5k Kate

Well my computer died today. As they say, it’s not a question of IF you’ll lose your data it’s a question of WHEN and HOW MUCH. Luckily, I’ve been well trained and I made regular backups and three back up drives of all my recordings, transcriptions, translations, photos, etc. I last backed up last night and I was able to grab a few transcripts that I typed before my computer really crashed. These data were irreplaceable and completely saved! However... I wasn’t regularly backing up my FLEx files which include all my text analysis and an enormous amount of work that I’ve done mostly at night the past seven weeks. I also potentially lost all the documents on my computer. So I feel like a back up queen and a total idiot at the same time. Luckily I have a back-up laptop (!) but doing my work for the evening felt like someone took my beautiful well-oiled machine and replaced it with a stick. I’ll be able to keep doing my work and an evening run persuaded me that in fact I will still do ever...

I love, love, love Mondays. They are my actual favorite day of the week unlike Thursday which is what I like to say is my favorite day.  This Monday was particularly wonderful because it involved so many of my favorite things: a schedule, a to-do list, heaps of productivity, new notebooks, and a tale of female bravery overcoming a horrible situation.  Warama shares many of these favorite things and yesterday when I went for a visit and to pay him for his outstanding transcription work, he showed me a blackboard on which he had drafted a potential daily schedule, beginning at 8 am with morning prayer, including breaks at 10:00, 12:30, and 3:00, and ending at 4:30. I loved the idea and so started a fresh moleskine notebook with lists of all the tasks that need doing, followed by five daily schedules for the coming week. In the schedules is room for to-do lists and notes. So in the morning, a time for planning the day is penned in after “opening prayer” where all language workers...

I realize that although I am a linguist doing fieldwork, most of my writing is about very non-linguistic things. I guess it’s because I require more processing for these extra-linguistic activities while my work leaves me happy and excited (but I write about my findings in the Ende grammar and dictionary). So let me just tell you what I did today! I woke up at 6:30 and went on a run with about ten girls. Some girls joined late so I paid attention to how the currently running girls invited the others to join and noted this in my notebook later. After the run we had a race across the field and since I came in last, I played a trick and ran back across the field with a big head start. Then I asked the girls what happened and noted those new words in my notebook too. I made them laugh during stretching to thank them for their linguistic help.  I got home, bucket bathed, ate breakfast, and chatted with A. Then I gathered up my gear and headed to Kagär and Erga’s house, whom ...

I’m sitting in the domestic terminal in Port Moresby’s airport and now that the last trace of internet and FaceTime are gone, I feel like I’ve finally embarked on my fourth field trip to Limol.  Many aspects of this trip are different than the three that came before. First, I’m traveling alone, which has its pros and cons. I’m looking forward to being more immersed in the community without my Western culture anchors that have kept me afloat the last two years. But I also know that these trips have a huge emotional and physical toll and I will miss the comfort, advice, and laughter that my friends brought me. Second, this will be my longest trip yet. I don’t have tickets to come out yet, but I expect to leave at the beginning of June, which will hopefully come after the annual yam harvest. That’s at least five months in the village! Enough time I hope to become conversationally fluent and to have a solid start on an Ende grammar. A is worried about me on both accounts, but I’m not t...