MUMU

As promised, above is a picture from my porch during our morning prayer time. Believe me, this does not do it justice.

On Tuesday we all went into the village to attend a mumu. That's where you dig a pit, start a fire, heat up a bunch of rocks, put tons of veggies (mostly potatoes) and meat in, cover it all up with banana leaves and then cover that up with dirt. It's like 400 degrees in there (literally, they measured it once). So we get there and the boys and girls are separated. The boys sit around and do nothing, while us girls peel a bazillion potatoes and cooking bananas (which look like a banana, but smells like a cucumber, has the color of cantaloupe on the inside, and tastes like a potato). Sadly, I missed most of the festivities because of a stomach pestilence that has been plaguing our group for the past week, and it was apparently my turn to get it. I at least had the opportunity to taste a little bit of lamb that had been cooked inside of bamboo with a bunch of greens (kumu) - and that was very delicious. Here a couple of pics:

This is part of the pile of kaukau that we peeled, along with the meat from the bamboo on a banana leaf. And the next one is a picture of the actual mumuI will be out of touch for the next several days, as I will be on my "side-trip". I leave tomorrow morning to spend 4 days living in a remote tribe with a missionary family. I'm so looking forward to the opportunity to go tribal, and worship with believers there! We've learned several worship songs in Pidgin so that we can sing with them. Can't Wait!

Random Monday Musings

* I've come to really enjoy the fact that the men and women are separated during our village exposure time. While the guys are off learning how to make weapons out of grass and leaves, the ladies sit around and work our bilums, sing together, tell stories and just talk. It's nice to have the freedom to build those relationships, just be girls, and not worry about the guys seeing us or hearing us.

* I haven't heard a cell phone ring in 3 weeks. Sometimes I still go into my purse (bilum) thinking I need to turn down my ringer, or wanting to check to see if anyone called me during class.

* On Saturday night I was able to bust out my EMT skills. During an exciting game of night-time ultimate frisbee (with hardly any lights on at all) 2 of the guys had a bit of a collision. At first I just laughed... then I realized they were both not getting up. One of the guys' teeth connected with the other guy's eyebrow. He had to have stitches and has the best black eye I've ever seen! They both were a little bit googily after that, but I really enjoyed taking care of them until the doctor could see them.

* I've lost 10 pounds so far. That's the good news. The bad news is that I feel like after some of those hikes I should have lost more like 30lbs. Also, you can't see any difference since I have to look frumpy every day anyway.

* I love waking up every morning and having our prayer group outside, looking at the mountains. It is often foggy/misty in the mornings and sometimes you just see certain peaks with the fog hovering around them. Looking at that, and seeing waterfalls, the bougainvillea growing wild, and the brightness of the stars, feeling the cool of the evening... all I can think about is How Great is Our God!?! And wonder how I could be important to Him at all, and yet I am. ("Because we mattered most to the One who matters most").

* I am constantly dirty and smelly. There is no way to stay clean and smelling good. We all try, and we shower every day, but we still stink. I really miss fabric softener.

* I also really miss cheese. And steak. Let's not talk about it.

* I've been learning a lot of things from God these past few weeks, but it's not what I expected to learn. I wanted to grow in my knowledge of the Bible, and I suppose that has happened as well, but really I'm learning so much more about what it means to be gracious, especially when you just feel like being selfish. And about what it means to truly give something to God. I've realized that while I SAY that I'm giving it to Him, my heart really isn't in it. I SAY that I want clarity, but I'm too afraid the answer will be NO. I'm learning a lot about surrender and sacrifice.

The true follower of Christ will not ask, "If I embrace this truth, what will it cost me?" Rather he will say, "This is truth. God help me to walk in it, let come what may!" ~ AW Tozer

The Market, a couple of hikes, and some fun ones

Hike of the Roja houseline.
This is a "step" to climb the fence.

Above - a few of the girls and I.
Below - the Veggie Market
Bilum yarn sold in the market
Sausage or fish anyone?
Above - a WWII plane at the museum.
Below - pigs run around free in the village. This liklik pik (little pig) came over to say hi to me

Below - After a GRUELING hike (3 hours climbing a mountain) we finally made it to Akeya falls. Here are some of the girls and I. Immediately after this, we dove into that pool... it was freezing cold and perfectly refreshing.

Catching up

It's been a few days since I wrote so will quick sum up my activities and then share some other things that are on my heart. We've been able to experience quite a bit of time in the village. We worked in a garden and planted kaukau (see picture) - and again learned the phrases for what we were doing. We learned some tribal games, which was definitely interesting!













