A Visitor

Titus, who is talking more and more, alerted us to the presence on his window after he woke up from a nap today.

Note: Unfortunately, the picture just doesn’t capture the size of this beetle… It was BIG!

3 years ago today…

(with our eyes on at least another 72)

Puzzles

Around the holidays in Papua New Guinea, many stores close, many roads remain untraveled, and most places simply shut down. So, what does one do? We have been passing the time with our neighbors and working on…

Christmas in Papua New Guinea

Our 1st Christmas in PNG and we were blessed – the Lord provided us with some good friends to hang out with and we had a very nice meal. While we count our blessings, we are also thinking about (and longing for) time spent with family and how hard it was to be away from where we grew up. As hard as it is however, we still consider our blessings, as we were able to call home for Christmas and many of you have blessed us with the sending of personal notes, e-mail and care packages. 

Thank you so much for thinking of us this Christmas and for being one of 

the many blessings that we were able to experience this holiday season.

Chicken Wanted: Dead or Alive?

It is what I would expect people who lived in the 1800’s in America did when they celebrated the holidays. For us however, it was a first – cleaning our Christmas bird. When ordering a chicken (there is no turkey available here), you have to specify if you want them to kill and clean it or deliver it live. This option came as a surprise to Kara, who took on the responsibility of cooking the Christmas bird for the first time this year (what a year of firsts we have had…). Albeit surprising, Kara tackled the challenge (ordering a killed and cleaned chicken – although the windpipe and a large portion of the neck, and some organs still had to be removed) and the result was delicious!!!

Sugar Cookies: A Willems Family Tradition?

With this Christmas being the first one we have spent on our own, we thought it would be a good idea to come up with some Christmas traditions that we can do every year to make the holidays special for our family. We got the impression Titus really, REALLY liked this one:

A PNG Store’s Personal PA System

See the guy on top of the shipping container with a loudspeaker in his hand – yeah…

December 16th

What time is it?
I woke up on Tuesday morning to the sounds of the grandstand loudspeakers making some kind of announcement about toilet inspection… About 15 minutes later, I checked my watch - it was 5:45 a.m!!!

Early Morning in a Valley

Tuesday Morning’s Program  

2 preachers (which meant 2 sermons), 5 different special guest speakers, announcements and innumerable musical numbers – all before 11 a.m.!

December 15th

Opening Ceremonies

When my friend and I arrived at the camp site, we noticed the grandstand and the many temporary shelters which were constructed for this occasion. A little further down, at the bottom of the valley, was a newly constructed foot bridge, with leaves and bush rope covering the path. The bridge was a tangible symbol of the theme for this camp: A Bridge to a Satisfied Life. The afternoon that we arrived, they decided to open the camp by clearing the bridge and having people walk through as a way to symbolize that the camp was open. 

Part of the symbolism of the bridge was to represent the language group moving from non-use of their language to a revitalization of the language. They insisted that my colleague and I participate in walking across the bridge to represent our part in helping this revitalization to happen. And so, I had a dilemma.
Dilemma: I firmly believe that if they are going to “save” their language, they are ultimately responsible and should be the ones doing the work of re-introducing the use of their language in everyday life situations. However, if we were to cut the ribbon and walk across the bridge, we would essentially be symbolizing our participation and responsibility for their language being “saved”. So what did I do? I stayed back and took pictures!!!

December 15th

Haus Paia!
 
Yes, the house with all of the smoke coming from it… it’s on fire. Guess that can happen when you start a fire in the middle of your grass house!  People came running...but mainly to watch the excitement...

December 15th

Tok Ples Camp
For those who are curious what a Tok Ples Camp might be all about – let me enlighten you. The camp reminded me of the Bible conference that I attended when I was a kid (with the exception that there was no separate program for the children). There were about 4 different preachers, special guests, and a series of programs which were all to be conducted in the local language of Usarufa. The afternoon programs were supposed to be skill building activities in tok ples: learning how to sew, learning carpentry /construction, beginning literacy classes in tok ples, etc…
The reason behind the tok ples camp: The use of the local language is in decline, as many children in the area are able to understand the local language, but are not able to speak the language. The cause for this phenomenon is varied, but really, unless the language group does something significant to reverse the trend (such as teaching people to read and write in the local language, using the local language in their homes and communities, refusing to use Tok Pisin, etc…), the language will die with the current generation of adults. I do not know this for a fact, as I am not an expert on (or have I ever even experienced) language death, but it seems fairly evident that if the current youth are not able to speak the language or read it, they will not be able to pass it on to their children…

December 15th

On the road (again)…

A common sight when you are travelling on the rural roads – vehicles, loaded down with weight bogged down in the mud! We stopped to help pull the truck out (literally, with a rope and about 15 men) and the black spot in the pictures – that is the exhaust from the vehicle trying to drive out!