Bringing Home the Bacon. Literally.

Ever found yourself running at break-neck speed through a tropical jungle, dodging vines, jumping fallen logs, and trying not to impale yourself on massive thorns? I’m guessing that doesn’t fit the job descriptions of many men in North America, but it does for the guys in Wabuku!

Hunting trips with the Wabuku men are always an adventure. And they happen quite often. Our people rely heavily on meat from the wild animals found around the village to sustain their families. They will shoot anything that moves, but their main target is wild pig. They also hunt deer, large birds called cassowaries, a small kangaroo-like animal that they call “boi”, and large rodents that live in the jungle. 

The large bird is a cassowary that one of the guys shot

 Clint has been on numerous daytime hunting trips as well as several overnight excursions. Each one is a unique experience! 

Our guys typically hunt with handmade bows and arrows. They fashion the bows out of a specific kind of wood. The string is a strong kind of vine.

This guy, Jebri, is one of Clint's good friends and helped him make his bow

The bows are really hard to shoot! The arrow doesn't have a nock, so you have to hold it to the string

The arrows are made from a long, strong type of reed or grass. Traditionally, their arrow tips would have been sharpened wood, but now, they make them out of any kind of scrap metal they can find and hammer flat.

They have a variety of arrow tips. The large ones are for pigs.

When they go out to hunt, often a group of guys will go together, especially if they take their dogs with them to chase the pigs. If they hear or spot a pig, it’s a mad chase through the jungle to find it and get a shot before it gets away.

(Let me make a little advertisement here for Chaco sandals… those things are AMAZING for running through the jungle while chasing wild pigs! Probably the strangest positive review they will ever have, but there you have it)

Hunting pigs is pretty dangerous, though. Our guys always say they look around them for a tree to climb after they shoot, just in case. :) Many of them have stories of getting bitten by pigs.

This guy, Boni, got bit by a pig in a recent hunt

 They will sometimes butcher the pigs on the spot, but other times, they bring it to the village to cut and divide between all of the families. 

Sometimes they will tie the dead pig to a log and carry it. This guy is carrying it on his back.

So far, Clint has shot one wild pig (though another guy had the killing shot). He has also shot a large rodent called a “miyaeri” (mee-yaree) and a bird. 

After hunting, the guys enjoy retelling the event. They get really animated! Clint got a fun video of some of the guys talking about the pig they just shot. At the end, they remember that one of the guys had gotten attacked by the pig during the hunt, and they hadn’t seen him for a while, so they run off to check on him. Haha!

Mo Una Nenema Mawi

Life in Wabuku looks a LOT different than life in America. A huge part of our daily routine is spent outside, doing whatever the people here do. We’ve had a lot of interesting cultural experiences so far, and I thought I’d share a few with you over the next few blog posts to give you a better picture of life here.

One of the most common cultural events for the ladies here is scraping sago, which they call “una” (pronounced: oo-nah). The sago palm is extremely plentiful here and it grows wild, so it’s the perfect staple food. Once it’s scraped out, the inside of the tree can be turned into a flour-like substance which can be cooked several different ways. 

Most ladies will scrape sago at least once a week, if not more. The sago will last several days without refrigeration, so they can use it for a little while before getting more.

The ladies use a specific tool for scraping, which they call a “name” (pronounced: nah-may).

They swing the name up over their head and bring it down, letting just the tip of it scrape the sago. They can scrape through a 2-foot long chunk in probably an hour or less!

When they finish scraping the sago, they take it to a water source where they “wash” it. They set up a trough with a container at the bottom (all out of jungle materials, I might add!) for catching the sago. 

Next, they put some of the sago scrapings into the trough and pour water over them.

Then, they squeeze the sago scrapings to get all of the water to run out of them. The powder that gets caught in the water flows into the container at the bottom and is the substance that they use to cook with. The scrapings that remain in the trough get tossed out. 

They repeat this process over and over until all of the scrapings have been “washed”. Then, they dump all the water out of the container at the bottom. They remove the remaining flour-like substance and take it home in their homemade sago baskets, which they call an “anto” or “antu” (pronounced: ahn-toh or ahn-too). 

It's a lot of hard work! 

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the title of the blog post, "mo una nenema mawi" means, "I'm going to go scrape sago" in Uriay. :)

What's Going on in Wabuku

The blog has been quiet for a few months. Oops. I have a few blog posts in the works... but for now, we're doing well. We're still plugging away at language study. And we're so thankful for your prayers as we continue working here in Wabuku!

And, since I haven't posted in a while, I figured I'd share a few pictures from the past two months. Just a few shots of life here in the tribe.

Our kids are in a "lets touch every animal we see" phase right now, so pretty much any village animal is game for petting. Including the pigs. They're pretty harmless, but they can be pretty big!

This little girlie is doing so well here in the tribe! She loves to go outside and play, and she waves to everyone she sees. She walks like a pro and follows Kyler everywhere she can.

Kyler is doing well here too. He also enjoys playing outside, and his current favorite pastime right now is playing with some puppies that live nearby. He talks so much now, both in English and in Uriay! It's fun hearing him trying to learn new phrases with us.

Last month was rough for our whole team in terms of sickness. Everyone in our family except for me came down with a cold/fever for a while, so we stuck pretty close to home for a week or so. And our teammates have been battling colds, stomach bugs, and strange skin rashes. It's been tough at times, but we're thankful that we seem to be relatively healthy again.

Language study is going well, though sometimes we can feel like we're not making any progress. We're starting to form sentences and communicate some basic ideas, so that is encouraging!

