I'm a published author!

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for a three-week village trip. I'll be away from my computer and internet access while I'm gone, so I won't be posting any blog updates. But don't fear - I have an idea of something you can read in the meantime...

My first ever published paper!

Remember the Setaman survey that I went on last July? Well, now, less than a year later, the survey report from the trip has been published on the internet and is available free for your reading pleasure.

If you go here, you'll a description of the report. To download the full article, click on the report title next to view, or here. The report is long and fairly technical, but skimming it will give you a better idea of what my work here for the past two years has been.

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The report doesn't have any pictures, so here are a few to help you picture the area.

The trails in the Setaman area were really rough - this was a pretty tame spot!

A Setaman village, where we spent a few nights - it was very muddy and wet

A house we slept in

Some Setaman people - there are only about 300 people who speak this language!

A typical meal for the Setaman people and us on the survey, boiled root veggies

While hiking through the jungle our guides shot this tree kangaroo. They cooked the meat and we ate a little bit - it was a special treat to have some protein (for us and our guides)!

In another Setaman village. I was given this bilum (string bag) as a gift.

And they're off!

Dad and Laura flew out of Ukarumpa around 10am on Wednesday, PNG time. It's now 7pm Friday here and I think they're either home or almost there. It takes a long time to get from here to there! We had a great time, and I'm really glad they could come visit.

From Nobonob, with Madang in the background

My house is really lonely and quiet now that they're gone, but I'm trying to appreciate it. The quietness seems nice when I think about the next three weeks when I'll share a small house with three other girls in a village.

(I'm leaving on Tuesday for a three-week trip to the Onobasulu language to record selected parts of the New Testament. I'll be going with my friend Joy and two short-term missionaries.)

I live in the upstairs of this house, where dad and Laura stayed with me.

A Story about the Stars

by Laura

During our village stay, we visited another village where Sara's adoptive uncle Paul lives. Yaya (Uncle) Paul's village is called Psakmanduk, and it is in a beautiful location on top of a mountain, with views of the ocean. While we were there, Yaya Paul told us a traditional story from their people. The following is my written version of his story.

Yaya Paul, Laura, Forrest, and Marian

"This is a story about an old lady and the stars. It happened right over there, in that valley. It really happened - it is a true story.

A view from the village of Psakmanduk

One day, some children's parents left to go to the gardens, so the children went down to the ocean and caught fish and crabs. They brought their catch back to their grandmother, so she could cook them. When the grandmother saw the tasty fish and crabs, she wanted to eat them herself. She ate the food and then found some thorns and poked herself all over. When the children returned, she told them that dogs had attacked her and had stolen all the fish and crabs. The children were sad because they wanted the food. They didn't know that their grandmother had eaten their food.

A fresh fish cooking on the fire - delicious!

She wanted to console the children, so she sent them to the garden to cut some sugarcane. They found a stalk of sugarcane and asked if they should cut that one, but the grandmother said no. They found another stalk, but she also said no. They finally found a third, very tall sugarcane stalk and she told them to cut it and bring it back to the village.

Chewing the juice out of short pieces of sugarcane

When they returned to the village, the grandmother told the children that their parents were planning to cook and eat them when they came back from the gardens. She would help them escape to a safe place. She stood the tall, tall sugarcane up into the sky and the children began to climb, the boy first and girl second.

Part way up, the boy dropped his comb. He asked the girl to climb down to retrieve it for him, but she wouldn't. He jumped down to get it and then had to climb up below her. (This is why men should go first - to not look up the girls' skirts! It is also why girls grow taller than boys, because the girl climbed up first.)

When the children reached the top, they were in the sky. The grandmother took down the tall sugar cane and chopped it into small pieces. She hit it under the limbum (a piece of bark used as an umbrella.)

A scene from the village of Psakmanduk

The parents soon returned and asked the grandmother where the children were. The grandmother told them she didn't know, so the parents began to search. Soon, they found the sugarcane pieces under the bark umbrella and figured out what had happened. They could hear their children crying from the sky, 'Ada! Nan! Ada! Nan!' (Daddy! Mommy!) but they could not get their children down because the long sugarcane was cut into pieces.

So the parents smashed the grandmother into the ground and killed her. (You can still see the spot to this day where she was killed.) The children are now stars in the sky, twinkling as they cry for their Ada and Nan. They cry at night and their tears fall on the grass. You can see the tears there in the morning when you go outside. The children's tears are the dew."

A Step Back in Time

By Forrest

Have you ever gone on a camping trip and cooked over an open fire?

Or maybe you slept in a primitive shelter and listened to the sounds of nature lull you to sleep.

These are everyday occurrences in the many villages throughout PNG. We had the wonderful opportunity to visit Sara's wasfamili (adoptive family) in the Bunabun area.

It is located approximately 90 kilometers northwest of Madang. We were warmly welcomed and treated as honored guests which really humbled us as they appear to have very little. If we apply American standards to their homes and lifestyle most of us would be discontent. But if you look at what we REALLY need they have all they could want. Comfortable homes, plenty of good food and a relaxed lifestyle. We will not soon forget bathing in the river

or eating a variety of native foods freshly dug or caught.

We were truly blessed by all of the people we met on this part of our journey.