This pic is from a little hike we took up to a plateau that has a 360 degree view of the mountains. We went up there to have some quiet time. I sat there for an hour, taking in the view, and just thought about how amazing it is that I'm here... that God brought me here and knew that I would follow Him to this place. I felt so unworthy and just so thankful.












This the spider I realized I was sitting next to about 5 minutes later. Yikes!












Yesterday I went on a hike and was able to at least ATTEMPT to communicate a little bit in Pidgin with some new people. Ok - so the hike was amazing. Like there was one point that we were on top of this ridge... a steep cliff... and we were above most of the trees looking down onto this garden Waaaaaaaay below us. It was this deep valley, and one of our friends told us that back in WWII, all of the people from his village hid down there, and stayed till the end of the war. Then they came up to the top of the ridge to build their houses, but they still maintain their gardens down there. Now, how one EARTH they get down to those gardens is a mystery. He showed me the "road" and I started laughing. There is no way that I, or any white person, could do it without equipment. And yet, up that road came a woman, carry her wet laundry on her back and a toting a baby along too.
But this is what I want to share with you all. As cool as that hike was - the exercise, the scenery, the interaction with the nationals - what impacted me the most was that they LOVED our guide Heath and were DESPERATE for New Tribes to establish a church there. They currently, in that small area, have 9 churches... none of them preaching the Gospel, and all of them preaching in Pidgin which is not their "heart language"... it's just a trade language. There is no word for Love. They can say "Mi likim yu stret" which is "I really like you". But the only way they can say Jesus loves me is "Jisas em sori long mi". Which is the word for "sorry" - like he empathizes with us, he cares for us - but that's the closest thing they have. They know that there is more to this story, and want to here about it, but there is no one to send. UGH! It just breaks my heart! This place brings a whole new meaning to "the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few". Can you imagine - knowing there is more, but having No Opportunity to hear it? That there is no one who knows your language, no one to to teach you the Truth. It's pretty clear that God's heart is that everyone would hear His word... it's pretty important to Him. So why aren't we going out? I'm about to offend people right now, but I'm fired up right now so too bad! We're all so comfortable and it's so easy for our default answer to be "I wasn't called to that". But we're not ALL called to stay home either. God's call is general - it's WHO WILL GO??? Not who is worthy, who is able, who is the best... it's who will go for me? The Bible doesn't say that only certain people will get a special call, but He repeatedly says GO.

Mi kukim kaukau

This morning we jumped in the back of the truck and headed up to my language helper's village (near ITF). We spent time learning how to build a fire and cook kaukau & bananas (not the sweet kind)... all while learning the verbs, nouns and phrases associated with this task in Tok Pisin. Then we ate a little bit of it. I tried some of the banana, but it tasted like a potato. Then Joyce taught us how to make bilums. It is much more difficult than I had anticipated. It is a craft and skill that takes years to develop. But I started on one, and learned the Pisin words for what I was doing (see picture above). While I was sitting there, I looked around me at the mountains, at the houses, and the children teaching one group of girls how to play their games, at the lush vegetation and at the oh-so-patient Joyce, and just had this surge of joy in my heart. I said "I am so Happy right now!" to which Joyce corrected me and said "Mi amamas stret" - which means I'm really really happy. And yet my heart is breaking for these people that don't know God. Today I saw this quote that was something like "We look forward to Christ's second coming, but much of the world doesn't even know about His first". Ugh!
I've been meaning to tell you guys about this story I heard from one of our instructors. After going through the Chronological teaching in his tribe he then began translating the Bible into their heart language. They were still teaching out of the beginning of the new testament and had only really learned out of the old testament so far, when a man in the village said "These words are true. They are like a machete cutting our path for us, and we must follow it wherever it leads". It is just incredible to me how these are words right out of Hebrews and Romans but he'd never even HEARD them yet...the Holy Spirit had shown him just from the teachings out of the OT and applying it to his own life. Wow! It blows me away how God is so consistent and His word is still sharper than any sword.

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God" ~ Bob Pierce

More Pics!

