5k Kate

Another no-run streak of days. I feel like there is always something. On Saturday when I caught those fish, I took my shirt off so it would stay dry and clean while I jumped in the swamp. I was in and out of the water for about an hour or two, then we harvested sweet potatoes for a while. Anyway, I got a terrible sunburn on my entire back, so much that I haven't been able to wear a bra for past three days - so running is out.  Moreover, yesterday morning we received the news that a woman in next-door village Malam died in childbirth. She was in labor for four days and no one brought her to Limol or to Upiara where there is a health center. Many Malam people, and all the leaders, were in Upiara, so when they came home yesterday via Limol, they heard the conch shell from Limol on the way and learned the sad news at the canoe place. The mother and father of the girl jumped out of their canoe in grief. I was able to carry the mother's baskets to Limol, when Wagiba, Grace, Lauren an...

Had to skip my run this morning because of heavy rain - it made the trail very slippery. I did however walk nearly 7km with a heavy load to and from the canoe spot on my first fishing trip! Everyone went, but our fishing party was Wagiba, Wendy, Lauren. Grace, and me. Many other woman and small girls also walked down with us to go fishing. When we got to the canoe place, we bailed the rain water out of the canoes, spent a little time digging in the mud for worms, then settled in to Wagibas big canoe and took off. Others were throwing lines but we were going to drag a net to catch fish. Riding in the canoe was beautiful but frightening. I was so worried I would topple out.  I helped Wagiba throw out the net properly, we tied one end to a stick in the mud then paddled out into the clear part of the swamp tossing the net out as we went and back to the stick in a big circle. One side of the net had floaters and the other had sinkers. Then with the circle complete, you drag the net in f...

Finally another run in! Today was my fifth day of being sick, and by sick I mean having cramps and stomach pains and having to go to the bathroom many times in the day/night. But a quick pep talk from Grace who said, "don't you remember this always happened and just kinda stuck around the whole trip?" I realized that I need to except this digestion issue as my new normal and not let it get in the way of doing things that I love, like running. So I went on a short run today to the fallen tree and back to see how I would feel. Sore back rest of the day but overall ok! I've been feeling pretty down the last week or so - perhaps since getting sick - but mostly just feeling restless. Today I did something special for Grace and Lauren, I wrote them small speeches on how much I appreciate them to be read at breakfast, and that seemed to reset my mood. The village is empty due to a big men's fellowship meeting in Upiara. Everyone went. So today was a quiet day of transcri...

It's been a few days since I last wrote. I've been sick and so I haven't been running. My appetite finally came back last night so I thought I might run today but I was only able to walk and then I had to stay close to the house (and toilet). Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  The past few days have been very productive though besides. More and more verbs keep coming in, and I started writing up a paper about the floating nasal pattern. I'm working on a few other papers too about general grammatical topics. Yesterday I had a productive conversation with a young woman who speaks an Ende language game where you replace the endings of words with the sound -sko. I hope that this may provide some evidence for stress and/or wordhood! Besides this I've gathered a number of stories and songs and have slowly been transcribing and processing them. It's very important to keep this going because I need examples of all the grammatical constructions that I claim are in the l...

Today, I am celebrating the new moon! In Ende, the phrase new moon (kok sisor) is used on the first day that a sliver of the moon is visible. When the moon is gone, it is called dead moon (kok kuddäll). Sometimes people greet the new moon by tapping their mouths with their hand and yelling out, which reminds me of my sweet baby Sisi.  My run today went well this morning. I walked the whole third kilometer because I was trying to figure out a phonology problem in my head. I have a few concurrent analyses about how some verbs have "moving" sounds. In one instance, the verb is tänd and in the next it's ntäd. The "n" moves from the middle to the beginning or vice versa. Anyway, I was worried because an alternative analysis that came to me in my dream last night seemed to negate my current analysis, but on the run I found the example that killed it so I could put it to rest! As I was walking back through the village home, I passed old man Giniya's house who becko...

