Graduation Preparations

Well, we have come to the end of another school year.  Graduation wil be this Sunday.  The classes have been over for a week and lots of prepartaion is going on.

Some of the highlights:

1) approval for graduation and "going vica".  At the end of the year the faculty makes final approval of students to graduate and those that will go out on their Vicarage (Internship).  We were relieved that all theYia 5 students (Seniors) passed their final test and were approved.  Some years it has been a close call, but not this year.  However, only one completed the extra research paper to get the Diploma of Theology (rather than the Certificate the others get).  There were more problems with students wanting to go out on vicarage.  All were doing fine academically, but there were behavioral issues.  Three were not approved, though all were given the chance to return at a later time.  They are sent back to their home districts and can return when the leaders of the district say the behavior has been corrected.  Some of the issues are things we would ignore in the US (like having too many overnight guests in your house without permission) but others (like infidelity) would be a problem both places.  I had been the advisor of Dickson, who had been put on probation due to his lack of speaking and preaching  skills.  Fortunatley his hard work payed off and he was approved.

2) Physical labor - in getting the campus ready all the students put in a lot of physical labor.  The guys spent up to 5 hours on Monday walking up and down the road cutting the grass on the side with their bush knife (like a machete).  Most Americans would have wilted after half an hour or so.  The women did a lot of weeding, raking and wall washing.  Since it is the hot season work starts at 5:30 a.m.  Morning devotions are held in the evening.

3) Family arrival - the family members of the graduating students have started arriving.  They stay with the students (motels etc are not availabe or affordable).  Since the houses are very small, some of the students have built bamboo shelter for family members to stay in. They also have been growing extra food in their gardens and collecting extra firewood.  We pray the electricity stays good because that is neccesary for a water system to work.

4) Buying gifts at the Bookstore - This is a busy time for the little on campus bookstore that I run.  Some finaly members buy as a gift some expensive book the student has wanted (such as a study Bible).  Others have come from isolated areas so like buying Bibles, hymnals, church calendars etc. while they can.

OK< back to work.  Hope you all are having a good Thanksgiving Day in the US. 

Return of sunshine.

Letus showing off his new walking abilities

Students giving a welcome singsing

      After months of rain, we were all relieved when the sunshine returned on Tuesday.  The rainy season seems finally to be gone.  It is usually over by the end of September so people were getting concerned. It was a bit like being on Noah's ark after 39 days Now the food will grow faster and other work, like cutting the new gardens, can be done. Ground is used on a rotating basis, so a new garden is started for food for next year  The students that are leaving plant a garden so the new or returning students will have something to eat when they arrive.

     Ironically, other parts of PNG have been having a drought  One of the other schools, Amron Evangelist Training Center had to send their students home.  Not only did they have no crops growing, they were having to buy water to drink.  Fortunately it has started raining again in some parts of the Highlands. 

Some surprising questions of daily life

I have been thinking about some fo the different ways life works here in PNG, so I have tried to group some thoughts together.

How do you say toenail in Tok Pisin?

       PNG is a country with hundereds of different langauges.  Tok Pisin is a language that developed between early colonialists and their workers.  Over time it has developed into a language that many different groups use to talk to each other.  Most of my students had their early schooling in Tok Pisin.  Then in the upper grades they start learning English. Since very few peole use Tok Pisin as a first language, it has asmall vocabulary.  There isn't a large vocabulary, so often people end up using a phrase for what would be one word in English.  So, a toenail is the cover of the finger of the leg.  A fingernail is the cover of the finger.  It is not suprsing that English words end up being substituted.  The Pigin word for Easter, is Ista, which makes sense. phonetically. However, the Pigin phrase for Passover is the equivalent of Day All Jews Celebrate Leaving Egypt. I use the word Passover instead!  I have been told that it is very hard to do legal work in Pigin since words are not very precise.  Advanced study, such as law and medicine, is done in English.  Our theological discussions generally are in Pigin with English words thrown in as neccesary.

