Oct112011

Mitupela Lainim Lo Tok Pisin*

We are full-time language learners now. We spend as much of our time talking with local people in the trade language (Pidgin) as we can. The rest of our “learning time,” we study, listen to our recordings and get ready for the next time we’ll talk with someone. We have a number of people who we meet with regularly to learn, but we also just walk around to find anyone willing to listen to our attempts. It’s an interesting, fun, challenging, humiliating experience.

*The two of us are learning to speak Pidgin

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Oct92011

The Cost of Friendship

Here in Papua New Guinea one of the important aspects of the culture we are learning about is the role of “friendships.” I put the word in quotes because a PNGian would translate the word “wantok” into english as “friend,” but it would not accurately reflect the true meaning of the word.

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Oct72011

Bow Making

Yesterday one of our PNG friends took me (along with two other guys) on a hike a few miles away to visit some of his family (the actual relationship is not totally clear at this point.) When we got there, his cousin-ish relative showed us how to replace the “rope” on a bow (as in…

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Oct42011

Housing

While out walking yesterday* I saw this boy (15) carrying some sliced up bamboo (and a bush knife.) I asked him what he was doing (in Pidgin) and he told me he was working on his house. I asked if I could watch him and he said yes. As we talked he explained what he…

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Oct12011

Museum

We went to the museum here yesterday.  It was full of interesting things about the history of the people in PNG.  Honestly there was way more than I could really appreciate in one trip…especially when that trip included all 3 kiddos.  So maybe another trip will be in our future.  I actually have more pics…

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