Malaria and other diseases

     Malaria is a chronic problem here.  Being in one of the coastal areas in PNG usually means malaria.  Parts of the Highlands are high enough in elevation that they don't have the disease carrying mosquitoes.  However, between climate change and strengthening of the malaria virus, more and more areas are susceptible.  The malaria around here has become resistant to most drugs, but the artemisinins still work.  When I travel I carry some malaria medication, Artemeter, with me.  That way I don't have to wait to get to an aid post or pharmacy to start treatment.  I did get sick on the English Speakers Retreat on Sunday, so started taking the anti-malarial drugs.  When I went in for a malaria test they said it wasn't worth trying to have a test since I could easily have a false negative, however, they suggested that I finish the treatment.  Two weeks ago I started feeling sick, so went in to have a malaria test.  Fortunately it came back negative.  I realize that in America I would have waited to see if I got more seriously ill before I would go to a doctor.  However, since one can get so sick so fast with Malaria, I worried about starting treatment right away. (Especially with my bosses coming).

      There is frequently someone with malaria on campus.  So far only one case has not been cured by the regular medications.  He ended up going in for daily shots for a week.  Since the medications generally work quite well, students are usually out of classes for around three days.

      Some of the other diseases around here are common with the US - e.g. diabetes, HIV/AIDS.  While others, such as TB and leprosy are less common in the US.  Certainly deaths with childbirth is more common here.  The local hospital has a program where women in their estimated last week of pregnancy can come stay at the hospital.  That way there isn't the need for long trips while in labor.  Earlier this year we had a baby born here on campus as there wasn't enough time to get her to the hospital.

Term Break

I am enjoying a Sunday of relaxation here in Logaweng during my mid-semester break.  We are halfway through the second semester and have two weeks off.  It is called the term break as we have finished term 3 and will be starting term 4.  Some classes change with the term, but mine stay the same, 3 English classes, 1 History Class and 1 Library Class.

While the campus is quieter than usual, with many students gone, it has picked up here in the International (or "whiteskin") section where I live.  One of the German families was away on leave and another family left for a family emergency.  The family on leave as come back, as well as two volunteers arriving and a temporary station manager and his wife.  So, the neighborhood has gone from just me to there being 10 of us.  I am happy to have more neighbors around.  I enjoy having more folks to say "Hi" to, and feel safer.  I had no serious problems but had things stolen from my house several times.  While that still could happen again, I think it will be less likely with more people around.  I also have to remember to lock my doors at all times.  I believe the things were taken when I was at the back of the house and didn't hear someone opening the front door.  They scooped up things near the door, including my nice rain coat.  They also got my PNG bank card, but fortunately did not try to use it.

I had a nice start of break.  I, along with the Huevos here on campus, attended an "English speaking missionary retreat" up in the Mt. Hagen area of the country.  There ended up being 6 of us - 2 from Australia, 2 from the U.S. and 2 from the Philippines. The other American was a guest speaker - Pr. Bruce Zable - who currently works in Australia.  We held the retreat on the campus of Highlands Lutheran Seminary, the other Pigin seminary here in the country.  It was quite casual with a chance to see the countryside and go out to eat.  The low point for me was a relapse of Malaria.  It is ironic that I got sick while at Mt. Hagen, as it is too high of elevation to have Malaria.

Eight days before my bosses, Pr. Franklin Ishida and Pr. Rapheal Malpika-Padilla come to visit.  I need to get serious about cleaning between now and then.  They are coming to the country to attend the Overseas Partners Forum and are making a quick trip out here to Senior Flierl at the end.  I am sorry they can't stay longer, but am happy they are able to see a tiny bit of the country and church outside of the cities.

August thoughts from Senior Flierl

Languages - I am finally making some progress in my speaking Tok Pisin (the language of instruction here at Senior Flierl Seminary). I can now chat with people about the weather and when the truck is leaving for Gaugidou etc. It has helped make me more a part of the community. Now, I am working to develop my ability to lecture in Tok Pisin. I am able to read aloud pretty well (such as when I am giving sermons) but have trouble coming up with words when talking aloud.

     My monolingualism is quite a contrast with the students here. They are all fluent in their local home language (Tok Ples) and Tok Pisin. They also have English instruction in the schools. One of my goals is to be able to speak Tok Pisin better than they speak English. There is a new volunteer coming from Germany tomorrow. These young volunteers generally learn Tok Pisin quite fast, so it's a goal of mine to see how long I can stay ahead of him in speaking Pisin.

