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• Entry from Alotau

  Alotau, Papua New Guinea
Sunday, June 17, 2007

Good Morning/ Evening/ Afternoon! Wow! I cannot

believe that we have been here for 19 days! It kind of

feels like we have been here forever, but not really in

a bad way. Today is our day off, so I have time to put

up a post. I really thought they were crazy when we

first got here to give us a day off, but now I am

sooooo glad we get it! We have been crazy busy this

week! If I listed everything we have done, it would

not seem like a lot, but when everything takes longer

to do.it takes up a lot of time! We are all still

healthy and doin' good, but I must admit that "culture

shock" has been taking its toll on all of us lately.

For those of you who have not been through it, well,

let's just say that the idea that it hits right when

you go somewhere is SO not true! It usually hits about

two weeks into the trip and again at about six weeks.

Another thing I didn't understand about what the

missionaries kept saying was that we could "not do

something if we were feeling overwhelmed that day."

Well, I kept thinking."why wouldn't I want to do

everything?! I am in Papua New Guinea! Of course I

want to do everything!" Haha.it's amazing how much the

missionaries know about being worn out and needing a

break! I do not say all of that to have you feel

sorry for me or to worry any more than you already are

about me, I just say that to let you know that I really

do need your prayers! I have realized that God's will

is the only way I am here and that He is the only way I

am going to make it with great experiences, both good

and bad! Now for the funnier part of my email!

Friday, the 8th, we got up and went to cut sago (say

the name of each vowel to pronounce the word). Now,

there are several things you should know about sago.

One, to the people of Papua New Guinea, the sago tree

is like the buffalo to the American Indians. They use

every part of the tree. They eat sago (NOT my favorite

meal I must add), they build with sago, they dress with

sago, they sleep on sago mats.well, you get the

picture. It looks like a coconut tree except that

instead of having coconuts on it, it has bunches of red

seeds. (I'm sure you can look-up a picture of it

online) Anyway, Wesley, one of the Christians from

Gama (a local village with a church) needed a new roof,

so we were volunteered to go help! We went far out

from Alotau, into an area filled with sago planted by

the government, and Wesley chopped down two of the

trees. He chopped the.leaves.limbs.I'm not sure what

to call them, but he chopped off the big fronds.that's

a good word yes?...and we all had knives to hack the

leaves off. After we had the leaves all hacked off, we

stacked them and Wesley tied them into bundles to take

back to his house. They will let them dry, I think,

and then sew them all together on different long sticks

to layer like shingles to make a new roof! Chopping

enough leaves to make 6 bundles only took us two hours,

since there were eight of us working, so after we

finished that we went back to the house and got cleaned

up to go out to eat! There is a place called Masserah

that serves food buffet style and is really good! We

won a big box of cokes.sodas.whatever...in the raffle

thing they do. They have some of the best sodas over here!

Saturday was our off day and we went to the beach with

the Ford family and the Reese family! We drove for

about an hour and a half to get out there, but it was

really worth it! The beach we mostly coral, but we got

to snorkel! I have never done it before, but other

than the fact that I am completely petrified by deep

water that I cannot see through, it was awesome! The

water was SO blue and clear up at the shore and there

was plenty of coral reef in the shallow part that I did

not have to go to the drop off! Fish were everywhere!

There all these bright, and I mean electric, blue

fish; half orange and half purple fish; lots of

beautiful coral of all kinds; and SO many other kinds

of fish that were so amazing! We snorkeled for a while

and got basically baked.yes mom, I put on lots of

sunscreen, but when you are this close to the equator

they don't make an SPF high enough! After the Fords

went home, we went to a village near the beach and got

one of the locals to take us to this cave full of human

skulls! It was awesome! We walked back into the

jungle, but still close enough to the beach to see the

water a lot of the way, for about an hour. After

climbing up some volcanic rock hills, we were able to

look into this cave and see some of the skulls. The

guide seemed kind of upset and when we asked him why,

he said that a lot of them were missing! Apparently

the different tribes steal each others skulls! When

tourists come and ask to see their "skull caves" the

locals tell them to wait a day and they will take

them..well, the locals then go out and steal other

tribes' skulls and make a new skull cave! The guide

told us that his ancestors had eaten all the people

whose skulls we saw! He said that they would kill

them and then take them to the cave and eat them on the

wooden bowls we saw in there too. I cannot remember if

I have mentioned this, but missionaries originally had

a terrible time preaching about Jesus' death because

the New Guineans saw treachery as a praiseworthy thing!

The natives would praise Judas for his betrayal.which

kind of messes up the point! If you want to know more

about it.read "Peace Child." It was written by a

missionary to PNG and is really interesting! Anyway,

after Rachel fell and scrapped her leg pretty badly, we

headed back to the house. Any sore is a BAD thing here

because everything gets infected SO fast! Daniel

already had a small sore get really bad, really fast,

but thankfully the missionaries got him to take some

medicine to stop the infection. Her sore, thanks to me

and my wonderful bandaging skills; and God's

protection, did not get infected and is healing nicely.

