Limol #17



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 have any kids with her husband. Now they have a boy, they call him Lucky. Tessa is helping me get her some new mom advice including how to get her new baby fed. When I got up from the circle of women around the baby, I overheard some women say, "Wow, what a strong woman! How many bundles of sago do you think she could make, 8? 9? You know she runs in the mornings?" It made me feel really good, although there is no way I could pound that much sago. I did know that Manaleato was pounding sago and had been all day, so I decided to go to her and help her carry her heavy sago bundles back to her house. I did so and got a nice chunk of new sago for dinner. It was delicious! I brought her her bowl back and gave her a small massage with some muscle rubs. She's off to do more exhausting work plus care for her nine children tomorrow...

Lauren was really sweet and brought my things in tonight. Overall things went really well today :)

Until next time,
Kate

Comments

  1. ElizabethNovember 30, 2017 at 4:37 PM

    That's very exciting about the new dialect! And very kind of you to help with Lucky and Manaleato.

    ReplyDelete

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