I’m in Buka now!

I arrived in Buka on Thursday and have been settling in. The people who were taking me down to Lae for my flight to Buka cancelled due to sickness the day before, so I had a bit of stress to arrange new transport! I ended up chartering a bus.

On Thursday morning I was up early and we left Ukarumpa at 6.15am, arriving at Lae Airport at about 8.30am. I was a little bit concerned when they had told me that they would be getting petrol at Kainantu, near the start of the trip, but when we got there, the petrol station was closed, so I was wondering if we would have enough to make it, but they bought petrol at a roadside market that was selling it in large containers.

I arrived in Buka at around 1.40pm on Thursday. Yesterday I went into town and to the market. I was happy that they are selling cooked food again at the market, but they didn’t have my favourite – banana chips, so maybe they still aren’t allowed to sell them (the ban on cooked food was to prevent cholera).

It was rainy overnight last night and now it is very windy and not very hot. It’s 25 degrees in the house and the ceiling fans are making me cold, so I have my jacket on. I’d like to turn the fans off, but we have to have them on all the time, to prevent mould from the humidity.

Preparing to leave

Well, it’s only 3 more sleeps till I leave for Buka! I’ve packed up everything that I want to ship to Buka, and today I’m going to pack some of the things I’m leaving in Ukarumpa, and the things I am going to take to Buka with me in my luggage.

I’m also getting rid of some things. I’m sure it’s impossible to time your food purchases so that your cupboard is bare on the day that you leave, so I have some food that I have to give away. Tonight I am having the other singles over to my house and I will ‘auction’ off my leftover food and some other things I don’t need. The way it works, is I hold up each item, and if it’s a popular thing, people’s hands shoot up to claim it. If it’s something no-one really wants, it is given to the first person who says something about it. We call it an ‘auction’, but everything is given away for free.

Here’s a photo of some of the food I am giving away. I know that it looks like a lot, but I’ve done my best to whittle it down, and I did sell a few unopened items. I have benefited a lot from other people’s auctions though too, especially by getting lots of sunscreen that I am shipping to Buka. Sunscreen is so expensive here, so it has been very exciting to get it for free – great value! I have enough to last me for ages now.

Yesterday in the church service we had a commissioning for Rebekah and I now that we are going to work with the Teop language. We shared a bit about the history of language work in Teop, and how we decided to work there. We showed a Powerpoint slideshow with nice pictures of people and the area. I wish I could show it to you, but it is 6MB – a bit hard to send! After the slideshow, one of the directors invited people to come up the front and surround us, while he prayed for us to send us off.

Pineapples growing

I have some pineapples growing in my garden! I might be leaving before they’re ready to eat though, so that’s a shame.

Here are some photos…

Wee bubby pineapple:

Rats!

I’m fighting a rat war again! One morning I found that they had eaten some of the dinner I had out on the bench defrosting. So I got into action and set up the rat trap, but the next morning, they had eaten some of the food but not set off the trap!

Last time I had rats, the poison worked for me, so I went out and bought more rat poison. I also set up the trap a second night. This time it went off, but somehow didn’t have a rat in it.

Then today – what an adventure! I was in the sitting room with my laptop and had not long started a video call with my Mum and Dad on Skype, when I saw a rat on the floor in the dining room. Mum and Dad got to hear me scream!

Well this rat was not looking in very good shape – it convulsed and flopped and then lay on its side. Of course I had to show Mum and Dad, so I carried my laptop over to it and they got to see it too, whether they wanted to or not!

After a minute or two the rat got off its side and sat in a sitting position, but didn’t move anywhere. Mum and Dad, sharing this experience over Skype, said to get a bucket and put it over it. I found the biggest bucket I had and put it over it. It was pretty scary getting that close to it, but it didn’t move.

Unfortunately I wasn’t brave enough to get my camera out and take a photo of it to show everyone. It was still half alive, so I didn’t want to risk it running over my foot! It was a big rat and its eyes were the biggest eyes I’ve seen on a rat, reminded me a bit of a cuscus (they have big eyes too). It also had a long tail.

