5k Kate

Year 2: Grace, Grace, Kate, Kate, and Kate In a comment to one of the Limol posts, Elizabeth said she was curious about how our relationships were evolving in the village and how people perceived us. I guess I can only talk about how I perceive that people perceive me, but with that caveat, here's what I thinkǃ The word for white person in Ende is gabma, which has been said to be derived from the English word government  for the government people that came in to check on the villages back under the Australian government. The word doesn't seem to be used in a mean way; children yell it out as we walk down the street, and adults use it when talking about us, "The tall gabma  is here with the medicineǃ" Towards the end of this last trip, I had started to remind people that my name was Kate and they could use that instead of gabma , which felt so impersonal. People did learn that I wanted to be called Kate and some children and adults made the effort, but especia...

Thursday was our leaving day. I woke up happy and excited. I packed quickly as I was leaving most of my things in the village since I'm coming back in just one month. I left my pop up mosquito tent up in my room, and put my recording equipment, notebooks, prescription meds, and camping things inside. I hung my cassowary bag and crocodile necklace up with a picture of me and Grace above. I packed all the community equipment, like the laptop, batteries, back up drive, sat phone, pens and notebooks and things, in a separate pelican case to give to Warama and Tonny for their use this next month. Then I left with just my red backpack partway filled. Grace was also packed up quickly and we stood outside with friends while Lauren packed up and went around giving things away.  When all was ready to go, the village gathered at the language house and Kidarga arrived again still dressed in young coconut leaves. The men (Jerry, Gidu, Francis, Jugu and Kenny) dressed in grass skirts, cassowary ...

So much has happened in the past few days that it's hard to know where to begin. Our last full day in the village (Wednesday) was the first half sunny day in a week and it was a really good day. I got nine final recordings from Tonny (readings of the storybook texts) then spent the rest of the day teaching Warama, Tonny, and Wagiba again how to use the satellite phone, computer, and solar panels.  At 4:00 the feast started. We walked down to the community hall, a space in the center of Limol which is just a dirt floor covered by a sago leaf roof. Palm fronds and tarps were laid out and a huge mountain of pots with cooked rice and flour dumplings sat in the middle of the hall. Families sat around the periphery with their own pots of food (yams, sweet potatoes, noodles, fish, banana sago cake). We sat in the front center with Wagiba and Warama. Grace had helped Wagiba make a huge banana sago cake, and our friends came to give us small pots of food, purple yam, sweet potato, fish. It ...

Sixth day of rain. I did get out this morning and went with Wagiba to go pick up her sago bundles to carry them back to the village. Grace and I headed over to her house early morning and said hello to the puppies before heading out. Even in our hiking boots we slipped a bit on the path. Wagiba walks in front, swinging her machete along the path, breaking tree branches, small shrubs, hitting pieces of wood. Her erratic machete swinging is scary because I'm always worried I'll start following her too closely and get hit, but it does serve a purpose. First, it is a way of upkeeping all the trails little by little every time they're walked. Second, it's a way of marking where you've been so you can a)find your way back, or more likely b) someone can find you if you don't return. As she swung, Wagiba chatted about sago chopping and health plans and our ever approaching departure. As she talks, she effortlessly chops off branches for firewood, peels bark for rope, an...

Today is the fourth or fifth day or rain we've had. Rain all night and much of the day makes the trails quite slippery and I can't justify breaking my leg just to get a run in, so I've been feeling quite lazy. I did walk halfway to the yamhouse with Grace to carry back Wagibas yams yesterday, and I chased after a deer to film it being shot, butchered, and distributed this afternoon so I haven't been without some heart racing entertainment.  Today was a beautiful day, we celebrated Grace's birthday, which is tomorrow. The language house was filled with people and decorated with flowers. Grace was given a beautiful lei of cordyline, hibiscus, and other tree flowers, and sung happy birthday. She was then sat on a beautiful mat, also covered in tree flowers and she was given plenty of presents of food as we sang more happy birthday song. I gave her a poem I wrote called Omad and Wagiba translated for everyone. Lauren gave her a beautiful drawing of Grace and Pingam, don...

