I consider the first day to be the first FULL day.
The night was miserable. No pillow plus little support from the one inch thick mattress made my neck scream in misery. I woke in the middle of the night and had to use the filthy bucket toilet. (definitely not going to fly when I live here long-term) and in the morning I got my first bucket shower. The freezing water was not awesome.
I longed for better times out and about. And I got them.
Lindy took Kristen and I to where the women were making saksak, a starch similar to flour. After sitting down and talking a little with the women, Kristen asked if she could try sigrapim saksak (scraping saksak) out of the sago tree. They let her and after a bit she passed it off to me. It was hard work and we weren't very good at it at all. It involved taking a pick-ax like thing and hitting it againt the inside of the tree to scrap it out into a bunch of little splinters.
The next step in the process is wasim saksak (washing) where you put the splinters into a mesh and pour water over it. then the splinters are wrung and the water drips white. A finer mesh better filters the white water and it falls into a canoe. In this process the baby IS the bath water. The canoe is then covered until the excess water evaporates and a powder is all that's left behind. The powder is the saksak.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Plane Day
We went to the airport.
We came back from the airport.
We waited for an hour.
We waited for another hour.
We where told when our plane would leave.
We went to the airport.
We waited another hour.
We finally got on the plane.
Upon our arrival, a singsing was preformed to amamas us (show us their joy at our arrival).
It was a long mile to the house of the missionaries as we walked between two walls of scantily clad, chanting and dancing men and children. When we got to the house we were given a kulow, a wet coconut unlike the dry coconuts we buy at the store. The wet coconuts have more milk and less meat. Kulow was never so good as on that day!
We then walked another mile to the house where we would stay. There I found a ginormous spider. The size of my hand. The house was covered in spider webs. Bugs everywhere. Clutter too. In a very little house. It took a moment or two to adjust to it and then I was fine. The some of the other team members didn't adjust so well.
But such is life in the bush. And life in the bush is whatever you make it to be. The missionary there didn't have arachnophobia and appreciated the spiders consumption of mosquitoes and their webs ability to catch them. So she let them linger in order to spare her the mosquitoes unorthodox weight loss program.
We came back from the airport.
We waited for an hour.
We waited for another hour.
We where told when our plane would leave.
We went to the airport.
We waited another hour.
We finally got on the plane.
Upon our arrival, a singsing was preformed to amamas us (show us their joy at our arrival).
It was a long mile to the house of the missionaries as we walked between two walls of scantily clad, chanting and dancing men and children. When we got to the house we were given a kulow, a wet coconut unlike the dry coconuts we buy at the store. The wet coconuts have more milk and less meat. Kulow was never so good as on that day!
We then walked another mile to the house where we would stay. There I found a ginormous spider. The size of my hand. The house was covered in spider webs. Bugs everywhere. Clutter too. In a very little house. It took a moment or two to adjust to it and then I was fine. The some of the other team members didn't adjust so well.
But such is life in the bush. And life in the bush is whatever you make it to be. The missionary there didn't have arachnophobia and appreciated the spiders consumption of mosquitoes and their webs ability to catch them. So she let them linger in order to spare her the mosquitoes unorthodox weight loss program.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Samban overview
For two weeks, I've been in the jungle.
I lived in a bush house with a bucket shower and bucket toilet. For the first 4 days, a 6*2 1" thick mat covered in a mosquito net was my sanctuary. After that we moved down to the main part of Samban (we were originally in Nupela Painiten), where missionaries from Outreach International were located. They lived in an Americanized house. (During the first year or so, missionaries stay in bush houses until they've found just the right plae amidst just the right dialect to set up a more costly establishment.)
While in Samban, I learn how to scrap saksak (a starch akin to flour), wash saksak, cook saksak, make a belum (a purse of sorts), and I got along on my Tok Pisin. I also recorded the story of how to make a pui (a water dipper made of a coconut and a stick of bamboo) in the local language, ApMa. I then took that recording, transcribed it, found someone to help me translate it, took pictures of the process, and then made a literacy booklet that will be used in the schools there.
We had a great time talking with women and children (it wouldnt be appropriate for me to talk with men). I'd love to come back for a visit in the future.
I lived in a bush house with a bucket shower and bucket toilet. For the first 4 days, a 6*2 1" thick mat covered in a mosquito net was my sanctuary. After that we moved down to the main part of Samban (we were originally in Nupela Painiten), where missionaries from Outreach International were located. They lived in an Americanized house. (During the first year or so, missionaries stay in bush houses until they've found just the right plae amidst just the right dialect to set up a more costly establishment.)
