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The problem with printing Luke is solved, but now we have to try and print about 200 copies before the end of tomorrow, which is the last day of the workshop. Today I finished printing another 200 or so literacy books AND stapled the all. I took some allergy medicine which makes me all jittery (unfortunately it did nothing for the actual allergies) so I ended up stapling about 250 books in half an hour….but now my arm is sore….. ^_^
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Today I printed more….we don’t have enough paper to fill the order so we will have to finish next time….
2:57 PM
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Today I printed about 250 literacy books and 10 books of luke, but the Luke books are coming out all weird. The pictures are being smushed and I don’t know why….So I don’t think we will finish printing those until that problem is fixed.
9:16 PM
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I am taking over the printing job here now, we have hundreds of books to print before the workshop ends. Two whole schools ordered alphabet books and reading books for each of the kids! Yesterday the project leader said we weren’t going to print them until the schools paid for them first, but today we had a 2 hour discussion about why that was good. The translators were really disappointed and they wanted to bring the schools the books because they believe they will pay. I doubt it, but I think for the first time its ok, then every other time they come out with new books they tell them up front to pay and then they will get them. O well ^_^
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The translators decided on the acts pictures today and I did some recording and started analyzing it. Its been rainy all week and weekend, so our power is really low. My battery died and I lots most of my work for the afternoon. Apparentely the autosave doesn’t work on excel on my computer…grrrr….
9:41 PM
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I made new lists for recording, but then it rained in the afternoon, which means its too loud to record. So I did other random jobs.
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The translators decided on the acts pictures today and I did some recording and started analyzing it. Its been rainy all week and weekend, so our power is really low. My battery died and I lots most of my work for the afternoon. Apparentely the autosave doesn’t work on excel on my computer…grrrr….
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Feel much better today finally! Everyone else is sick though, but not with what I had. Apparently all the translators are getting colds now L
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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 ^_^
7:52 PM
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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.
7:51 PM
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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!
7:51 PM
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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!
7:50 PM
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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
7:49 PM
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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!
7:49 PM
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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.
7:48 PM
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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.
7:48 PM
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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.
7:47 PM
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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.
7:47 PM
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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.
7:46 PM
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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.
7:46 PM
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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!
7:45 PM
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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.
7:45 PM
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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 ^_^
7:44 PM
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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!!!!
7:44 PM
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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.
7:43 PM
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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.
7:39 PM
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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.
8:04 PM
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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!
5:21 AM
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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!
8:17 PM
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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!
5:26 PM
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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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I got to fly today! LITERALLY! The plane had only two seats in the front and one in the back and the rest was for stuff (it’s a really really small plane!), but I sat in the front (which is like a co-pilots seat) and the pilot got in and was like “hey do you wanna fly the plane?” and I was like, “huh?” and he said I could fly the plane, so I did! He told me how to do it and took it off autopilot and let go of the controls and let me fly!!!!! YAY! It was so FUN! Of course when I got off track he took the controls again, BUT I FLEW A PLANE!!!!
7:41 PM
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I have to move out of my house in order not to have to pay rent while Im away at the village, so today I started packing everything…..I HATE PACKING! Ahahahha! When I left for PNG I packed everything the night before. But I can't do that now because I have to move all my stuff to a friends house for storage, and she said shes not answering the door at 4 in the morning to take all my stuff :( so I have to pack now…My room is a disaster zone right now! (yes, it's a different room, I moved to the one with a desk in it….but it's the same house… :D)
3:02 PM
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I got wild honey today!!!! My roommate went to market and saw wild honey there and new I wanted some, so she bought it for me! It's an 8oz peanut butter jar filled with the best honey ever! AND it was only 8 kina, which is like 3 dollars!!!! :D :D :D Usually honey is really expensive here in the stores, but this was so cheap!!!! YYYAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
3:03 PM
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I found out today that I will have email in the village from May 31-Aug 2, but not my regular email. I will be able to upload to my blog (I do it through email) but I wont be able to put pictures. I will send the email address out with my next newsletter. Only use it if its an emergency, and make sure it is less than 50kb, or we wont be able to download it. :D One thing I am looking forward to in America when I go back is the unlimited internet! Im addicted….I know……
2:34 PM
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There was a good discussion today about the meaning of "right hand". In the Bible it means strength and power and authority, but each of the groups (6 of them) in TTC2 each told what right hand meant in their language. One means the person standing next to you, another means someone who is true and good, another is just literal, so when they read about the right hand of God, they imagine someone sitting on him or something. Theres lots of words and phrases that have a double meaning, that if we just translate word for word, it wouldn't give the right meaning. Then the groups looked for metaphors in their own languages that mean power and authority.