Sustenance

I seem to get more questions about Food than anything else! So here is the scoop so far... The main meal of the day here is Lunch. We have a nice big breakfast - usually oatmeal or grits or eggs or cereal and fresh fruit. We eat lots of fresh papaya, pineapple and bananas. There is literally a stalk of bananas that someone macheted from a tree and hangs from the ceiling in the dining hall so we just grab one whenever we want. There is also this very strange fruit that I think they call sugar fruit, but we affectionately call "snot rockets". You peel the skin and inside it looks like a mucus sac with seeds in it. Or some say it looks like snot with frog eggs in the middle. You eat the whole sac and it tastes like sweet tarts, but the texture takes some getting used to. Lunch is more like we Americans have supper. It usually includes some kind of meat like chicken or pork, and then sweet potatoes cooked a variety of ways. Today we had lasagna. Yesterday we had pork and crocodile. I was a bit worried about trying it, but my adventurous side won out - and I'm happy to tell you that I LOVED IT! Crocodile is my new favorite food here. Delish! For dinner (supper) we usually have a lighter meal like cold sandwiches or soup. We rarely have junk food of any kind but sometimes we have a treat of cake or cookies. We all love the coffee. We also don't get milk to drink, but have a little bit for cereal. I'm hoping with the abundance of exercise and the limited junk food that I will be in some seriously good shape in no time! :-)

Today is Sunday and I'm so thankful that God created a day of rest for us. I need it!
We went for a hike in the mountains yesterday. They warned us that it would be intense, but I guess I thought they were being overly cautious. Not so much. It totally wiped me (and everyone else) out. Plus there is fun little weed here called "Nail Grass" that we had to walk through which is just as gnarly as it sounds. My legs have little cuts everywhere, because keep in mind - I still had to wear a skirt. That's what I get for not being more prepared (wearing pants under my skirt) and thinking I was Shira - Princess of Power.

Tomorrow I get to spend more time with the lovely Joyce - my language helper from the Bena people. Yay! I can't wait to be able to speak better Pisin.

Love and God bless you my peeps!
~ Nicky

Finally some pics!

Another Village

Today I spent some time in the village of L*Sorry to say, we were not allowed to bring cameras again, but next time we will because the villagers asked "where are all their camera?", so now we know it's ok there.
Anyway - wow, what a super cool experience. A lady offered to give us a tour of the village. We walked to a hut at the river's edge and there were several little ones playing down by the river. One little girl saw us, squealed with delight and yelled "WHITES"! She laughed out loud and ran full out to come to see us... but then stopped short and stood about 15 feet away acting all shy. It's so funny how children from every culture are the same. The real tiny ones smiled at us but mostly hid behind their mom's legs. The young kids followed us, elbowing and whispering to each other - daring their friends to talk to us. One girl came up to us and said "Shake your hand?!" then shook our hands and ran away. Another little girl shyly handed me some flowers she just picked! When we got back to the village square (that's just what I'm calling it) we sat down to just observe and be there. The whole village came out to watch us watching them. The kids had called out to their friends and I'm pretty sure everyone was there to watch the white man TV. Some tried to communicate, but mostly they just watched us from afar. They are so genuine with their smiles and laughter! There was one young woman sitting near me (a little more adventurous than most). I introduced myself to her and found out her name is Rebekah. We have a Rebekah in our group, and that was very exciting to them. If you have the same name, that's your namesake, and you are basically the same person. As we were leaving the tribal Rebekah presented our Bekah with some fresh onions and beans. It was very special.

My language training is going better than I expected. It's frustrating to not be able to communicate right now, but I'm getting pretty good at transcribing the language and learning the new sounds. I practice some phrases on the nationals and they get a big kick out of it. I'm prepared to be totally humiliated by saying the wrong thing. I'm also really loving the Chronological Bible teaching. Tomorrow we start a new "class" called Prayer Focus. Basically we just pray together, but I've been made a leader of a prayer group. Not sure how that happened, but I guess I better start getting used to having some responsibilities around here. Mostly I just make people laugh.

Other impressions ~
It's hard to see the scraggly dogs here. Dogs are like rats... pigs are the pets. Except they eat their pets eventually.
Women are property and are like work horses. From birth their neck muscles are strengthened so that they can carry things (we're talking upwards of 100lbs) on their heads.
They have big cockroaches here. Huge.
The kids are so friendly toward us, but also seem to be a little bit afraid. They keep their distance. This may have something to do with their moms threaten them when they're bad that if they don't behave the white women will come to take them away to eat them. Hmmm.... I'm hoping that by spending more time in this village the little ones will get used to me, come a little bit closer and let me hug them. :)