 

We're also striving to learn as much as we can about the culture here. It's nice when common events occur near the village so we can observe them easily. Most of the time, the ladies have to hike into the jungle to scrape sago (a staple food that comes from the sago palm tree). But on this particular day, one of the men floated a few logs down river so his wife and a few other ladies could work right on the beach near the village.

 

The guys play a lot of soccer here. It's a great time for Clint to build relationships with the guys and pick up some more language.

But, sometimes the guys are a bit rough when they play soccer. Clint hurt his foot a few weeks ago while playing and couldn't walk on it for almost two weeks. So a few of the guys made him some crutches out of jungle materials.

 

Last week, the entire village got to vote. Some polling officials came by canoe with official ballots and set up cardboard polling booths underneath the house of one of the village leaders. Even though it wasn't a major election (for Prime Minister), it was still a big deal to the people here. They were all thrilled to get the chance to vote. 

 

They had a few posters taped up to help remind people which candidates they wanted to vote for. Each person over 18 could vote for their top 3 choices for 2 different government positions. Hardly anyone knows their real age, though, so some of the teenagers kind of have to guess. :)

Since there are not really any good identification methods in place in PNG, each person who votes has their left pinky finger marked with ink to indicate that they have already voted.

 

The other big event from last month was buying a canoe. Our team has desperately been in need of a new dugout canoe for when we bring in supplies or need to go out to town. Ours was leaking terribly. So one of the men in the village offered to sell us his canoe. Clint, Jason, and Lisa all gave him some money to show that all of our family units were represented in the purchasing of the canoe. Then, everyone shook hands to show we were all unified and in agreement with the purchase.

Well, hopefully that gives you a small glimpse into our life here over the past few weeks. I hope to post a bit more soon, but do know that we're so grateful for your prayers for us while we're in here! We don't take them lightly, and we know we can't make it in here without them! Thanks so much!!!

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!

Learning Uriay

We’ve been in Wabuku for a total of 2 months now. Our lives have changed in so many ways since moving in here. Most of them have been good, including finally having a place to call our home. A few have been difficult. But overall, we are loving it in here!

Our main focus since moving in has been culture and language study. We spend a lot of time out with the people in the village, learning how they live and interact. Our hope is that all the information we are gathering will one day allow us to effectively communicate God’s truth in a way that they can understand.

For language study, we can use the trade language that we learned when we first arrived in PNG as a bridge to help us gather nouns and common, useful phrases in Uriay. We are mostly learning words right now, and later we will move to constructing sentences.

Uriay has a lot of words, but most of them are fairly easy to obtain. They are based in what you can see around you. Many things that we have in English don’t have names in Uriay because the people never use them, such as computer, stove, sink, bath tub, etc. They could come up with a rough translation, like “place for washing plates” or “place for cooking food”, but it makes it a bit simpler for us to learn their language because they don’t have as many nouns as we do.

The one thing that is a bit tricky with Uriay is that many words sound and look alike, which can potentially be embarrassing depending on your situation. For instance, “una” and “uma” are very similar, but the first one means “sago palm” (which is a tree that provides a staple food in their diet) and the second means “poop”. Don’t want to get those confused.

Overall, most of the words in Uriay look and sound nothing like English. It’s going to take a lot of time and hard work to learn this language. Our brains often feel like mush at the end of a day of studying. But we know all the work will be worth it!

Land of the Unexpected

Papua New Guinea is described by many as the land of the unexpected. We definitely agree. From the moment we first stepped into the sweltering blanket of PNG humidity a year and a half ago, we have experienced countless revisions to our plans. This month has been  no exception.

Most of you know that we were planning to move into Wabuku on January 16 (with a small work team going in a few days prior to work on our houses). But, we’re still not moved in. The grass airstrip where we fly in to flooded just before we were set to depart, so we couldn’t go. When we finally received the OK to fly, our coworker, Lisa, had to go to Australia for some very important meetings. So, the work team (3 people besides Clint and our coworker Jason) decided to do a quick trip, just to get some work done on our houses. The original 5-day trip was shortened to 4-days after some rescheduling done by our mission pilots. And, last minute, I was asked to go in to help cook for the team. So, our whole family ended up traveling in to Wabuku for 4 days. We loved being there and didn’t want to leave. I guess that’s a good sign since we’re headed back in six days on February 7! Or, some of us are anyways.

Ok, so after our work trip, we anticipated a full week and a half out on the base to pack the rest of our things and get ready for our move. Nope. We got word that our coworkers’ batteries might not have been hooked up correctly to their solar system, and it could potentially destroy the system if left alone. So, Clint and Jason quickly packed and headed back into Wabuku after only spending the weekend on the base. They decided to stay in the tribe since it doesn’t make much sense for them to come back out and go back in only a week later. We got word that the batteries and solar system are totally fine, and the guys are continuing to fix and clean our houses (trust me, they are filthy!). We miss them, but we’re thankful they can get so much done before we head in.

We’d definitely appreciate your prayers as we prepare to move in on the 7^th. We definitely sense that Satan has been attacking our team in various ways. He’s trying hard to discourage and distract us. We know he doesn’t want these people to learn what it means to walk in fellowship with Christ. He has held them in bondage for so long, and he is fighting to hang on to his domain. It’s scary sometimes what he throws at us. But praise God, He is so much stronger than Satan! And He will protect and guide us as we go. Thanks so much for praying for us each step of this crazy journey! And please, don't stop.