Big milestone day! I think I passed my tenth 5k here in PNG, if not in Limol, which makes 50km! A distance that always reminds me of A. Today was a bit drizzly, which made the dirt trail a little slippery in places. I passed a few women on their way to the swamp and a man working in his garden. The whole village is feeling under pressure - it's time to build new gardens so everyone is out clearing trees, digging posts, and burning land. Barefoot and with rusty tools. Many people have come asking for medicine for body aches and it's hard to say no. Our policy is to only give medicine for non-chronic pain otherwise we will run out in just a few days and people might overwork their already overworked muscles. All the women are also going for sago, which involves falling a huge sago palm tree, debarking it, beating the pith into a powder, squeezing water through the powder into a pool and siphoning off the water to return with a super fine grained starch. This sago will be going to...

Another early morning run in before the heat. It's been higher than 90 degrees every day and well into the evening. It was a good way to start the day - much better than yesterday.  Yesterday I thought I might go on a run, but stayed in instead. I'm glad I did because the young boy with burns over half of his body came over again. He had fallen into a fire at the washing place. I had put a loose cloth over the burn gel the previous night to try to keep it clean but when he came in the morning, the third degree burns had stuck to the cloth, the second degree burns had all grown blisters and the first degree were more visible. I cried because I knew I couldn't help him. Grace helped take the bandages off. We gave him some more pain medicine and sent him with his mom to Upiara. It really tore me up inside, especially because I don't know if Upiara can care for him and his mom doesn't have a way to get to Daru. Grace and I comforted one another and sent some messages on...

Second Sunday. I can't believe the second week has come and gone. I've gotten into a running routine of warming up on my walk to little Dabi's house to give her her medicine at 6am and then a quick out and back run, back to Dabi's to pick up our plate and spoon and a cool down back home. Lately this has been followed by a water run around 7am with Grace. We take one of the big water rollers and a bucket and walk first to our friend Mecklyn's house who expertly ties a nice long rope onto our bucket. We then walk down to the new well, which is close to the health post that is being built. The well is deep so one of us throws the bucket in and the other pushes it down with a stick. Then we have to yank the bucket up and out in such a way so that the bucket doesn't hit the sides of the well which are covered in clay. We pour about six or seven buckets to fill the roller and then Grace and I both pull the roller back up the steep inclined path to the road. It's s...

Bright and early 5k this AM. Felt slow but had lots to think about. I dropped off the medicine for little Dabi and she wasn't looking very good. I don't think her parents are caring for her and I was a bit angry at her father for letting her wound get so dirty. She looks stiff and I'm worried she's getting sicker.  On the run I was thinking about the verbs and about how there might be evidence for clitics. Some post nominal morphology seems to be closer to the noun than other postpositions, but they don't harmonize with the noun, suggesting a distinction between suffix and clitic perhaps? I'll write a squib up today. I got back home and did some work in Wagiba's garden, then showered and washed some clothes. As I was finishing up, the village erupted with "Käza! Käza! Käza da aittan!" A crocodile! A crocodile had been caught! I grabbed a video camera and followed the young men down the narrow bush track to the creek. It was my first time down this ...

Officially in week 2 and feeling good. Went on a run this morning that was pretty slow first because my stomach was being funny, and hungry, and sick-feeling and second because I had a lot to think about. I ran out towards the canoe place again, which conveniently brings me past little girl Dabi's house who needed her 6am antibiotic hidden in peanut butter. She has such a sweet smile whenever I come by, which makes it all worth it. Tessa says her good temperament speaks volumes about her health so I'm reassured. After I pass Dabi's house, I pass Christina and Gidu's. Gidu is the town announcer and is unique for having  dreadlocks. He also killed a python two days ago and I got to see it, huge, coiled, and bleeding from a tree branch. I saw it again last night when they brought some over for our dinner! It was weird to eat, very chewy and muscly, but tasted like tuna. It was obviously a dear present for us. I thanked them again even though I think the python is to blame ...

Playing doctor This weekend has been a really difficult one. Dabi, the little girl with the infected buttock, needs medicine four times a day and she is very reluctant to take it, even mixed in peanut butter on a bit of sago. The poor thing. Her temperature was still high today and Grace and I cleaned and redressed the wound. I've sent all updates to Tessa for advice but unfortunately the west coast is asleep most of the day. Since Saturday, we've had more then ten people come asking for medicine. It's become a source of tension in the house. I don't want to be the village doctor and am hesitant to give out medication to anyone for anything. I'd rather just be the emergency first aid care. Lauren thinks everyone that wants medicine should have it. Grace is in between. The fact is that the health situation in South Fly is so terrible that even if we do help, it's just a drop in a very large bucket. Upiara's health post doesn't dress or even look at wounds...

