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!