(isnt that the coolest looking caterpillar ever? I didn't take the picture, but its cool ^_^)
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One of the language groups in the area finally dedicated their New Testament today! It's the last language in the area around Ukarumpa to get it, but the 13th language that was started in PNG! It took almost 50 years and 3 translation teams to do it. I don't know what happened to make the process so long, but the people were really excited and happy to finally get it!
3:06 AM
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This was just a fun day where we got to meet all our friends from POC again and have a party. Not much happened….
5:53 PM
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This is a picture of us all acted out the crossing of the red sea (and I got to direct YAY!) . In TTC2 the students have to translate Exodus 15, which is a poem that is sung by Moses and Miriam after the Egyptians have died. They all learned about different aspects of poetry and analyzed their victory songs in their languages (songs they sing when they win after a battle). Then we acted out the story of Exodus 14 to get them in the mood to write new victory songs in their language and then to translate the Ex 15. AHAHAHA, all the students were the Israelites and we staff were Egyptians, and when we all died they started singing their victory songs, they got really into it! It was fun! :D
2:51 PM
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Today I worked on the Graduation Program for the TTC Course. They graduate on June 8th, so Im not going to be there :( After the ceremony they will have a giant mumu, which is a feast of pig, chicken, veggies and amazingness all cooked in the ground. Mmmmmm……..
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We went to Kainantu today, which is a town about 30 minutes away from Ukarumpa. It has stores, market, etc, like Madang town but very much not like Madang town too. In Madang the sun is shining, the ocean is right there, people smile/laugh when they see you, and are generally really really nice. To me it has a happy kind of feel to it. Kainantu is very different. It was cloudy and rainy, people don't smile at you or seem to like you for no reason. I felt kind of oppressive to me. I was glad to leave. My massive allergy attack the whole time there didn't help either. I could barely keep my eyes open. Anyways, tomorrow I start work again YAY! :)
9:01 PM
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Another day of orientation and lots of stuff to do. I had to go to the store to get supplies for the village, take money out of the bank for the PMV rides and the next 2 months, go to the housing department to request to move out of my house on the 31st, pack my village things, find a scale, weigh all my stuff (it has to be very specific, down to the last kilo…) and then send all the info to the aviation department! *WHEW!*
9:01 PM
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I had orientation again today, boring things. The exciting/not so exciting thing is that I got my flight confirmation for May 31st to go out to the village. Its exciting because it means its really near and its going to happen! The not so exciting thing is that its really expensive. Every single kilo costs a certain amount, so you have to weigh yourself and your baggage, its not like the flights in America where you can wear all your clothes on your body and stuff as much as you can in a carry on for free, EVERYTHING is weighed and charged. I have to pack up all my stuff and weigh it for them to know the exact amount as soon as possible.