While in Samban, I learn how to scrap saksak (a starch akin to flour), wash saksak, cook saksak, make a belum (a purse of sorts), and I got along on my Tok Pisin. I also recorded the story of how to make a pui (a water dipper made of a coconut and a stick of bamboo) in the local language, ApMa. I then took that recording, transcribed it, found someone to help me translate it, took pictures of the process, and then made a literacy booklet that will be used in the schools there.
We had a great time talking with women and children (it wouldnt be appropriate for me to talk with men). I'd love to come back for a visit in the future.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Last day in Madang (for now)
Yesterday I was in the Buy/Ship room all day packing up all the cargo for the Samban and Igoi trips. ALL DAY. My other job was to find the flight times. But the person who was supposed to tell me couldn't because the Caravan, carrying 1000k, was sick and in the shop and until it was decided whether it would be fixed or not, she wouldn't know.
This morning, it was said we would get the Twin Otter which carries 1,500k. But at 8:15, it was decided we would get three little planes, and the first would leave at 9:15. When we got there at 9:30, it was said we aren't taking the little planes but we would wait until the twin otter now.
We were spposed to find out what was going on at 10:30. At 12:30, we just got the phone call. The otter is ours. We leave at 2. Yay.
We're going to the bush and I'll have no internet for 2 weeks. woo.
This morning, it was said we would get the Twin Otter which carries 1,500k. But at 8:15, it was decided we would get three little planes, and the first would leave at 9:15. When we got there at 9:30, it was said we aren't taking the little planes but we would wait until the twin otter now.
We were spposed to find out what was going on at 10:30. At 12:30, we just got the phone call. The otter is ours. We leave at 2. Yay.
We're going to the bush and I'll have no internet for 2 weeks. woo.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Jais: Paradise is Danger
8 out of 9 interns injured.
I am not the 1.
After lunch on Saturday we went to the Jais Resort. The sign read "This way to Paradise." It was stunning. It's one thing to know God made beautiful things. It's quite another to watch it steal your breath. It was almost unreal. As if the palm trees seperating the plush white clouds laced in golden sunshine from the rich bluest of blue ocean was just a painting, as if such beauty was too marvelous to actually been seen in person.
But after two minutes in the waters (a perfect tempeture, not so cold one has to ease in, but a great relief from the sun), two interns emerged with blue dots on their feet. Sea Urchins. Lindy called us out to put shoes on. It was then that the odd burning sensation on my foot was explained. I, too, had the tell-tale blue dot of the sea urchin.
But with shoes encasing our feet, we were good to go again.
I prepared to snorkel with the others. At first I had swimming goggles on (ones that didn't cover my nose) and in addition to my nose being filled with burning salt, I got a little panicky and would inhale sharply thru my mouth and, despite that that was a successul manner of breathing, I couldn't steady my breathing. Finally, another intern threw in the towel and threw me her snorkel goggles. With my nose encased in air, I could breathe out of my mouth without fear.
The water was pretty choppy and so the sand was stirred up making the water less than crystal clear. But the coral was still lovely. It was pretty high to the surface, so sometimes I would take a moment to breath and try to stand on it. Of course the waters were moving and I'd find myself pushed from my perch.
Swimming farth out, to the edge of where I could see the coral. I danced with a jelly fish.
After that I decided to go in.
I meet my battle buddy going in. She was lifting her foot out of the water and another intern was bent over it. The pins of an urchin were being pluced from her flesh. The intern (a nursing student) looked up from her work at my arrival and asked me to hold my battle's leg out of the water to keep the waves from jostling her work. When I walked up to the more shallow waters, the nurse caught a glance of my legs. "What did that!" she exclaimed. I looked down to my skinned knee bleeding profusly. I shrugged. "Coral, probably. No big deal."
"Have you ever been scrapped by coral before?"
"No."
"It has a tendency to try to grow inside of you."
Lovely.
I try to keep a light hearted attitude as I picture the coral I had just seen underwater growing on my knee.
I crawled out of the water to Lindy.
"Lindy, coral is pretty. But coral is danger."
Lindy sighs. "That makes 8 of 9," she says.
Inventory of wounds:
One blue dot on top of foot, next to blister from shoes.
four coral scrapes on legs (two on each)
one coral scrape on ankle
Angry jellyfish welts on forearms.
angry jellyfish redness all over arms.
I am not the 1.
After lunch on Saturday we went to the Jais Resort. The sign read "This way to Paradise." It was stunning. It's one thing to know God made beautiful things. It's quite another to watch it steal your breath. It was almost unreal. As if the palm trees seperating the plush white clouds laced in golden sunshine from the rich bluest of blue ocean was just a painting, as if such beauty was too marvelous to actually been seen in person.
But after two minutes in the waters (a perfect tempeture, not so cold one has to ease in, but a great relief from the sun), two interns emerged with blue dots on their feet. Sea Urchins. Lindy called us out to put shoes on. It was then that the odd burning sensation on my foot was explained. I, too, had the tell-tale blue dot of the sea urchin.