I've missed writing the past few days because it's been a bit crazy and exciting around here. I did go on a run yesterday but it was a rough one. I had stayed up all night thinking about verbs and grammar and when I woke up all I wanted to do was not think about anything for a while. Yesterday, Tonny and I input the 500th verb into the verb database and the 4000th word into the dictionary. The 500th verb was suwe  tïngg which means 'to urinate on something', Tonny offered this one because he knows I like verbs that end in - ngg . When I put a verb into the database, I have to ask, how do I say "I verb one thing, I verb two things, We verb three things, today and yesterday" for each verb. So I got to ask Tonny how to say "Yesterday, we three peed on three trees each." He must know I'm crazy. The 4000th word in the dictionary was also a verb. That morning we knocked a ripe papaya out of the tree near our house for lunch. Tonny told me that the pap...

Walking a mile with someone else in your shoes.  Saved my exercise today for the evening - I helped my dear friend Manaleato carry heavy sago bundles to the canoe place. They were halfway down, so we carried lightly halfway, then heavy to the canoe spot, back empty and heavy again to the canoe. Women carry the loads on their heads, but I feel most of the weight in my elbows as I try to lift the pressure off my head and neck by lifting the straps near my ears. I then had to say goodbye to Manaleato. Wagiba told me a verb for when you talk but you have emotion in your voice and your words come out all cracked. This happened when Manealeato said goodbye.  I then helped Wagiba by carrying the leaves she picked and fish Manaleato gave me back to the village but gave her my shoes halfway because her feet were really hurting her. She asked me to get her some sandals in Daru and it's hard to know what to say, because everyone asks me for sandals in Daru and I can't just bring 300 pair...

Got a run in today! Went to the well with Grace and had to sit on the ground to reach the water this morning. We haven't needed a rope the past few days, but now that the village is back the water has gone down quicker. I felt fast and strong on the run. I like this pace because I think it's good for my heart and won't make me too hungry during the day. Meals lately have been mostly yams and sago with sprinkles of pineapple. Fortunately we have a semi steady supply of our favorite bia up bananas that taste like heaven in every bite.  It was another hot one today. Well over 90 and very dry. The flies landed on us in swarms, almost like looking through a cloud when taking notes. I translated quite a few verbs and words for the dictionary and recorded some storybooks. Kauga surprised me today by pulling out 90 story books from the school, all with pictures and space for writing in language! I don't know why he didn't think to show me before. There are nine books alread...

I should retitle this blog: Reasons why I didn't run today by Kate.  I didn't run today because the skin on my back is falling off in one big sheet from that terrible sunburn. Also it was cold and I was cozy in my sleeping bag. I know that that image of me shedding probably doesn't sound cozy, but you learn to put up with a lot here for basic comforts.  Today was an incredibly productive day linguistics-wise. My corpus of verbs is really coming together and I'm able to sort verbs into various conjugation classes based on their root allomorphy. Their conjugation class has implications for the phonology, for example it determines if the root will undergo reduplication or nasal metathesis. I have been transcribing and translating a lot of stories and finding plenty of examples for the short grammar texts that I've been writing up. I can't believe we only have one full work week left. I wonder what I want to get done... I promise to run tomorrow. Or at least come up...

Finally got out on a run today, first day of November. Limol villagers returned from the burial last night and will return to Malam this Sunday for the funeral feast. I felt sad running down the road that had just led those mourners home. I finished my run at the edge of the village and Grace was there waiting with the water roller and bucket. We went for water and saw a wallaby near the well. Second time! We rolled back and I had to have a very quick shower and breakfast because a man named Sawe Bolet who speaks another (!) Pahoturi River language (dialect) called Em was waiting to work with me. Together we did the Yamfinder survey and transcribed half of his story about a sacred cassowary that attacked him. In the afternoon, I gathered more verbs with Warama and Jerry and translated a text on Funeral Traditions that Winson had written last year. After work, I went to see the baby of the mother who had died. The baby boy has been given to a woman named Sandra in Malam who doesn't ...