Several missionaries have lived with this particular family so I guess it is safe. It is important I learn pidgin in order to converse with the patients in the clinic and to build relationships with the people.
We had a great day on Wednesday when our class hiked to some nearby villages and gardens to practice the pidgin we learned. It was extremely muddy due to the amount of recent rain, but we pressed on. We saw enormous bamboo trees, wild poinsettias, and pit-pit huts throughout the fields. You can buy rolls of weaved pit for your hut alongside the highway if you can’t weave your own siding. The coffee gardens are mixed in with other gardens that have bananas, papayas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and various other fruits and vegetables. We visited with a small boy who was “hookin pis” (going fishing).
We ran into Jon the Pig Man along the “trail” and met some of his family. Jon showed us his house, his pigs, and his coffee beans. His pigs sell for 700 to 1,000 kina ($200 - $300 US) depending on their size. He picks the beans from his coffee garden and uses a machine to separate the shell from the pulp of the bean and then lays them out to dry. The dok (dog) was napping on top of the drying beans when we arrived. Marcus said it just added more flavor! Once dry, Jon bags the beans and takes them to town to be weighed and sold. He probably sells to some of the buyers along the road rather than to the coffee factories here in town. The factories ferment and dry the beans before shipping them to commercial markets.
In the afternoon we hiked to other gardens and villages where Marcus said it would not be as muddy. Ha! Since the ground is clay, the mud becomes extremely slippery on the steep mountain trails and "me pludaun twopela times." (I fell down twice.) I was muddy from waist down which really amused the locals! We used a swinging bridge to cross the river. There were several boys swimming in the muddy river. I understand it is very cold but I did not venture to test it. I met an elderly lady who was chest-high to me and she flicked each of my breasts. I am still not quite sure why. She also wanted to make sure I knew to wash my skirt when I got home. We saw many children coming home from school carrying bush knives. They said they had to cut the grass at school that day. Can you imagine the parents’ reaction in the US if they were told their children needed to bring a bush knife to school so they could cut the grass during recess?
Thursday we went into Goroka after our pidgin class to practice the language and see the sites. We stopped at another bridge prior to getting into town to see the activities along the river. There were ladies washing their clothes, ladies going to work their gardens, a rock company getting rocks out of the river to sell, and some goats running around. In Goroka we went into a couple of stores and ate lunch at the BMK which serves fried chicken and Chinese food. We then stopped at beautiful Sobega (the NTM Highlands Headquarters) on our way back to Lapilo. Another great day.
When I wasn’t in pidgin class this week, I was in the clinic. The typical patient visits are coughs, sore throats, fevers, broken bones, immunizations, physicals, medication re-fills, malaria, and medical visas for Australia. There is one expat that comes for chemotherapy infusions using medication he brought from the Philippines.
"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. And the Lord said, Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11: 1-9
Shirley Falls - Connecting You to Tribal Missions in Papua New Guinea
