7.1

FRIDAY!  we moved out of our room into another room today.  The whole place is so nice!  Then we went to the airport to see our national translators who just came back from Ukarumpa from a class they taught.  They are going back to the village and waiting for us to come on July 5.  We couldnt get on the flight because it was too heavy.  Then on the way back from the airport, we drove by the prime ministers house.  ITS SO COOL!  All the posts are carved out of beautiful red wood with traditional designs, and it has shingles!  WHOA!

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6.30

The place were we are staying is a guesthouse run by our organization, and the people that run it are just the most amazing and wonderful people.  So hard working and nice and just great great people.  So we took them out for dinner tonight at the fancy place we went to on my birthday.  We sat in a different room (the fancy dinner room) and had really yummy malaysian meals (its owned by malaysians).  And I had crocodile for the first time!!!!  IT WAS SOOOO GOOD!  it tastes like chicken, but its soft and sweet....mmmmm......in a coconut curry sauce....mmmm...droool....i cant wait to eat the rest of it for lunch tomorrow.....

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6.29

We went to town today to do more shopping for the village and project.  We tried to buy cardstock paper for the book covers, but they were insanely expensive, and no one else had them.  We didnt have enough money for them (it was like $40 for 100 pages!) We might have them shipped to us from somewhere else. 

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6.28

Another work day.  Sorry these arent very exciting....

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6.27

Still working on phonology, its a big project, but I think I have part one figured out (that was the easy part...its really like 2 projects that Im doing....but one is pretty muych finished now)  I might have to collect more data though to confirm... :D

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6.26

Im so sore today from the waterfall!  But it was worth it! :D  We went to a local church and then they had food afterwards and I got a rice basket cooked in coconut cream...mmm.....SO GOOD!

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6.25

Today was fun.  We went to a huge waterfall today and it was awesome!  We were climbing up and down the waterfall (it was made for climbing and jumping off into the pool underneath) for hours!  YAY!

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6.24

Friday!  WOOHOOO!!!  Well, we just did work today, not very exciting.  Im plugging away on my phonology project!

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6.23

YAY!  Finally some sun!  We went to the restaurant today and swimming in the pool ^_^  It was fun.  Then we came back and did some more work.  Sorry these posts aren't as exciting as the walkabout posts.  O well ^_^

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6.22

It rained all day again today, so we didn't go out for lunch.  We just worked on whatever stuff we had to work on.  Im working on my phonology project now. 

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6.21

Its my Birthday!!! YAY!!!  I'm 23 today! WOOHOO!!!!  We were supposed to go to a restaurant that has a salt water pool, but it rained all day L  We went to town to shop for things for the village though, so it wasn't too boring of a day ^_^  Then my friends made me chocolate and caramel cupcakes and ice cream! :D YAY!

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6.20

Today is fathers day in the States (we are a day ahead), so I got to call my dad and talk to him!  I thought I wasn't going to be able to, but we got out of the village early, YAY!

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6.19

We came into town today.  It was probably the worst car ride I've ever been on.  If you've ever been to Disney World and know the Star Wars ride (it's a motion simulation ride that jerks you around and stops suddenly…its fun) it was like that, but not fun.  In Disney you are strapped into a padded seat, in PNG you sit curled up in the back of a pickup squished between 20 people.  In Disney it lasts only 2 minutes, in PNG it lasts 6 hours.  In Disney you know the ride is safe, in PNG you go through knee deep mud at 40mph sliding around the whole way, or ford rivers or cross log bridges covered in slippery mud as you look down into the ravine.  I felt like vomiting the whole time, but didn't.  O yeah, and I forgot to say that all of this was from 11pm to 5am….im sleepy

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6.18

We left for Aitape in the morning and found a guest house (kind of like a motelish place?) and rented a room, but its crazy expensive.  So we went to the store to buy food for the next few days and started looking for a ride to Wewak (a big town in the next province) Then we found a car to go all the way to Wewak this night!  Now we don't have to pay for a few days at the guest house YAY!

