Christmas in PNG

In my previous post I mentioned that Christmas is low key in PNG.  I got a few questions about it, so here are some more thoughts.

Reasons that Christmas is more low key.
1) Christams is seen as a religious holiday, not a cultural event.  Easter is just a big of an event or perhaps bigger.  Both may include a Bible Camp.  The equivalent of a synod will get together and have three days of Bible Study together.  A guest preacher (such as SFS faculty members) comes and gives around 6 hours of Bible study/ talks over a three day period.  There will be singing and dancing involved, but that is part of every church gathering, not especially tied to Christmas or Easter.

2)  Cultural history is tied to other events.  Christianity is quite new in PNG - 50 to 100 years in most areas.  This means community customs and celebrations have been tied to other events.  For many of us in America, Christmas has ties to our family history and may show marks of the "old country" our family came from.  In PNG your home town or "as ples" is your "old country".  So, even if you have moved off to the city to work, you are likely back home in your village for Christmas.

3)  Less distinct seasons.  Here in the tropics you have rainy season or dry season, but the timing of this  varies from location to location.  So, there is not the distinct visuals of North America and Europe.  Christmas is not tied to snow or even cooler weather.  Easter is not tied to Spring.  This not only affects the visuals but also the food available.  The main parts of your feast meal, such as pig and potatoes, will be the same whenever you feast.  Though one time you might have pineapple and another time you may have papaya. However, I don't hear talk of particular Christmas food.

4)  Lack of cash.  Many of our traditions, such as special Christmas decorations require some cash.  When you are a subsistence farmer, you decorate with flowers etc. year round.  Again, less special signs of Christmas.  I have heard that the Christmas pageant may be quite elaborately decorated, such a stable built and some sort of lights to stand in for the star.  The star is supposed to move across set to help guide the wise men.

5) life of a farmer.  Most people in PNg grow their own crops.  So, while you may take a few days off, you have to keep on working to have food ready.  Even our students that go home do a lot of work in their parents' garden or farm. Farming is year round here, with crops being planted and harvested on a regular basis.

In Lae, the bigger city in my area, I did some some decorations.  The stores would have a few strings of lights up.  I saw a few plastic Christmas tress.  It is a quiet time for many of the churches in the city, as many people travel to their home town for Christmas.

End of the old year

I have been lax in writing, so thought I would do some quick catch up on the end of 2015.

I spent the first half of December on vacation in Brisbane AUS.  I stayed in small apartment and enjoyed the city life.  I did shopping and did a lot of doctor/ dental appointments.  OK, I didn't really enjoy the medical / dental work, but was glad to get it done.  I was relieved that I got a bridge and no longer have a gap near the front of my mouth from where I had a tooth pulled around the time of my Dad's funeral.  Gaps are common in PNG, but I felt self-conscious about it.  I also got to the bottom of my vision problems.  My vision had been getting blurrier.  I had thought about waiting until I was in the US for treatment but it was bothering me too much.  I found out it was garden variety cataracts so scheduled surgery in Brisbane in February.

I spent the second half of December relaxing back home at Logaweng.  Most of the students go home, so it is very quiet on campus.  Christmas Eve we had a campus wide worship and party.  On Christmas Day a few of us went swimming and had a picnic on the beach.  Pleasant and SO different from the elaborate Christmases I grew up with. .Christmas tends to be low key in PNG. At first I missed all the decorations and bustle around Christmas, but have learned to appreciate the peace also.

I gave a sermon during the New Years Eve worship (in Tok Pisin so lots of work for me) and then we welcomed in the New Year by burning all the church decorations from Christmas.  Since the decorations are all fresh flowers and branches, they are dry by New Years.  Bon fires are a lot of fun!.  There was extra flames this year as our former principal, who will be moving,  burned his "haus win".  These are  detached from the houses and sort of like covered porches that many families use to relax and enjoy the breeze.  They have wood floors and walls about waist high.They often eat there and mainly go inside to go to bed.  Each family usually builds their own out of "bush materials" which includes local logs, branches and reeds.  After about 10 years they fall apart and you build a new one.  Traditionally a man did not get married until he knew how to build his own house.  Houses are provided for staff on campus but they are very small.  Most have extensive benches and haus win areas.. They also grow almost all their own food.  Quite a different set of skills than most American faculty have!
  

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.