How many Bibles do you want to buy? - Numeracy

    I came here aware of literacy issues (being able to read and write), but have become more aware of numeracy (being able to use numbers). Our students vary in their ability to do math, but all are able to do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (though we have a review a the start of the frist year),  However, many of the people in the villages have a very limited knowledge of numbers, largely due to a lack of schooling I believe.  This is accentuated by the fact that some languages don't have a complete set of number words (e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,many).
     I notice it mostly in the book store.  Sometimes people from neighboring villages come to buy
Bibles and hymnals and have a very limited idea as to how many they can buy for the money they have. I have learned that when people are buying things, to tell them how mach money they have left, not how much they have spent.  To tell them that the two bibles come to a total of 39 Kina may not tell them much.  However, if I say you have two bible for 39 Kina, so you have 11 Kina left, then they can judge if they have enough to buy something else.  Originally I was giving them their change and they would then count the money and decide if they could buy anthing else.
     My friend Demaris, who is a doctor at the local hospital, gets some intersting answers to the number questions she asks.  Many people don't know their exact birthdate, but she is surprised at the age people think they are.  She has decided that 50 is a number that many people know, so they may say that if they don't know their age.   She was originally more surprised at the difficulty peole had in aswering the question "How many children do you have?" She has decided that some just think of the individuals and don't bother to put numbers to them.  Also, it may be hard to know which children to count.  Do you count the babies that died?  Do you count the two boys you took in when your husband's brother died?  Do you count the baby you gave to your sister when she was not able to have children?  She has learned to be more specific as to what she wants, such as "how many babies have you given birth to?
   I sometimes think of my seminary classmates from PNG.  I wonder what they were writing home about.?  What crazy things do Americans do?

Term 3 em pinis (is finished)

Well, I have finished term 3 and made it to the term break.  Our semesters are divided into two terms, so the second semester (mid July to early November) consists of term 3 and 4.  Usually we have only one week between terms, but this time we have two (hooray!). This is because two big meetings have come up and there would not be enough teachers for the classes.  If school is on the students are expected to come sit in their classroom whether there is class or not.  So it is a real waste of their time if the faculty aren’t around.  We international teachers are going to the German/ English Missionary retreat and 4 of the locals are going to the National Pastor’s Conference which is nearby.  I do think it will be a valuable experience for us teachers.  However, it will be challenging to get all the topics covered with one less week of teaching.

I am very glad to have the extra week as I am WAY behind in my work.  This includes both correcting papers and making lesson plans.  This semester is the heaviest teaching load I have had and I had bronchistis for over a month.  I am finally back to normal energy levels.

 I am still enjoying my new class – Kain Kain Bilip- or what we would call World Religions in the US.  I have really enjoyed introducing my students to Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism (Daoism and Confucianism to follow). Now I want to go worship in these other traditions.  I have only been to two synagouges, never to a mosque or Hindu temple.

My other classes are Church History pt. 1 (through the Nicean Creed), English 2, 4, and 5.  I will be honest, I am starting to get tired of teaching English the way I have been.  Next year I want to develop some more units that will be on interesting topics and nore hands one.  I have made some progress in incorporating more theology into my teaching, such as reading about the beatitudes and increasing giving in churches. Now to incorporate more hands-on activites.

In the good news, my ability to speak Tok Pisin has continued to improve. The bad news is that I am called on to preach more.  While it is good for me to get preaching experience, it is SO time consuming to have to write in Pigin.  A wonderful thing did happen, I was asked to lead Holy Communion here at the seminary.  Communion is rare and strictly for ordained clergy,  With ordination being strictly for men here, some of the women pastors who come are never allowed to lead Communion.

Time to sign off.  I plan to go to bed early tonight, then get up tomorrow and correct the Sios Histori (church history) tests. 

Destrction of the Temple in 70 AD

   We are now in the 7th week of term 3.(our semesters are broken into two terms of 9 or 10 weeks),  I am enjoying my classes more than average this term.  It is a busy term, teachng 13 credits instead of the 9 credits of last year, (though I was still on home leave this time last year).  I have my usual three classes of English which I generally enjoy.  I am also teaching Church History, Pt. 1 again this year.   It is a good review for me to teach it again.  What I am enjoying the most is a class is world religions called Kan Kan Bilip (other beliefs).  I am learning a lot and having a chance to share my exeriences with others.