Beautiful but hot run to the canoe place late this morning. The canoe place is 3.33 km away from the edge of the village. I ran to the end then back to where Grace and Lauren were walking behind and back again for a little more than 5k. I felt strong and didn't walk, but it was very hot.  It's a Saturday today and the goal is to rest but I just want to work. There is a big community meeting happening today and Joshua and Saly came from Malam to see us. After lunch with them I took a nice long nap in the hammock with my computer. I wrote up some pages on vowel harmony and fell asleep. When I woke up it was nearly evening. Grace and I attempted to pass out cooking oil in a plastic funnel but it failed. I took Joshua to rerecord a story of his fathers but a loud fight with lots of yelling started so we paused.  Then a man came by asking for some medicine for his daughter who got a terrible cut on her buttock from a shovel (we learned later that he had hit her). Fortunately we wen...

Second 5k in Limol! I ran down to the canoe place again and made it all the way to the border between the grasslands and the swamp. The run was pretty uneventful. I only saw one person, a man who has been ostracized by the community, but he was friendly. I felt more confident of my footing this morning so had time to think about other things like (i) what to do for Grace's birthday on November 13, (ii) which verbs to elicit today, and (iii) what chores needed doing.  When I came back, Grace and I went straight on a water run to a new well with very nice water. Some young men helped us which was nice because we had to pull the water up a very steep hill. They took the roller and we carried two buckets on our heads. Very heavy.  I've come back to this post on Friday because I fell asleep before finishing. I'm pretty exhausted once I get to my little sanctuary in my room. I brought myself a small mosquito tent that zips closed and has a full bottom to keep away both mosquitos ...

Second day in Limol and my first 5k! I woke at 6 and got ready to run, connected my watch in front of the house and took off. I was a little worried about causing a scene (running for no reason) and as soon as I started running, dogs began to bark and chase me! So I walked the first half kilometer through the village, than ran 2.25 kilometers down the path towards the canoe place, then back to the village 'gate'. It felt good to run! So many different bird sounds: owls, friar birds, parrots, and more. I ran through so many little spider webs with my legs. The sunrise colored sky was beautiful.  The rest of the day was eventful so I'm glad I got the run in early. Big community meeting was productive. We introduced Lauren, presented presents and discussed plans. Lauren and Grace did really good jobs. I explained how most of the solar lights and water rollers are lost and people were understanding but maybe disappointed? There was a big discussion about the gifts and whether s...

Today was our first full day in Limol! Everyone was tired today from the journey. Although many people brought us food from their gardens, Wagiba was too tired to cook for us and so I didn't eat until dinner. We also ran out of water in the morning but had to wait until evening to go to the well. The well is quite far away but has good water.  Anyway this resulted in another "rest day" from running because I couldn't run without eating or drinking. Things will settle in soon :) My favorite part of today was in the afternoon. Manaleato and Kauga came back from Malam and I ran to them to give them hugs and kisses. Manaleato is wonderful - she has a beautiful spirit and nine sweet children. Her husband, Kauga, is the school teacher. We all gathered at the new language house, which is twice as big as last year. At one point, I brought up the photos from last year that I printed and everyone wanted to see them. I set them out along the tables and big groups of peop...

Wow, we just arrived in Limol and I can't believe it. What a long, difficult journey filled with surprises and gratitude.  Musato found us a boat and boatman to take us to Limol Saturday morning. Our original hire had been thwarted by the infamous Sam George who took us to Limol our first year. We went down to the wharf on a prayer, hoping that a boat and boatman would appear. Before ours did, a boat came in with a man who had fallen off the boat onto his motor. His arm was very badly cut, and a big crowd surrounded him as he was helped to the hospital. When our boat arrived, we had also amassed a crowd for much happier reasons. The boat was smaller than we would have liked - we had to leave some people behind - but we did fit all of the gifts and supplies that we bought for Limol under two large tarps. I was very pleased with the packing except two large pots with handles were placed behind my seat of honor to dig into my back for the next two days.  The ride through the Paci...