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6.17

This is our last village!  Luckily we get to end on one that has a book of Luke and literacy materials to sell.  The last few have been kind of disheartening, but its nice to end on a happier note.  They don't seem to want us to be here for long though.  We are supposed to stay for 3 or so days until Monday and then get a car to Wewak, but they have a car for us to Aitape tomorrow morning.  Where we will stay between then and Monday is a mystery to me.  O well.

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6.16

Today we were in Wolwole village.  It has a very trailer park in the deep south kind of feel.  All the parents just yell at and hit their kids, the dogs are ridiculously skinny and diseased.  People just kept asking for Tylenol and money from us.  They don't have any books or anything to dedicate and sell, so they can't see the finished product of the work and there's definetly an I don't care kind of fell. 

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6.15

Today is Romei-Barera village.  We are actually in Romei and Barera is a little ways away, but in the project they work as one language.  They also don't have Luke or literacy materials to bring, but their really close to finishing.  The translators are really nice and everyone in the village is great.  Its so much better than Ramo, I can't even describe it. 

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6.14

This is by far the worst village I have ever been to.  Its called Ramo and its pretty unique, all the houses are in one community and their gardens are outside of it, usually houses are clustered in tiny village, but this one is huge, more than 20-30 houses all together.  We got in and ALL the kids and people came to stare at us…ALL!!!  That's like 200 people just surrounding us to look at us.  I needed to do another word list, so I found a random person and asked them to do it for me, and then told everyone I needed all the kids to leave because it needed to be quiet.  But no one left, the word list is so bad, I can hardly hear anything.  All the kids are talking and all the parents are yelling at them to be quiet.  They have no control over them at all.  A new company came in and now all the parents go off to work, leaving no one in the village to look after the kids, so they run wild, burning outhouses, fighting….I can't handle being stared at like this.  I feel like I'm gonna through up.  I can't wait to leave here.

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6.13

Today we did the presentation in Barupu.  The language community is huge, almost 3000 speakers.  The translator however lives on the beach away from them because they don't support the work he's doing.  For 10 years he's been doing this and no one has helped him until another guy came and joined him.  Even his family scorned him.  But now hopefully with the presentation we did and our coming, the people will get behind him and support him.  They didn't have the book of Luke ready  or the literacy materials, but they are so close.  I think we will be coming back in September for the dedication.

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6.12

We were supposed to leave Sissano this morning, but it was raining like crazy.  We just layed around doing nothing because it was too wet to go anywhere.  Then around 3 it let up and we left for Barupu on a boat.  We picked up the translator on the beach then went up the river until we had to stop.  Then we walked in the slippery mud for about an hour until we got there.  Tomorrow we will do the presentation and I will do a word list for my phonology project.

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6.11

We went to the second sissano village today and did the presentation at the school grounds.  They gave us more lays and painted our faces and had a singsing all the way up to the school. There was another mob almost to get to the  books, which sold out instantly!  Then they ordered hundreds more! 

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6.10

After the presentation and dedication of the book of Luke today there was like a mob to get to buy them!  They were all sold out in minutes and the translators were crying because they were so happy.  Everyone in the village is so supportive of him and happy he's doing it. 

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6.9

Today we left on a canoe and rowed for a few hours until a boat picked us up.  While we were rowing a random lady  came out of her house and gave me a fish…Anyways, we were in the boat for another hour or so, which means I would still be rowing into the night if they didn't pick us up!  When we got to Sissano village (a different language) they painted our faces red and put lays and necklaces and bracelets on us.  They are so excited that we are here.  Its fun ^_^

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6.8

We went to another village in the same Malol language group to bring the books and make the presentation.  We walked through knee deep mud and swamp and little slippery logs across brindges.  The people would not let me walk by myself because they thought I was going to fall (because mud is so hard and painful right?)  Anyways, they held my arm up in a very awkward position and pulled and pused which threw me off my balance and made walking much harder.  No matter how many times I tried to get free or tell them I don't want their help, they didn't listen.  I know they were just trying to be nice and helpful in their own way, but I was really overwhelmed and hated it.  GRRRR!!!!