    Growing up in America, and especially since living in the New York City area, I have had a chance to meet, become friends with, and work with people from a variety of faiths. While my students are exposed to a variety of sects and cults (there is a snake cult in this area), they do not meet people from the other big faiths.  I was lecturing about how to witness to Muslims when one student commented that he had never even seen a Muslim, much less talked to one.

   Since our students do see newspapers, the internet, TV and can't listen to any radio besides a religious station, their knwoledge of world news is low.  So, one of my goals is also to help them understand the role of religion in world politics.  However, as a former graduate student in Political Science I guess I get carried away.  I was talking on about the fighitng between Sunnis and Sh'ias in Iraq and Iran when I noticed the glazed look of the class.  I realized I needed to get out a world map to show them where the countries were and also explain again how they are the two main branches of Islam.

   It was interesting to have overlap in classes  In the World Religions class I was talking about the development of modern Judaism (I figure they know a lot of the Bible stuff).  I ended up spending much of a period talking about the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD and the growth of Rabbinical Judaim.  That same week I talked about the destruction of the Temple in Church History class and how it helped change the focus of the early Christian Church..  I realized I could have found a reading for the English classes to read and write about and made it Destruction of the Temple Week! :-)

  One thing that has been frustrating is the number of classes I have had to miss.  I missed the first week with my father's funeral.  I have also missed around 5 days from being sick with Bronchitis (and felt lousy some of the rest of the time).  I was also in Lae attending a meeting for part of a week.  Then extra holidays come into the calendar that I had not planned for, such as Repentance Day today.  I hope that I can pick up a few extra lecture periods when other faculty have to be gone.  I also need to learn to be more realistic in my planning.  When I started here I wondered why the semster was 19 weeks instead of the 15 weeks in the US.  Now I realize we may have the same number of class periods.

   Okay, time to stop writing and get back to correcting English papers.

Police escort to the Port Moresby airpjort

My travels from my home area in PNG, Finschhafen, to my  hometown in the US, Pullman, had many bumps, but all worked out well.  The most dramatic episode was my time in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea.  I needed to spent some time there to make sure I had my updated passport.  It was time to renew my work permit and visa.  

 Fortunately, the guy in charge of these things for Lutheran missionaries, Reinhardt, was able to get my paperwork through a bit early so I could leave the country (and get back in).  When Reinhardt picked me up at the airport Thursday morning he mentioned that the van at the Lutheran Guest House was running again so I should have no trouble getting my early Friday morning flight.

Well, it turned out the van wasn't really fixed yet, but I was told not to worry, the night manager would order a taxi and ride with me to the airport to make sure I got there safely (Port Moresby is that kind of city).So, at 4 a.m. I was ready as promised, however there was no taxi and the night manager had fallen asleep.  He woke up quickly and but found there were no taxis that morning. For some reason they had been banned in the city.  Then the night guard said he had an idea and took off down the street.  He came back with two people and a van that gave the night manager and me a ride to the airport.  I was allowed to sit in the front seat.  

I had assumed they were neighbors on their way to work.  However, after we got out of the car I was told they were the local undercover police.  I assume they don't give everyone rides, but treating guests well is important in Papua New Guinea.  The fact I was with the Lutheran Church may also have helped. I am not sure what this was all about, but I am thankful for the police escort. 

Death of my father

I am writing this blog from the US as I have come back for my Father's funeral.  My family warned that he was failing and I received permission to come back to say Goodbye to him.  He died before I left PNG, but the rest of the family held the funeral until July 2 so I could be here for it.  I am currently in Puyallup WA staying with Bob and Byrna.  I am visiting family and getting some shopping done.

HIs death hit me harder than I had expected it to.  He was 95 and  had been failing the last year, so it wasn't a surprise, but it is still a loss.  Grieving is done elaborately in PNG, so that may have encouraged me to express my emotions more. I went ahead and taught my classes but did not feel the need to hide my tears during church. Generally when a family member dies, a staff member or student are gone about a week as they attend the mourning or "haus krai"  I did have a nice visit from the students from the Highlands area, which is several days journey from the campus.  Several of them had not been able to go home for funerals, so had sympathy for my situation.

I did miss much of the last week of classes but got my grades turned in before I left.  This is semester break, but I will miss the first week of classes traveling back to PNG.  I am teaching a  class on World Religions for the first time, so have been glad to have the chance to buy some books and videos.  I was able to go to a used bookstore here in Tacoma and get some nice books.

