Views of PNG

Rev Ann Klavano

Ann's home on campus

A view of the shoreline near Finschhafen

Dancers ready to perform at the synod convention

Sign welcome attendees to the synod convention

Green christmas

Christmas greetings from the sunny southern hemisphere.  I am looking out my study window to lush green grass, bushes and coconut trees.  We are close to the longest day of the year, the birds start singing around 4:30 a.m.  However, this near the equator there is not as much of a swing of temperatures or day length as in Wisconsin or other northern states in the U.S. 

I am ending up staying here on campus through Christmas.  My going out to stay at a village has been postponed until early January.  I will spend Christmas Day with Damaris, another single missionary, who is a doctor at a nearby hospital (Braun Memorial).  The other guests will all be German speakers, but will default to English while I am around.  I am glad they are including me.

I am trying to make use of this quieter time.  I have been working on my Pigin and walking more.  I try to combine this by walking around the seminary housing and chatting with people.  I feel like I am making progress,  especially in understanding what others are saying.  It is still hard for me to initiate conversation. 

The local post office has been closed for several months.  Apparently it was robbed several times, so they are hoping to reopen in a new location that has better security (same building as other government offices).  This means that the seminary mail is held in the main post office in Lae until someone stops in and picks it up.  This person need to have access to a car, so this means that only us international staff get the mail.  I know several people have sent me packages, so it will be a real windfall of items when the mail arrives.

Organization and doing things by the clock are generally low priority here in PNG.  Fortunately it is less of an issue here at the seminary as we have bells that ring at the start and end of classes.  Other events, such as start of Sunday worship, are more flexible. 

I had a chance to send some mail to the U.S. via Rod and Nancy, two other American missionaries.  My mail included a flash drive  of a few pictures of the area.  Niel (my brother-in-law) has agreed to upload them here onto my bog.  Hope you enjoy them

Graduation

Last Sunday was graduation here at the seminary.  It was quite the event!  I had not thought through how complicated a gathering like this is when you there are no motels or restaurants in the area.  Many details were planned out by committees.  For example, the feeding and housing of the honored guests.  These were church officials from the headquarters in Lae and a couple of District Presidents (the equivalent of bishops in the ELCA).  There is a guest house that a few could stay in, but the rest were put in a vacant faculty house.  This meant that people had to clean the house and buy mattresses for the beds.  Since there is no dining hall here, groups of faculty wives were assigned to provide each meal at the houses.  Projects like buying mattresses are complicated by the fact that no national teachers can afford to have cars.  So, the seminary bus made many trips up and down the hill.  Meanwhile family members of the graduates were arriving by ferry and speed boat, so many pickups had to be arranged.

One family, the Tamus, had a gathering for three seminarians from their same District. They had a "mumu" which is a pig roast over hot rocks.  They let me watch much of the preparations, including the butchering of the pigs, the digging of the pig, and the layering of the food and banana leaves.  About 50 people attended, the student housing must have been very crowded.  Most of the guests had never been to the campus before, so everyone was quite excited.  Many of the seminarians come from rural areas that are mainly subsistence farming. Therefore, it is quite an major undertaking for a congregation or circuit (a group of congregations) to pay the school fees.  The students will now go back to serve in the areas they come from.

The service itself was very nice. It was held on in a building that is mainly open air sides (the walls go up about 3 feet). It was a hot day so it was lovely to get the breezes.  The worship service and passing out of diplomas were similar to what I have seen in the U.S.  Afterward they invited honored guest to come up and make speeches.  I was hot and  the speeches were in Pigin (which I am not the good at yet).. I fell asleep but, thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

It is quiet on campus now.  I enjoyed the first few days, but am now getting bored.  I am going to ask around and find a Pigin tutor I can work with on a daily basis.  I am also hoping to spend a week in a village, however, the date has not been set.

Time to get house cleaning - having a friend over for lunch.

return to Senior Flierl

 from Email of December 16

 

After weeks of being on orientation in Lae, I am back at Senior Flierl Seminary and my laptop.  I hope I will be more consistently successful in sending email - I had two failure after the one letter sent.

My last week was spent meeting important people in the ELC-PNG - Evangelical Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea.  They are now my bosses.  It was fun to meet most people, though a few visits were rather perfunctory.  It is an odd feeling to  be an "honored guest" much of the time.  I met many people such as the President (what we would call Presiding Bishop) when I can't get Bishops to return my phone call in the U.S.  I most enjoyed talking with the head of the Woman's program and the coordinator for the HIV/AIDS program.  Interestingly the HIV program is focused on prevention and is in the Evangelism Department instead of with Lutheran Health.  The Lutheran Health service runs many hospitals and is a major player in health care in PNG.  This reminds me of Tanzania.

Last Thursday I returned aboard the 3 times a week ferry.  It is definitely larger than one of the "banana boats" that I took to get to Lae.  Unfortunately for me, this means the ferry goes out into the open sea instead of hugging the coast line. I was seasick for the first time in my life.  I definitely won't eat so much breakfast next time. :-)

I continue to realize how much I  stand out as a "whiteskin".  It feels odd for it to be assumed that I am an rich, and even odder to realize that in PNG I am among the rich.  For example, I did a major grocery shopping for meat at one of the upper end grocery stores.  (Since little meat is available in the Finschhaven area we can freeze meat at the Lutheran Guest House and take it back in a cooler).  After I checked out I stood in the parking lot waiting for the driver to come.  A security guard stood near me to make sure no thieves grabbed a box from me. I almost started telling him that he didn't have to, but realized that I had spent what some people earn several months.  Crime is a particular problem in Lae, as people have drifted into the city from the country side and without their usual social support.  Here in the Finschhaven area most people still live in villages.  While life doesn't have western style luxuries, everyone has enough to eat.