But with shoes encasing our feet, we were good to go again.
I prepared to snorkel with the others. At first I had swimming goggles on (ones that didn't cover my nose) and in addition to my nose being filled with burning salt, I got a little panicky and would inhale sharply thru my mouth and, despite that that was a successul manner of breathing, I couldn't steady my breathing. Finally, another intern threw in the towel and threw me her snorkel goggles. With my nose encased in air, I could breathe out of my mouth without fear.
The water was pretty choppy and so the sand was stirred up making the water less than crystal clear. But the coral was still lovely. It was pretty high to the surface, so sometimes I would take a moment to breath and try to stand on it. Of course the waters were moving and I'd find myself pushed from my perch.
Swimming farth out, to the edge of where I could see the coral. I danced with a jelly fish.
After that I decided to go in.
I meet my battle buddy going in. She was lifting her foot out of the water and another intern was bent over it. The pins of an urchin were being pluced from her flesh. The intern (a nursing student) looked up from her work at my arrival and asked me to hold my battle's leg out of the water to keep the waves from jostling her work. When I walked up to the more shallow waters, the nurse caught a glance of my legs. "What did that!" she exclaimed. I looked down to my skinned knee bleeding profusly. I shrugged. "Coral, probably. No big deal."
"Have you ever been scrapped by coral before?"
"No."
"It has a tendency to try to grow inside of you."
Lovely.
I try to keep a light hearted attitude as I picture the coral I had just seen underwater growing on my knee.
I crawled out of the water to Lindy.
"Lindy, coral is pretty. But coral is danger."
Lindy sighs. "That makes 8 of 9," she says.
Inventory of wounds:
One blue dot on top of foot, next to blister from shoes.
four coral scrapes on legs (two on each)
one coral scrape on ankle
Angry jellyfish welts on forearms.
angry jellyfish redness all over arms.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Second day
So since I've been here, I've had a few funny stories.
1. Riding to the duplex where we're staying while in town, I noticed an uncomfortable poke in my back. It was like a pole hidden in the seat. I was careful about it but the roads in PNG aren't exactly smooth. Soon a large rut caused me to come slightly out of my seat and firmly into it, falling hard on the metal pole. A gasp of pain. "Are you all rigt, Vahey?" a fellow intern asks. Trying to blink back the instant watering of my eyes, I hoarsely reply, "I'm not bleeding... i think." I slid over, almost on top of the person sitting next to me to clear the pole. From then on I made sure I wasn't sitting in that seat.
2. 3am. My first night in PNG. I awake because nature calls. I walk to the bathroom and flip the switch. Crazy strobe lighting begins. Never fully illuminated either so still really dark. I look around for any unwelcome wildlife and see none. Things went smoothly. But! Have you ever tried to flush an australian toilet at 3 am while under the inflence of jet lag and under a strobing light? There's no handle! After a few desperate attempts of feeling for a handle that wasn't there, I noticed a button on the top. At this time I did what one should always do when discovering a mysterious button: I pushed it. What did it do? No idea. It was 3am and very dark. But it did something involving water. So I pushed it again and hoped for the best before going to pass out once more until 6 am.
3.8am. Second morning in PNG. I walked over to my commorades, who were attempting to chase a rooster across the yard (but then they found out that it was a chicken and trying to lay eggs for breakfast), on my way to them I noticed a large and ugly toad in the dog's food bowl. "katie" I called. As she walked over, I contemplated reaching out and grabbing the toad. Just as I went to bend down. Katie came up and said "Oh yeah, that's poisonous." I straightened up.
4.8pm. Second evening. Dinner at the house of some missionaries. As we walk in, on of the dogs nuzzles up against one of the interns skirts, pulling it up. Awkward, I thought, so I reach down to hold down my skirt. It was then, not when I left the house, nor when I got in the car, nor the whole car ride over, nor when I got out of the car, but when I was walking into the house with nationals inside that I realized that I was not where a skirt but my mid-thigh shorts. Mid-thigh. Appropriate you'd think! I mean, I wouldn't get written up for wearing them at MACU. But in PNG, where the thigh if the part of the body men lust after, this is not ok. Lindy was stupified. The missionary man jestingly told me to go to my room as he sent me to the back and pulled out one of his wife's laplap's. Lindy assured me that this would become one of those tales that started out "some there was this one intern" and ended with "now dont you all do that"
Good times
1. Riding to the duplex where we're staying while in town, I noticed an uncomfortable poke in my back. It was like a pole hidden in the seat. I was careful about it but the roads in PNG aren't exactly smooth. Soon a large rut caused me to come slightly out of my seat and firmly into it, falling hard on the metal pole. A gasp of pain. "Are you all rigt, Vahey?" a fellow intern asks. Trying to blink back the instant watering of my eyes, I hoarsely reply, "I'm not bleeding... i think." I slid over, almost on top of the person sitting next to me to clear the pole. From then on I made sure I wasn't sitting in that seat.