A Village Visit

Ahhhh... my heart is full of joy and breathing a sigh of relief! Today we left (temporarily) the campus at Lapilo and ventured into a couple of the neighboring tribal villages. I finally felt like I was in New Guinea. We spent about 2.5-3 hours hiking, and it was sweaty, exhausting business - but just awesome to be in that environment. The Bamboo was gigantic, the flowers brilliant colors, the huts exactly what you would picture and so were the smells. The nationals were full of smiles and giggles - because we are so foreign to them. No matter what we said the kids would just kind of laugh at us and hide... but then follow us around for awhile. At one point we had about 30 kids behind us - giggling and whooping with excitement. One lady came to every one of us and give us a little hug. Another lady introduced herself and asked all of our names. Thankfully we've had some language classes so were able to speak a tiny bit of Pidgin. " Apinoon! Nem bilong mi Nicky" is roughly "Good Afternoon my name is Nicky". And then "Lookim u" is like "see you later". We are like TV to them so they would pretty much drop everything to either come say hi to us or just watch us from afar with smiling faces.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to bring cameras on this expedition... otherwise it would have been 28 white people running around the jungle like tourists. We're going back tomorrow in smaller groups to observe, and will be allowed to bring cameras then. I'll attach pictures as soon as I can. I wish I could show you all the "bridge" we all crossed today. It's amazing we all survived. Danger - I love it! :)

Classes continue to blow my mind. Even after just a few days, we all feel like we're growing. We're really being challenged to be passionate after God, to study His Word, and that we will only be satisfied when we walk contrary to our flesh and step out of what is comfortable and let ourselves be totally dependent on Him and His strength. I know that as long as I'm growing in my relationship with Him, and pursuing Him with my whole heart, that His plans for me will be made clear.
Love,


PS - thanks for all of your comments. I will get pics posted ASAP!

July 8th - New Guinea time

I still can't believe I'm here. I look around, at the mountains and the flowers and the clear sky and the Nationals to try to get my bearings and to let it all sink in. It's so indescribably beautiful.
It's true what they say - PNG is the land of the unexpected. You have to be super flexible because things rarely go according to plan. They are a relationship-oriented culture rather than a task-oriented, which is prefect for me. Relationships are their number 1 priority. However, when things need to get done - such as a new roof needs to be added - if someone comes by to see you, you have to drop everything to talk with them. Things don't get done very fast.
The food here is great! We mostly eat "western" style food, but it definitely tastes different. Like we'll have fish, chips & veggies... but the chips are kaokao (sweet potato) and topiak (another root here). And we have fresh fruit every day - pineapple, papaya, guava and bananas with passion fruit. mmmmm.
The Nationals are very friendly. They LOVE us. We are their TV. They just sit and watch us and smile at us. They can't differentiate the students from the other missionaries, so to them we are all missionaries. That means that we have to be VERY careful about how we dress, act and talk so that we don't damage the Gospel for them. We are learning a lot about their culture so that we don't offend them. For instance, guys and girls don't do ANYTHING alone with each other unless they are in a relationship. So if a guy just jokes around with me, like rumples my hair or elbows me - they would assume that we are in a sexual relationship. Or if I stand close to a guy and look him in the eye for more than 2 seconds, it means the same thing. This kind of behavioral change is difficult, but we're all doing our best to represent NTM in an honorable way. Every one has such great attitudes, so it is just a blessing to be a part of this group.
We've started classes and are learning Tok Pisin (Pidgin English). In our free time we mostly hang out and get to know each other, but we sometimes play games or Ultimate Frisbee. Now that we are learning the language we are hoping to be able to communicate with the nationals soon. They are all over campus and very willing to sit and talk with us.
Personally, this place is like magic to me. I'm not able to use a hair dryer or flat iron, but my hair is all curly and cute on it's own (now that I've figured out what to do with it). And I SLEEP here! So far, every night, I go to bed and immediately fall asleep and don't wake up till the morning. It's fantastic! The weather is perfect... the highlands of PNG is labeled one of the best climates in the world. It gets warm in the sun during the day, but nights & mornings are very cool. We don't have heat or a/c, but the weather is perfect for wrapping up in a sleeping bag at night, and there is usually a cool breeze during the day. I love the fruits & veggies & the coffee. Maybe it's the high elevation, but everyone here thinks I'm hilarious. And the stars at night... oh my goodness. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it. They are so bright & seem so close!
I guess that's it for my initial impressions. I will continue to keep you posted on my thoughts & activities.