9:00 PM
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I tried to use skype today and it didn't work! :( I wanted to say happy mothers day to my mommy but I couldn't *TEARS* (its mothers day in the states now, we are a day ahead) dumb internet….too many people on at the same time I guess. I tried to go on early in the morning, but I think lots of people had the same idea because it was mothers day. Anyways….HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOMMY! :D :D :D
8:59 PM
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In the village we will also be hiking to distribute some copies of the recently printed book of Luke, and doing a translation workshop to help national PNGers learn to analyze their language and Bible and translate for themselves :D After two months I will go back to Ukarumpa to work on my projects there and come back again in September to the village I think. :D (here is a picture of a piece of translation in progress in one of the languages there)
8:58 PM
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So I got some tentative plans for the next few months. On May 31st I will leave Ukarumpa and go to Sandaun province, to join a project called the Aitape West Translation Team. If some of you met me from a church presentation (and remember) I showed a video about a people group that was half wiped out by a tsunami. Then the translation project moved inland and about 9 or 10 other neighboring language groups wanted to join and have translation projects started in their languages. Well, this created something called a Multilanguage Translation Project and is one of the biggest in the country now. This is the group I am going to help. I am going to work on some phonology analysis to help them with alphabets and spellings for their languages and Bibles! :D :D :D I will be there for 2 months :D (more info tomorrow) (this is a picture of some of the nationals working on translation in that project)
8:39 PM
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I started Ukarumpa orientation today. Its basically to help us get situated here. Anyways, this is the house that I live in. Its like your basic American house, and even has American plugs in it! Its huge, three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, laundry room and basement. Apparently it's the singles party house too AAHAHA. But yeah, its huge.
8:32 PM
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The translation teams started their translations today, working on Genesis 1-8. They did research last night to prepare them for the translation today. I helped the Nankina language group and after an hour they had finished the first 2 verses. They translated it quickly into their language, but what took the longest was retranslating into English again for checking. They didn't have to do that just yet because that's next weeks assignment, and when I told them that they all had a look of relief on their faces. Then they said that now their translation was going to go much faster because I helped them, but all I did was give a suggestion. O well, if they thought I was useful then I am happy.
8:31 PM
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Today I started work already. I am helping in translation class for Papua New Guineans as a mentor. The class is meant to Papua New Guinean translators learn about Bible background/history, how to analyze their language, how to do research in different English, Greek, Hebrew and Tok Pisin Bibles and translate to their language. It's a month long course and I might be there the whole month and I might not, I don't know yet. My job in the class is to help the teams in whatever way they want without doing the work for them. There different kinds of teams here, ones with a missionary that speaks English and independent ones that started their translation projects on their own and don't have a missionary. Im mostly helping the ones that don't have a missionary because they have the difficulty of not know much English (most of the good resources on Greek and Hebrew are in English, so they have to look at those to make the best translation possible.)
8:30 PM
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I came to Ukarumpa today. Its really cold up here, especially when you just came from the coast where its always in the 90s with 100% humidity. The ride up here was really long, about 7 and a half hours. We sat in the back of the new dyna on the floor on foam to pad our butts. It was fun until bees started flying in and I freaked out. When we finally got here I was exhausted, but I met my roommate and co worker. Then at night we went to a welcome dinner for a Translation Training Course for Papua New Guineans that I am going to be helping with tomorrow.
8:30 PM
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Last day in POC. I packed up all my stuff and put it on the back of the new dyna to bring to Ukarumpa tomorrow. Then we didn't have anything else to do and just watched movies. Anyways, this is another picture from village living, me getting dressed up for a singsing.
8:28 PM
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My sister graduated from UF today! (actually it was the 30th, but we are a day ahead). I walked around all morning waiting for her to call me. She is not very happy that she had to suffer through my boring graduation service and I didn't have to for hers. I was sad I couldn't go *tears* O well. She is going to send me a picture with me photoshopped into it BAHAHAHA!!!
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This is a picture of a kid holding a snake. Most people here in Papua New Guinea are terrified of snakes. My Waspapa will run away if he even sees a picture of one on our camera! But this kid wasn't afraid. He would take his pet snake out to the road and scare all the kids walking to school early in the morning, or chase people in our village with it. It was fun. He tried to scare me with it but I took it and put it around my neck and my Waspapa freaked out. Its not a poisonous snake, and it doesn't bite. I don't know what kind it is.
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