After connection problems stopped us from chatting on Skype, I needed a bit of a ‘hire a hubby’ service to get rid of the rat as I still wasn’t brave enough to deal with a half living rat. After 3 phone calls, I finally managed to get hold of a man who lives nearby and he came with some cardboard to slide under the bucket, took the rat outside and disposed of it. He said that he could feel the rat moving a little, so I’m glad that he did it, although it’s not his favourite job in the world either!

My next door neighbour (same building) said that it sounded like the rats were having a party up in the roof one night, so there are probably a few more rats to die still. I hope they don’t decide to spend their dying moments inside the house where I can see them and have to dispose of them!

Anuki dedication of Mark and Genesis 1-11

You may remember that in February I told you that I was working with the Anuki team at the VITAL course, helping them as they translated some of Acts. In previous courses, they had worked on Mark and portions of Genesis. They completed the whole checking process for Mark and Genesis 1-11, so it could then be published and distributed. They had a big day of celebration to dedicate and sell the books. Click on the title or copy and paste the link below into your web browser to read a news report about the special day. (The 'insert link' feature isn't working for me, so I have to do it this way).

http://theanukicountrypress.blogspot.com/2010/08/translating-bible-into-anuki-is-vital_02.html

Here’s a photo of me working with the Anuki team in February:

Football matters

Melbourne Storm is Melbourne’s claim to fame in PNG. Whenever I tell someone I’m from Melbourne, they say, “Oh, Melbourne Storm”.

NRL is really popular with Papua New Guineans and since I’m from Australia they want to know who I support in both the normal games and the State of Origin. Being a Victorian I’m more into Aussie Rules Football and I don’t really care much about the NRL. However, I tell them I support Melbourne Storm.

The State of Origin is of even less interest to me because Victoria doesn’t compete in it. But people ask and I tell them I like Queensland. I’ve chosen them because I lived in Queensland for two years, so I have more of a connection with Queensland than NSW.

When we were on the survey trip at Buka, in one village some children sitting behind me quietly asked me whether I support NSW or Qld and when I replied they laughed and chattered among themselves. It seemed like they had been discussing amongst themselves and guessing which side I support.

The NRL is shown on the free-to-air TV here, so for people from NSW and Qld who live here and enjoy the NRL, they have it good. I wish that the AFL had taken off rather than the rugby, so then I could see the football that I like (if I had a TV that is). The AFL games are shown on a couple of the satellite TV channels and on the rare occasion I’ve been staying somewhere that has satellite TV and I’ve been able to watch some of my footy live, rather than several weeks later when I receive a DVD of the game.

Shopping in Ukarumpa

Well, there's not a whole lot of choice in terms of shops in Ukarumpa. If you want computer related items, you go to the computer department, for fresh fruit and vegies, you go to the market (3 times a week and early in the morning) and for about everything else, you go to "The Store". The Store sells food as well as a variety of other things such as plates, wool, bath mats, stationery, cleaning products and toiletries.

A lot of products are brought in from Australia and the USA, but there are also locally produced PNG products and some cheap Indonesian and Malaysian products. There are even apples in The Store occasionally which are imported from Australia. They cost about 60c each.

Of course sometimes they are out of stock, like recently when there was no onions in the store for a few weeks, and the past couple times I’ve been there, there’s not been any eggs.

One day I went to The Store and wanted to buy macaroni and some other type of pasta, and I walked down the aisle that has the pasta and all I saw was Black and Gold pasta spirals. I thought, "Is that all they've got? Just spirals? I guess I'll have to wait and get macaroni another time." Then it dawned on me that I had just completely overlooked a whole section of pasta that was an American brand. There was all sorts of different types of pasta in the American brand, so I was able to get macaroni (elbows). It is funny how I am so used to familiar brands that I just did not see what was right there in front of me in a different brand!