Limol #11

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 Daru next week to be sold to pay for children's school fees. The building of the health post is also in full gear (on our bidding), plus the language project and Grace's community improvement projects (chickens, healthcare, toilets).

The other big milestone is that I put my 200th verb in the database today. At least 50 have the nasal metathesis that comprises the first part of my dissertation and plenty have interesting vowel harmony changes and reduplication, which I think will comprise the second and third parts. I think the answer to some of the changes must be stress but I haven't figured it out yet. That will be a task for next week. Tonny is such a trooper, we had 192 verbs at 5pm and he said "all right, let's get 8 more before we stop". Then he told me he's leaving me for Malam tomorrow. Well played Tonny.

Today I also started writing my first short essay about this trip. I was thinking about it on my run, mostly about how playing village doctor has brought great amounts of stress to me but also some amount, I hope, of relief and happiness to the community. I was thinking about how many of the skills needed for being a community health worker are the same as for doing fieldwork. You need to be an excellent improviser, have a lot of respect and caring for the person in front of you, and a whole lot of stamina to make it through the days and weeks of surprises. Some days are better than others and these three ingredients I think tend to make or break them usually.

Since Souliki's burn incident, we've taken Dabi off her antibiotics and got the thorn out of Jane's toe. Yesterday, someone tore a large stick out of our friend Wendy's grip and lacerated her hand between her first and second fingers. She definitely needs stitches but I could only tape her fingers together and her wound closed and urge her to go to a professional. Fortunately besides my tumbles on the crocodile trip, the white ladies have reminded injury free although we're covered head to toe in mosquito bites. Even the bottoms of my feet! 

Anyway, until next time,

Kate