2. 3am. My first night in PNG. I awake because nature calls. I walk to the bathroom and flip the switch. Crazy strobe lighting begins. Never fully illuminated either so still really dark. I look around for any unwelcome wildlife and see none. Things went smoothly. But! Have you ever tried to flush an australian toilet at 3 am while under the inflence of jet lag and under a strobing light? There's no handle! After a few desperate attempts of feeling for a handle that wasn't there, I noticed a button on the top. At this time I did what one should always do when discovering a mysterious button: I pushed it. What did it do? No idea. It was 3am and very dark. But it did something involving water. So I pushed it again and hoped for the best before going to pass out once more until 6 am.
3.8am. Second morning in PNG. I walked over to my commorades, who were attempting to chase a rooster across the yard (but then they found out that it was a chicken and trying to lay eggs for breakfast), on my way to them I noticed a large and ugly toad in the dog's food bowl. "katie" I called. As she walked over, I contemplated reaching out and grabbing the toad. Just as I went to bend down. Katie came up and said "Oh yeah, that's poisonous." I straightened up.
4.8pm. Second evening. Dinner at the house of some missionaries. As we walk in, on of the dogs nuzzles up against one of the interns skirts, pulling it up. Awkward, I thought, so I reach down to hold down my skirt. It was then, not when I left the house, nor when I got in the car, nor the whole car ride over, nor when I got out of the car, but when I was walking into the house with nationals inside that I realized that I was not where a skirt but my mid-thigh shorts. Mid-thigh. Appropriate you'd think! I mean, I wouldn't get written up for wearing them at MACU. But in PNG, where the thigh if the part of the body men lust after, this is not ok. Lindy was stupified. The missionary man jestingly told me to go to my room as he sent me to the back and pulled out one of his wife's laplap's. Lindy assured me that this would become one of those tales that started out "some there was this one intern" and ended with "now dont you all do that"
Good times
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The afternoon of the first day
I spent the day in the office in Madang. It wasn't as miserable as it sounds because Team Albatross (I'm part of Team Awesome. I'm sure there's no need for further explaination) lives above the office so we could go up and recline and be "home." So, not bad.
Anyway! Internet all day is amazing. We planned the meals we'll be eating for the two weeks while we're in Samban before lunch. We had a late lunch today (when breakfast is a 6am, it needs to be BIG if lunch is late) of tiger noodles (think Ramen).
After lunch, I went to the butcher with a few interns and an office worker. There are foreign sodas here. "Well, duh," you say, but no! There's Fanta, but crazy flavors. I found a strawberry ice cream one. It was VERY sweet.
Afterwards we sat down to take our meal list and turn it into a grocery list. During our team building week in Dallas, there was a complaint that nothing was really stress provoking. This would have been a good activity for that. It was late in the day, before dinner, Lindy, our team leader, (being a very important person in the office) was in and out of our meeting, we didn't now some recipes, and had to guess. We found ourselves stepping over each other and tensions were high. But the job got down and we all left, perhaps mildly miffed, but very relieved that THAT was over. I think we apporpriately aimed our irritation at the event and not each other.
Now, I'm putting up this last post for the night before going upstairs to dine on the lovely cuisine Team Albatross prepared for us.
Good night!
(or good morning, as it's 4:13am there and 6:16pm here. So welcome to Thursday. Don't worry, it wasn't too bad.)
Anyway! Internet all day is amazing. We planned the meals we'll be eating for the two weeks while we're in Samban before lunch. We had a late lunch today (when breakfast is a 6am, it needs to be BIG if lunch is late) of tiger noodles (think Ramen).
After lunch, I went to the butcher with a few interns and an office worker. There are foreign sodas here. "Well, duh," you say, but no! There's Fanta, but crazy flavors. I found a strawberry ice cream one. It was VERY sweet.
Afterwards we sat down to take our meal list and turn it into a grocery list. During our team building week in Dallas, there was a complaint that nothing was really stress provoking. This would have been a good activity for that. It was late in the day, before dinner, Lindy, our team leader, (being a very important person in the office) was in and out of our meeting, we didn't now some recipes, and had to guess. We found ourselves stepping over each other and tensions were high. But the job got down and we all left, perhaps mildly miffed, but very relieved that THAT was over. I think we apporpriately aimed our irritation at the event and not each other.
Now, I'm putting up this last post for the night before going upstairs to dine on the lovely cuisine Team Albatross prepared for us.
Good night!
(or good morning, as it's 4:13am there and 6:16pm here. So welcome to Thursday. Don't worry, it wasn't too bad.)
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