5k Kate

What a magical birthday! And full of surprises! I went to sleep thinking that today would be nothing special. I knew I had a card from Grace and could expect some sat phone messages from friends, but I had planned my birthday feast for next Wednesday and planned to celebrate when everyone returned to the village (all the women left to do ministry in Malam two days ago!) Well, I should have remembered from how giddily everyone here planned Grace’s surprise birthday party that mine would be no different. I woke up to the bird calls at 6:00 am as usual, but this morning I also heard Jerry’s voice outside. Jerry lives across the village and has a very distinctive laugh and tenor. I knew something was up! I got up and instead of my usual morning routine of an hour of work and hydration before greeting the world, I got dressed, grabbed my camera and walked outside. The entire house was decorated in flowers, young bamboo shoots framed my veranda and stairs! Upon clearing the steps, I was gree...

Yesterday’s run was exceptional. Huge dark clouds were rolling in right at 5:30 when I was wrapping up language work for the day. As people hurried to bring in their laundry and solar lights, I hurried to tie my shoes and get as much of a run in as possible before the heavens opened. This particular run I was chased by about 20 kids. We ran ‘the loop’ twice before drops began to fall, at a record pace since I didn’t know how long the clouds would wait for me. When it really started raining we turned the group around and raced to the house Grace and I call “the bachelor pad” which is tall enough to stand under comfortably. Together we all did my 8-minute strength routine as the sky poured and huge gusts of wind blew the water into our circle. The kids love jumping jacks and high knees and think squats and jump squats are hilarious (they like to make pooping noises). During the other exercises like push ups and lunges they mimic my breathing. We laughed when my feet slipped out from und...

It is the 27th and everyone is still in full Christmas spirit! Yesterday I had the chance to observe an “uncle celebration” and today was the Christmas feast with a special speech by masar Kidarga.  I’ve been told that, in general, Ende people don’t consider their mother’s relatives as their family as their clan extends from their fathers side of the family. But one of their mother’s relatives is very important and that’s your mother’s brother or pope . Traditionally, Ende people marry through a practice of sister exchange, in which two men exchange sisters in order to marry. In this way, an Ende person’s mother’s brother is responsible for their mother’s marriage and thus their existence. A payment must be paid to one’s pope uncle when one comes of a certain age, and in general, one has to be careful to respect them and keep them happy. Yesterday, three elders in the community, Yugui, Warani, and Giniya, welcomed their pope uncle, Sipiki, who came to visit Limol for Christmas from...

Merry Christmas! It’s been a long few first days here in Limol, culminating in a great Christmas celebration.  Preparations for Christmas begin weeks before the actual day as families move around in the gardens and sago places, camping in the bush and gathering food for the holiday. Those who live outside of the village begin making their way home. On my first day here, the 23rd, I was able to help Wagiba make preparations. We went fishing (net dragging) down at Karama swamp and caught six fish! We went down a bit late though (8am). It would have been less hot (in the 30s/90s) and the fish wouldn’t have hid in the floating grass. We carried those fish and a bunch of taro home in our spalek bags. I thought I would faint in the heat but we made it. After a nap, we went to fetch water in the roller. It’s much harder without Grace to help me pull it up the hill. As soon as we got back it poured rain. We filled up all our buckets with rain water and had a nice shower too.  The next...

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 ...