When we first arrived in the Wagi area, we were given kulau, a refreshing drink of the liquid inside an unripe coconut. We got to enjoy kulau in many of the villages we visited. Often we watched as someone shimmied up a coconut tree and knocked down the kulau for us!
We had lots of good food on this survey... like the dinner I'm about to dig into. A typical meal included kaukau (like a sweet potato), kumu (local greens), rice, tinned meat, and ramen noodles.
My job was to interview school headmasters and church leaders. Here I am conducting my first education interview with the headmaster of Koba Primary School. School had just gotten out and the kids were working on cleaning the classrooms; all the sweeping made it hard to hear the soft-spoken headmaster!
Below I'm interviewing a Lutheran church elder. Quite a few young men and kids were interested, so they hung around and listened.
Juliann conducted group interviews about what languages people use. On Sunday, she was able to do the interview in this church with people who stayed after church... she had her biggest group of the whole survey that day!
In each village, Gil tried to gather groups of kids to listen to a Wagi story. Then he's ask them what the story was about to see how much they understood. This was a busy afternoon... you can see the church where Juliann is working in the background while Gil was working with the kids and I was interviewing a church elder.
I took this inflatable ball along and it was a big hit with the kids! These little kids had fun throwing the ball back and forth with Bonnie, while I listened to see what languages the kids and their parents were using.
On our way home, we stopped by again to visit Papa Bill (on the far left), the man who is pushing the Wagi translation effort along, and got a him with the survey team (minus Bonnie) and some others in his village.
3 comments:
Hi, Sara,
We are again enjoying seeing the work in progress! Also, did some birdwatching for the Birdstack Equinox study. Had a chickadee land on my shoulder and pull at my hair. They are so curious and cute. Thursday was in the low 60'sF and Friday was back to the 40's. Saw my first bluebirds on Thurs. Yeah!! They were surveying one of our birdhouses. Did you also celebrate Likiliki House day? I suppose I would date myself to admit when I was young we also had a likiliki house(a little drafty in our wintry clime!)but it was more common than strange at the time. Ours was a three holer(just like in the Three Bears story, one for big. one for medium and one for little). There were 10 kids so it helped with the "traffic."
Thanks again for sharing.
God bless,
Karen H
Hi Sara,
I love seeing the pictures of you doing your survey work. You seem to belong as you look content. I do miss you a lot though and wish you were closer to home. I think of you everyday and know you are serving our Lord! Love you lots, Dad
Your work is so fascinating and inspiring! I, too, love to see your pictures, and I pray for the safety of your friends, colleagues, neighbors, and you from the violence you mentioned previously. David and I are doing well in Western Maryland; I'm not working now but hoping to go back to the park soon, and David is working from home for the Maryland-D.C. Audubon Society. We miss you in the U.S.A.!
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