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...

Read more »

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 ...

Read more »

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...

Read more »

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...

Read more »

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...

Read more »

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,...

Read more »

PhotoLog 1.25.11

Photo updates from my traveling to PNG. I will try to do a photoLog update once a week :DPlease send this out to as many people as you want! The more people involved in my mission the bett...

Read more »

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...

Read more »