Learning from Life

By now, you know that the biggest time-consumer in our lives right now learning the Uriay language. We’re making progress, which is really exciting! But we sound like two-year-olds, which is not so exciting. Saying “ani demyae (It’s raining)” or “mo teta mawi (I’m going to my house)” definitely gets smiles and nods from onlookers who are thrilled to hear you speaking their language. But, they don’t make the best conversation starters. Thankfully, the two-year-old stage shouldn’t last too long.

Listening to a visiting political candidate give a speech

 Along with language study, we are working hard to learn as much as we can about Uriay culture. Here, culture and language go hand in hand. So many words are only understood if you know the cultural context for them, so it’s vital that we learn both.

Going into the jungle to get some sak sak (a staple food) and morota (roofing material)

Thankfully, living in the village gives us plenty of opportunities for culture study! Almost every day, we opportunities to observe and participate in cultural events. Events could be as elaborate as a wedding (which we haven’t observed yet), or as small as building a fire. When an event occurs, we observe what the people do, participate as much as we can, and take pictures. Then, at home, we write down our observations of each event and store our pictures so that later, we can print them out and use them as a sort of “photo book” to get more words and sentences.

Clint didn't get much sleep but had fun on the overnight jungle camping with the guys

We’re basically getting to kill two birds with one stone. We’re learning language, but we’re learning as much as we can about their culture at the same time.

Here are just a few of the events we’ve gotten to observe so far: building a house, making bows and arrows, diving for fish, preparing sak sak (a staple food in their diet), a funeral for a baby, and shooting a pig.

Trying to shoot a bow that the guys helped Clint make. I wasn't very successful :)

 

It may seem like a bit of an overkill doing so much work to learn about as many aspects of their lives as possible. But our goal is to understand how the people here think and interact so that we can clearly communicate God’s word in a way that will make sense to them. It’s a lot of work, but we’re having a lot of fun in the process!

A Hard Week

Last week was an absolutely crazy emotional roller coaster.

It started out so well. Monday morning, we hit the ground running with language and culture study. The day flew by. We felt like we were making good progress, and we put in a good, full day of language study.

Tuesday, things went downhill fast. We were going about our daily schedule when a lady knocked on our front door. She mentioned that a new baby had just been born and asked if I could come with her. I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door, feeling excited about the new little life I was about to meet. That feeling quickly died. A guy I met on the trail mentioned that the baby had been born but wasn’t breathing. My heart sank, and I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been summoned to meet this baby. I had been summoned to revive it.

And we tried. We tried so stinking hard to revive that precious little boy. My coworker, Laken, and I did CPR for what felt like hours, crying and praying that God would bring that little life back to us. But there was nothing we could do. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life… stopping the CPR and telling that momma that we couldn’t save her baby. She was so exhausted and looked so hopeless. My heart broke for her. For all the ladies in this tribe who have had their children die but have no hope of ever seeing them again. It was so hard, but it also gave me such a renewed sense of purpose and urgency for learning this language.

Wednesday and Thursday were exciting days again. Clint and our coworker Jason got to do an overnight hunting/camping trip with a bunch of the Wabuku guys. Their stories of going out in the middle of the night to stalk miari (a nocturnal marsupial that lives in the jungle) were entertaining and exciting. It encouraged our hearts that the guys had such an awesome opportunity to further strengthen their relationships with the Wabuku guys.

Then Thursday night, the heavens literally opened and we had one of the worst and loudest thunderstorms I have ever experienced. One particular lightning bolt struck our radio antenna, snapping the cable and frying our HF radio, several fans, and almost all our lights. It also knocked out the internet at our house, something our coworker Jason had just got running after weeks of work. We’re thankful no one was hurt, but it was pretty discouraging.

It’s been rough. We a bit like we were run over by a bus. But we can totally see God’s hand through it all, protecting us and giving us renewed grace to face each day. He is completely sufficient, and He is so worthy of our lives, no matter how hard it gets!