My dad, Paul Klavano, was a strong supporter of my work in Papua New Guinea.  Even though It meant I saw him less often, he pleased about the work I was doing.  I am very please I had home leave last  summer so was able to spend some time with him.  We had communion during the funeral, which for me was a nice reminder that the past, present and future are all tied together in God's hands.

Travels with anti-venom

     Well, we are two weeks from the end of the semester here.  It seems to have gone by really fast this time.  I ended up going to Lae, the nearest bigger town, to do some shopping for the bookstore.  I am trying to get things stocked up for the second semester.  So, I bought lots of paper, biros (pens) and highlighters.  The church's bookstore is also carrying some new books, so bought books on Luther's Small Catechism, meaning of Baptism etc.  Fortunately several of these books are in Tok Pisin, a blessing to our students that struggle with English.

   A more unusual experience was bringing back some snake anti-venom for Braun, our local hospital.   Sometimes they are not able to get supplies through regular channels, so arrange to buy them from one of the bigger pharmacies in Lae.  I had brought things before, such as infant formula and gauze.  However, bringing back snake anti-venom (both Death Adder and multi-valent) was more complicated, since it is both delicate and expensive. It has to stay chilled, which is tricky in a tropical country in an open boat. It turned out that putting it in a small cooler inside a larger cooler does work.  Since our electricity can be erratic  I worried about the refrigerators it was stored in the two nights I had it in my procession.  I was relieved when the doctor came and took it to go into refrigerator in their pharmacy that is connected to a generator.  It was also very expensive.  It came to K30,000 which is about the same as a years tuition for 40 of our students.  It had been prepaid, so I was glad they checked my ID carefully to make sure I was the person designated to pick it up.

    This experience transporting anti-venom helped me understand the attitudes towards snakes here.  I had noticed people seemed so worried about snakes.  People try to keep the ground around their house clear so snakes have no place to hide.  I had thought the worry a bit excessive.  However, considering the difficulties with anti-venom I understand better.  I would guess more isolated areas do not have any stock.  I also understand why they wait before using the anti-venom.  People may stay in the hospital for days, being monitored for reaction to a bite.

    Time to get back to class preparation.  We don't have regular classes tomorrow as it's the Queen's Birthday.  However, I agreed to meet with some students to help prepare them for a test.

Ann

pictures from Easter Sunrise Service

Hello Again

Dear friends,

Time to start up my blog again.  I am sorry it has been so long.  For a while I wasn’t able to get online much due to problems with both power and internet access.  Then I got out of the habit.  However, I am going to start this up again and hope to make monthly posts
.

I am in the middle of the first semester for the 2015 school year here in Senior Flierl Seminary.  Since our school year here in Papua New Guinea and much of the Southern hemisphere runs from February through November, you never have two different calendar years in a school year (that’s handy).  This term I am teaching three classes in English – English 1 (first year students), English 3 (second year students), and  an elective course in which we are reading an English language book on the Beatitudes.  I am also trying to teach two classes in Tok Pisin.  One is a class on Spiritual Life (Laip long Spirit)  in which we do Bible readings and discussions.  The last one is Pasin Bilong Studies, which is a study skills course.  My  Tok Pisin classes end up having some English in them unfortunately.  

Holy week and Easter are very nice here.  The students stay on campus during this time so we have quite a few celebrations together.  For me there were two highlights.  One was Palm Sunday.  The year 1 students did a great drama before service to get everyone into the church.  The re-enacted the entry into Jerusalem.  Two of the students were dressed up as the donkey.  One student (the lightest) actually rode into the church on top of them.  I then gave the sermon. Thanks to help from friends my Tok Pisin made sense.

Easter Day was a lovely sunrise service.We held it outside at a spot with a lovely overview of the Pacific Ocean. They had cleaned the brush away so there was a wonderful view. We started singing at 4:30 a.m. (well, I was a few minutes late).  The service started at 5 a.m. with the sunrise at 5:30 a.m.  We finished around 6 a.m.  I went home to take a nap, though had friends over afterwards.

Hope to talk to you again soon.