     Worship is held in a variety of languages here on campus. The Sunday worship is held in Tok Pisin as well as chapel 4 days a week. Thursday chapel and Saturday night worship is held in the three major languages in the area: Kote, Yabim, and Bel (and a Pisin worship for those of us who don't know these languages). Once a month we have English language worship.

Classes - I teach three levels of English and Sios Histori - Hap 1 (Church History - Part 1). My biggest struggle has been keeping the three different English classes straight in my mind. I am not clear on how to prioritize  what should be taught. Wednesday I am going to visit Dragerhafen - the nearest school that teaches grades 11 and 12. Since my students have graduated from grade 10, I am interested in seeing their curriculum for ideas on what to use in my class.

Confessions of a waitskin meri (white woman) - I do stand out in the crowd here, being one of the few white folks in the area. Most of the rest are missionaries from Germany. Sometimes people stare at me, but they are generally very friendly and helpful also. They like it that I wear a meri blouse (the smock-like top) and try to speak Pisin to them. Sometimes it is a bit embarrassing, such as when they run around and find a chair for me, while the rest of them are sitting on a bench or the ground. It is nice when I get preferential seating in the small boats to go to Lae. It is interesting to see how other ethnic groups are categorized. One of the other faculty members is from the Philippines. Outside of campus, people seem unsure how to categorize him. Most of the other Asians in the in the area are store owners.

Confessions of a pasto meri (woman pastor) - Since women aren't ordained in Papua New Guinea, this really surprises people. There have been some ordained German women in PNG before but they haven't been in this area. So far people have been positive to me about my role, at least to my face. However, when I mention the idea of women being ordained in PNG, they seem sure that it won't happen anytime soon. Two Sundays ago I lead worship at a local church. They were very curious and surprised at me - a woman in a clerical shirt.

Greetings from PNG

Ann and I have put together a little youtube
video in which she introduces herself. It includes some photos and music from when Bob and Byrna, her brother and sister-in-law, visited in June.

Voting in alphabetical order

On Monday I had the interesting experience of watching a local election.  The choice of candidates was interesting to me. The folks here on campus (Logaweng area) voted for the local council representative and the mayor of Gaugidu (the nearest town).  I was surprised to learn our representative is on the urban council since this location seems so isolated by my viewpoint.  However, the fact we get electricity from Gaugidu makes us urban in this situation.  One of  the faculty members told me that it would not be seemly for a pastor to run for office. Women and students were not considered so that left only our three maintenance workers as good options.  Asemba, our campus driver and carpenter, was elected.  I think he will do a fine job.

Voting itself was quite different than in the U.S.  The polling officials were here for only a few hours. All the voters (students and faculty) gathered in the large Bung Haus ( open air meeting hall).  Their names were then read off in alphabetical order.  They would then come forward to the tables and line up to vote.  Their little finger was marked with dye and then they received a ballot for each position.  The ballot contained boxes where they would enter the number of the candidate they wanted.  For the mayor's position they could list up to three choices. They marked the ballots in a voting booth (made of cardboard) and then dropped the ballots into large plastic tubs.  At the end of the polling the ballots for the local council representative was counted and a winner declared.  I assume the polling officials moved onto another village then.

As I think about it, this system makes sense here in PNG.  Many of villages are quite small, (we had 86 voting here at Logaweng) so it would be hard to have polling officials just for that site. Since most villages are quite isolated it would be difficult for them all to travel to a central polling location.  With a relatively low literacy rate in the country it is easier for people to write in a number rather than a name.  There are lots of posters around to help people associate the names and faces with their number.  Since few people have IDs, making the finger with dye would help with voter fraud. 

June 20 post redux

I tried to post this on June 20 before I left on vacation.  Time to try again.

A quick hello from rainy Papua New Guinea,

It is Thursday night and it is raining heavily. My brother Bob and his wife Byrna have gone to bed but I thought I would send a quick message to everyone.  I have really enjoyed Bob and Byrna visiting here.  I has been fun doing things with them.  They have also been very helpful to me - my kitchen has never been so organized and new things are planted in my little garden.  They have also jumped into the life here at the seminary.  Byrna participated in several of the special women's events, such as a sewing class.  She also toured around with one of the student's wife - helping in the garden and looking at birds together.  They both spoke to my English class about their work.  Bob also prepared a power point presentation about the internet to show at my study skills class.  When the time for class came, the power was off, so we were unable to project.  However, Bob then explained the internet to them in general terms and discussed with them some of the problems of the internet. Later, that afternoon, the power came back on so many of the students returned to their classroom to see the presentation.  Bob also helped set up a new desktop and monitor in the library.

