1.31

We had our first Tok Pisin lesson with our real teacher today. His name is Matyu and he lives in village close by. He has 6 kids and some grandkids too (don’t remember how many). Today we learned our letters and some vocab and how to answer simple questions. Then we had tea and I was able to ask him if he wanted tea, how much sugar and milk! YAY!

We also had another hike, this one in the afternoon (UGH!) It was hot, but mostly we were under shade in the trees, so it wasn’t unbearable. We went to Ugal’s fishpond which was about an hour away. Ugal is one of the nationals that work here at the camp as a mechanic/handyman. This hike was much better because it wasn’t as steep. Most of the way back was uphill, but it wasn’t really hard (maybe I’m just getting more used to it YAY!)

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1.30

Today we had the day off and the option to go to a local resort to snorkel. I didn’t feel like going because I’ve been waking up at about 3AM every morning and not falling back to sleep  Instead I just stayed back and slept and was a lazy bum. They go to the resort every weekend, so it’s ok, I didn’t miss anything special. We don’t have to pay anything to use their beach and water, but it’s polite to at least buy something. They have a restaurant that you can buy burgers and pizza and stuff from. Most people just buy a soda or ice cream which is like 3 kina (or $1).

Even though I didn’t go I had a nice rest and feel much better ^_^

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1.29

Today was really busy! We had our first official hike to lots of different villages over on the mountain. The language area we are in is called Nobnob (pronounced Nob o nob). On the other side of the mountain is a different language (I don’t remember what that’s called, but we go to the translator’s house for that group in another hike later). The trails are so narrow you have to walk single file and some places are so steep you have to go up on all fours or sort of slide down on your bum. It would be nice to have a stick :D

That was about 2 hours. After that we had lunch and went to town on a longer shopping trip. I bought 2 “merry blouses” which are these nice light cotton loose airy shirts that are perfect for the weather here. They have them in all sorts of colors and patterns (matching isn’t a priority). The sleeveless ones are super nice and comfy. They come in a few different styles, some are short (to the mid thigh) and some are long (to the knee), some are sleeveless like mine, some have loose or butterfly sleeves and others have these really poofy sleeves. The poofy ones are the ones the national women wear to church. I might buy one to wear to church when I start going to the national churches. Then on the bottom they either wear skirts to at least the knee or “lap laps” which are kind of like a sarong. It’s a long piece of fabric that you wrap around your waist like a skirt. They aren’t the most comfy of clothes though (for me at least). I bought a really nice one from a lady who hand painted hers. She was super nice and showed us how to wear them and put up with my one days knowledge of Tok Pisin ^_^

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1.28

Today was our first Tok Pisin lesson! But we had a substitute because our actual teacher could make it  Tok Pisin is the trade language here in PNG (not everyone speaks it, especially in remote/isolated areas). It was originally a pidgin (and in some places it still is). A pidgin is a linguistic term for a language that develops from contact between two languages (in this case English and various indigenous languages). It borrows vocab from one and the grammar from another. The vocabulary of TP (Tok Pisin) is from English (but not all of it) and the grammar is from the tribal languages. In some places, like here in Madang, it’s becoming a “Creole” which means it’s being taught to children as a first or mother tongue. Most people use it as a second language and have there “Tok ples” in their villages and homes. “Tok ples” is literally talk place, the talk or language you use in your place or home. It is the native language of the people and the language Wycliffe translates the Bible into (because it is easiest for people to understand in the language they know best). There are more than 800 “Tok ples”s here in PNG!