On Sunday I went to Gama for church and after the

service, which was in Tawala (the local language), we

had a buy-the-plate potluck. They are raising money to

send some of the females to a retreat thing in a few

months. Have a I mentioned that they eat a LOT.and I

mean a LOT.of yams? They have more yams of more

flavors and textures that anything I have ever seen!

It is crazy! They also eat the leaves of a plant that

is related to the okra plant and they call it "ibica

greens." Never a dull meal when it comes to trying to

eat.but almost always dull when it comes to flavor.

They put coconut milk in EVERYTHING! It's not that

it's that bad, but it does get..um..unpleasent.after a

while. After lunch I went and helped with a new

Christian Bible study with a girl named Mennie. After

supper we went to another Bible study with a teacher

named Josephine. She is not a Christian yet, but she

is asking questions and Leslie is studying with her.

Monday was another crazy day. We went with the

missionary women to eat at the international hotel for

lunch before the Ford's left on Wednesday. Rachel and

Bethany have been working with the girls here on Sunday

in their class, while I have been working with the

kid's class. They started a girl's devo class on

Monday afternoon; please keep this effort in your

prayers because the girls here really need to KNOW that

God loves them even when their parents do not. We have

been learning that parents here are very harsh and not

encouraging at all towards their children. Most of the

girls get pregnant when they are 16 or 17, so that adds

another level of problems. Marriage is also unheard

of. People just live with each other and no one ever

actually commits to anyone else. If they want to go

live with someone else, then they do. The only people

who get married are the leaders of the local "churches"

that get married to as many women as they want to and

don't really take the idea of commitment too seriously.

We had a schedule planning meeting with Marcus on

Tuesday. After several hours of that, we went to the

local public high school to see if we could talk to the

classes about America (and use that as a door to get to

talk to them about God). When we had set up several

class times, we came back later that day I went with

Leslie to another devotional with a large group of

Christians in Golanai, while the rest of them went to

Top Town's devotional. They have decided to set up two

different devotionals since there were so many people!

Wednesday was really my hard day. We had been invited

to go to Cameron high school to talk to one of the

history classes at 7:30 am and thankfully we decided

that we should not all go to the class, so I stayed and

everyone else went. When everyone else got back, the

other girls were supposed to go a girls devo while I

went to a Cameron class thing. Well, I really think

that God was really looking out for me because the

girls' devotional was cancelled and so Diane offered to

do a mentoring time with one of us girls. The rest of

the group agreed to go back to the school while I went

to talk to Diane. That time was such a blessing to me.

Since I have not really had time to process all of

this, it really helped to be able to talk to her!

After that time, we went to interview Karoline. She is

a local, single woman that is trying to help us in our

work with the girls here. Then we had a meeting about

the Trobriand Islands trip we are going on soon. When

we got back to the house the "State of Origin" game was

on. For those of you who, like myself didn't even know

what rugby was, that is the "Super Bowl" of rugby.

(That's the best way that I can explain the importance

of that game to the rugby watchers here)

Thursday we went to a "Religious Instruction class"(RI)

at one of the local schools. The school systems here

let any religious group that wants to come in, come on

different days to have a class time with the kids.

After RI we went to the market and bought fruit and

cucumbers for the hospital patients. I really do think

that doing the hospital food thing is one of my

favorite things that I get to do every week! Siggy,

the local in charge of us crazy interns when we go to

the market, let me have some of the money and so Luke

and I got to go around on our own and buy food! It was

awesome! We bought a huge box of food and had some

money left over! The market is really cool because you

never really know what you are going to be able to buy

or what they will be charging for it. We went over to

the hospital and took the food to all the patients,

there were more this week, so we only had a little left

over for the families that were waiting there.

Friday was down right crazy! Daniel, Luke and I went,

at 7:30 AM, to Cameron High School to answer questions

about the USA in one of the history classes. It was

fun, but they kept asking us questions about the school

systems and Luke and I were home-schooled and Daniel

was a missionary kid in Kenya! That got a little funny

after a while, but I think we did a pretty good job!

After that we went to the International school to help

with their RI and then we got to interview a couple

that translate the Bible for SIL (I'm not sure what it

stands for). It was so interesting! They went to a

language group in PNG 21 years ago to start translating

the Bible into the local language, but they had to

write the language first! They went in and developed a

alphabet for the language group and then started

translating the Bible. They are still not done because

it took them so long to get help from the locals. They

also said not to swim near the mouth of a river that

dumps into the ocean because they have BIG, and I mean

10-12 foot, saltwater crocodiles in the oceans here!!!

AHH!! I am SOOOO glad I did not know that when we

went swimming!

Saturday was amazing! I didn't do a thing, ok, well I

did clean our room, but I didn't go anywhere! I really

do enjoy all of the experiences that I am having here,

but good grief! It is nice to have a day off instead

of just off days!

Well, I'm sorry this is soooo long, but I didn't know

what to leave off! I hope you all have a blessed day

and PLEASE keep us all in your prayers! Love and miss

you all!

Bekah