I have now finished my first semester of teaching.  My last day of teaching was Wednesday with classes ending at noon today.  it has been both a stressful and wonderful experience.  Next semester I will be teaching three sections of English and one section of History.  It think it will be a good semester.  It is clear to me what topics I should cover.  This semester I was more unsure what should be covered, such as in the study skills course.

I leave with Bob and Byrna on vacation tomorrow morning.  We are traveling with one of the faculty members from Karkar, an island near Madang.  He is helping with arranging housing and travel as well as traveling with us much of the time.  He will also be administering  the placement test for students interested in entering the seminary from the Madang region.

OK, time for bed.

Love, Ann

This and That

Since I have not been taking the time to make a coherent posting, thought I would at least share some thoughts.

Ascension and Pentecost as holidays.  These are major days in the development of the Christian faith.  However, I had never done much to celebrate them.  Here at Senior Flierl they are taken seriously. We had Ascension Day off from class.  Not only did we have a nice Pentecost service today, we are having tomorrow off from class.  It is interesting what is assumed about special days.  I noticed that no one had said anything about wearing red to the Pentecost Service today - a new trend in my worship life.  However, when I arrived at church I noticed that most people were in red . I guess it was too obvious to have to be mentioned.  One of the special events today was something I had seen before, having the same bible reading done by people using different languages (a nice reflection on what happened to the Disciples on Pentecost). What was different today was that I was one of the "foreign tongues" readers.  It was also interesting that out of the 8 of us reading, only 3 of us were from different countries.  The other 5 reflected languages spoken within PNG (it is estimated that there 500 all together). The language we study and worship in Tok Pisin is a good bridging language, but no one's first language.

Honkewe I have the 25 first year students in several different classes and know them the best of all the students here. I was sad this week when it was announced that one student, Honkewe, is dropping out.  He has developed heart problems and has missed several weeks of school.  It is hopped that he will stabilize and be back to classes next year.  Since the nearest hospital with an EKG is two days travel away, he would have to be gone for extended periods of time. He always had a great smile and would laugh at my problems in pronouncing his name.  I look forward to seeing him again next year.

Geckos - When I wrote about animals earlier, I didn't mention the most ubiquitous in my house - geckos.  They live their whole life cycle in a house, with gecko poop and gecko eggs being a regular part of life.  They look so much like the Geico Gecko at first I kept expecting them to start talking :-)  However, the are a silent presence that I barely notice anymore.  I do notice them most when Peter is inside and starts stalking one.  They are good for eating mosquitoes so we don't work at getting rid of them.

Health - It has been good.  There have been no re-occurrences of my malaria. People talk about how the first time to get Malaria is the worst, so I feel very lucky to have had a light case.  Unfortunately I have not lost anymore weight, but am glad I have not gained any back yet.  Having lost around 50 pounds since coming here has made a real difference in my ability to get around.  I hope to bump up my exercise and develop more walking stamina.  At this point I have trouble participating in parts of every day PNG life - such as walking the bush track to the stores in Gaugidui.  I also have been unable to go visit some people's homes as it requires quite a bit of hiking from the roads.

Company - I had my first overnight guests, Rod Norby and Nancy Anderson.  They are the other ELCA missionaries that are stationed at the church headquarters in Lae.  It was fun to have guests and made me get the guest room ready and the kitchen better stocked.  They were kind enough to bring some of food that I have trouble getting, such as carrots and bread.  Unfortunately for me, their term is finishing in June and they are going back to the states.  Fortunately for me, my brother Bob and his wife Byrna are coming to visit in June.  They are overlapping with my semester break so we are able to go traveling together.

Adjustments - We had a new staff member from Germany join us three weeks ago.  He was to be the new station manager.  Unfortunately he left a week ago.  I am not clear what he was upset about, but definitely this position was not a match for him.  It makes me feel better about my adjustment. The pace has been slower than many, but I have been adjusting.  It may be a problem that we don't have a new station manager.  Our acting station manager (who is also a member of the faculty) is going to Germany on leave for three months.  We have some reliable local workers, but none of them are good with machinery.  So, prayers for our water pump and truck is requested.