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1.27

Today we had our first swimming conditioning. The beach isn’t like a beach in Florida (at least not the one we condition in). There is a small patch of sand and it’s in a kind of narrow bay. There is coral and fish on the bottom, but it’s pretty hazy in this part, so you can’t see much. We have to be able to swim a mile by the end of the course (not really have to; it’s more of a goal). The staff set out a 100 meter rope and you have to swim around it (down and up) 8 times to reach a mile. I actually did it! It took me almost an hour and a half, but I did it! Of course I didn’t swim swim though (like an Olympic swimmer…well obviously or I would have finished sooner) my swimming was more like doggy paddling/frog kicking. But hey, I did it! Not many other people did, so I was happy. There were a lot of sea lice though, so I was pretty itchy. It stopped once you got out of the water, so it was ok. The worst thing though was trying to get the salt water out of my hair! For those of you that don’t know what I look like or haven’t seen my in a long time, my hair is almost to my mid back. So try washing that with cold water and expensive shampoo! I did it, but decided it was going to be the last time! I borrowed some scissors from a friend and cut my pigtails right in half! My hair is now to just about an inch below my shoulders! I feel so free! (Why did I ever have long hair again!?!?) It’s much easier and cheaper to wash now (I used about half my bottle just to get the salt out of the long hair!) And I don’t have to gasp for breath when my hair touches my back (still not used to the cold showers!) The pictures shows about how much I cut off. If you take a dollar bill lengthwise, that the amount I cut (not straightened).

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1.26

Today is my first official day here! We had a short shopping trip in town to buy things like toiletries and cell phones (it was super cheap! Only 50 kina, which is about 20ish US! Then all you do it buy phone cards/credits and it depends where and when you call how many credits you use) It’s really only for emergencies and to call my family once a week.

Anyways, we went into town on a “dyna” which is like a big pickup truck with three rows of benches on the back and a tin roof. It was fun! We live up on a mountain and the only road is a dirt road that twists and turns and has lots of whole and goes along cliffs and through the jungle, so it was fun to see all the views and feel all the bumps, like a ride in a theme park! There’s this one stretch that especially looks like the jungle boat cruise in Disney World (minus the lions and dead zebras, none of those in PNG).

In town we went to a few stores. There are a few catch all type stores (kinda like Wal-Mart but much much smaller, maybe more like a family dollar or big lots with food sections.) There were some surprising things I didn’t expect to be here! You can buy lots of Johnson and Johnson baby products, Indonesian made Oreos, Fruit Loops, etc! There isn’t too much variety in a lot, like soap or something only has a few brands, but I find it so much easier to shop here than in the US because I don’t have to think about the different brands. There’s an entire aisle devoted to toothpaste in a Wal-Mart each screaming buy me, but here there’s Colgate and PNG brand. (I like PNG brand cuz it’s cheaper ^_^)

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PhotoLog 1.25.11

Photo updates from my traveling to PNG. I will try to do a photoLog update once a week :D



Please send this out to as many people as you want! The more people involved in my mission the better!

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1.25

The last two days have been nonstop travel! It started out bad cuz I left the house really late (we got to the airport like an hour before the flight!) Luckily there were lots of nice people that let me skip and my dad asked for me to cut through security (or else I definitely would not have made it, it was like 10 minutes before my flight left when I first got in line!) But I made it on my flight just fine. The first stop was in Nashville for 2 hours then a 5 hour flight to LA with another stop for 8 hours. My luggage didn’t make it LA, so I waited around for the next few flights to come in to see if it got transferred, but it didn’t. Southwest was really great and said they would ship it to either my next airline or PNG for me. (They also gave me a really nice travel toiletry kit for free!). Then I left for Fiji on a 12 hour flight and still didn’t find my luggage. When I was at the baggage claim area in Fiji I heard someone say they were going to Madang, and I talked to her and found out she was going to POC with me! Well, the lady showed her around to where they unload the luggage and we found ours! Then we headed off through customs and such to get to our next flight 4 hours later to Port Moresby. We stopped for an hour in the Solomon Islands and then kept flying. Then in Port Moresby we found our luggage, went through customs again and checked into a domestic flight to Madang.

The Madang airport is not like any I’ve ever seen before. It was basically a runway with a few open air buildings for waiting. I don’t think there was electricity (maybe in one of the buildings there were, but not in the ones we went in). Instead of the luggage coming on a conveyor belt, they were brought to us! Then we me the POC director and headed off to the top of a mountain where the training camp is.

The camp is pretty big. It’s not like a campground but like a dorm kind of. There’s regular rooms with 3 beds and electricity (1 plug though) The bathrooms are a little ways off with bucket showers for hot water and regular running cold water. There are even regular flush toilets! :D (Oh the things I get excited about!) I’ll put pictures later!

I promise I’ll try to keep the updates shorter, to around 300ish words (about a paragraph)! This one is longer because it covers a lot of time!

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