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6.7

We did our presentation again today about Bible Translation and literacy and showed them all the books and the book of Luke.  Everyone was really excited and happy about them and most of everything was bought.  The books we have are the book of Luke, alphabet picture books, learning to read workbooks for students, teaching books for teachers and a Christmas story book with comprehention and reading/writing exercises.

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6.6

We left our village today to around 9ish and walked through lots of mud to an intercoastal type thing for about 2-3 hours.  Then we got on a boat and headed to the first Malol village where they met us with lays and a singsing and lots of fruit.  The village church has this really cool painting of this tsunami coming all the people running away into the church.  Its beautiful. 

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6.5

Today we packed for our hike that we are starting tomorrow.  I only have a small backpack (I had the option of borrowing a bigger one from a friend, but I was afraid I would fill it up too much and have to carry so much weight around).  My pack weighs about 20 pounds.  The other 2 people that are going with me have big packs and theirs weigh about 50!  That's as much as you can take on an airplane!  YIKES!  I can't even imagine walking around with all that on my back for hours every day. 

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6.4

I love it here in the village, so much more than Ukarumpa.  I’m gonna be sad to leave L  We are living in a house that belongs to the translation projects leaders because they aren’t here right now.  It’s a huge house with solar panels and electricity and hot water!  We have to move out tomorrow though because they a re coming while we are on our hike.  But they have a small apartment for us downstairs that we can use.  The project is translating about 11 languages, so there are lots of people working here.  They built a dorm for the national tranlslators to stay when we have workshops and everything!  When we get back to the village in July after our hike, we are doing a translation workshop.  YAY!

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6.3

Today we went on a hike to a nearby village.  It took like 1-2 hours ( I can’t really tell time well and I didn’t have a watch).  We had a huge rain storm the other day, so everything was flooded.  The ground was really swampy and in some places the water came up to our thighs!  But it was fun, there were no leeches or crocodiles too!  When we got to the village they gave us lots of fruits and we presented the book of Luke and lots of literacy materials.  Then they gave us all necklaces and arm bands and flowers and more food and we left back to our village through the swamp again ^_^  YAY!  I wish I could post pictures for you to see the mud and water!

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6.3

Today we went on a hike to a nearby village.  It took like 1-2 hours ( I can’t really tell time well and I didn’t have a watch).  We had a huge rain storm the other day, so everything was flooded.  The ground was really swampy and in some places the water came up to our thighs!  But it was fun, there were no leeches or crocodiles too!  When we got to the village they gave us lots of fruits and we presented the book of Luke and lots of literacy materials.  Then they gave us all necklaces and arm bands and flowers and more food and we left back to our village through the swamp again ^_^  YAY!  I wish I could post pictures for you to see the mud and water!

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6.2

We went to the other village today to do a presentation and a survey and get some data for my project, but no one was there.  They all went to a meeting with a company.  Then we came home and printed some more books of Luke and alphabet booklets, literacy materials and other things.  :D  Tomorrow we are going to a different village to do what we were supposed to do today.  YAY!  But I won’t be collecting data because its not one of my languages, o well :D 

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6.1

Tomorrow we are starting our very very long hike!  There are no mountains in
this part, so that makes me happy ^_^  Anyways, tomorrow we are going to
another village and back again, the next day we go to another and back
again.  June 4th and 5th are here in this village, then we are leaving for
good and not coming back again until July 5th.  On June 10th we go to
another village by canoe! YAY!  On June 21 or 22 we will be finding a car to
take us to a town in the next province where we will stay until the 5th :D 
YAY! 

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