It continues to stay light later as we head into summer.  Fortunately it hasn't gotten much hotter.  I think I am making some adjustment to the heat.  It is still strange to me for the seminary to be winding down for the summer, with graduation on Dec. 5. I am still getting my head around the idea that it is getting close to Christmas. Most of the students and staff leave to be with family, so it will be a quiet Christmas around here.

 

 

Installation

I was installed as a new teacher during the Sunday church service today, so I am an official part of the community here at Senior Flierl Seminary.

 I have been working on learning the language.  Most of the faculty have quite good English, but they hold the daily staff meetings in Pigin to help me to learn.  I also go to daily chapel, so have learned some of the religious terms.  The person I spend the most time with - Tanja - is a volunteer from Germany.  She used to have quite good English but it has gotten mixed up with Tok Pisin, so I get the experience of English words in Pigin word order.

I was supposed to go back to Lae for more orientation last Friday. However, the providers of the boat service - Lutheran Shipping - are out on strike.  I had hard the strike had been settled, but now the word is that the strike is continuing.  So, when I will get back to Lae is still up in the air.  I can take a smaller "banana boat" but then would have trouble bringing my luggage or "cargo" back with me.  I am trying not to be too attached to possessions, but am tired of having just 2 skirts and 3 blouses I can wear.  I am sure it will all work out, but it is a good reminder that I have been brought to a different place. Next Sunday through Saturday I plan to attend a synod conference.  It will be a less westernized experience - no electricity or running water. Yesterday one of the women took me to a stream and reviewed with me how to do a "washwash" in a river - maximum washing with minimum exposure.

My housing is nice. I am currently staying in the station master's house (position is vacant) which is a large 3 bedroom.  It seems strange to be in a "white skin" area but I do appreciate the extra convenience of a gas stove and refrigerator (which I don't think the local faculty have).  Fortunately everyone on campus has electricity and running water. 

The day to day life of the seminarians, and the seminary faculty is more complicated than mine  has been.  The students are expected to grow all their own food and even the faculty have large gardens.  Meanwhile I am getting canned goods from the little store in a near by town and fresh fruits and vegetables from a village market area.  Twice a day on week days the  seminary truck goes down into town (called Guagado) to take the children to the grade 3 - 8 school.  I can hitch a ride with them to do shopping. 

Time to go to bed.  Next time I plan to write more about the strict roles for men and women, that may be starting to stretch and change a bit.

First 10 days in PNG

Hello all,

It has been a blessing to finally make it to PNG.  My five flights were long and boring, but fortunately uneventful.  I had some problems with my ticket being printed out in Port Moresby, but Reinhold, a missionary liaison helped me through and onto the next flight.

My first few days were a blur of jet lag and doing paperwork.  Rod Norby and Nancy Anderson, the other ELCA missionaries had me at their house and lead me around.  Then we drove up to Madang for the annual family retreat for Lutheran missionaries.  It was a lovely time, though I am still confused as to who some of the people were.  The majority of missionaries speak German, but they were kind enough to use English as the default language.  The children's worship was in Tok Pisin, the pidgin language frequently used here in PNG (often referred to as Pigin)..  I am starting to work on Tok Pisin as that is the language I will be teaching in.  I flew to Finchhafen with other missionaries.  My first landing on a grass air strip were eventful, thankfully.

I have been here at Senior Flierl Seminary for 3 days now. The welcome was wonderful, with a "singsing" that included a song of welcome and a flower decorated house.  The locals have been very gracious and try to help me learn Pigin.  I have been attending chapel and teacher meetings.  This morning I also attended an introductory bible class for the wives.  I am starting to understand some of the conversation, but can't say much yet.  Tonight I will be attending a special worship service.  I am not sure what it's focus will be, but I am sure it will be filled with spirit filled singing.  The women all sit on the right hand side of the church, while the men sit on the left.

I have some wonderful pictures, but do not have a good enough internet connection to upload them yet.

"Thanks for all your prayers.

Yes, I am going soon

I have finally received a departure date - Sunday September 30.  My work visa is supposed to be avaiable by September 26 so it looks like a go.  Thanks to the International Date Line I will arrive in the city of Lae on October 2.  Then on the 5th I will go to the annual missionary gathering.  I am not sure how clear-headed I will be, but it will be a great chance to meet people.

I am so relieved that I have a date now.  I was starting to feel like I was stuck in a time-loop like in the movie Groundhog Day.  It seemed that I was always going to be leaving soon, but never really leave.

I did have one bright spot earlier this month.  I went out to Washington State to visit my family.  I stayed with Bob (my brother) and Byrna (my sister-in-law).  They were great hosts, taking me out on a nature hike and to the Western Washington Fair.  They also helped me finish my shopping.  I now have a nice camera, a Gore-Tex rain jacket and a wide brimmed sun hat.  Bob, who has taught photography also helped me get oriented to my camera.  I also spent time visiting with my nieces and nephews that live in the area.  A highlight was meeting Erin Ruth, my 6 week old great-niece.

Another important part of my trip was visiting my elderly father in Pullman WA.  I was able to spend a few days with him, even taking him to fitting on his new hearing aids.It was a difficult good-bye, knowing that he might not be alive in two years when I come back to visit.  Thankfully, we both believe that we will be together in eternal life after we leave this life.  I am also glad that my brother Bob and sister Beth will continue to watch over him.  Dad and I were talking about how different it was my mother went to China as a missionary's child in 1920.  It took months for the family to travel there, and months for letters to get back and forth. I am so glad that I will have a telephone and email to keep in touch with everyone.

So, time to get going on the last steps of being ready.  There has been quite a few things that needed to be done close to leaving, I guess that time is now.