5k Kate

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...

It’s the middle of January, nearly the new moon, and a good time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished and what I’m dreaming to accomplish.  After the big recording frenzy of the holidays, I’ve been putting most of my attention on organizing and transcribing the corpus. Partly because Limolians have been very busy the past few weeks and also because I want the corpus in archival state by the end of this summer. This has involved a number of tasks: 1. I went back through all the raw data to find recordings that didn’t make it into the database. Many of these were chance recordings of spontaneous speech or intentional recordings done by someone that wasn’t me. This resulted in 500+ unique recordings. 2. Once all the material was in, I tagged each recording for a number of characteristics to generate a file name. The language spoken, the type of speech (spoken, read, or written), whether or not it was spontaneous, prompted (by me), or elicited word for word (by me), and whether it was ...

New year! Sisor pazi! I’m laying in my sanctuary in my room: a sleeping bag on top of a thin air mattress in a miniature mosquito tent in a room about twice my beds size, floored with woven pandanus, walled with woven tree bark and roofed with woven leaves. Sounds of solar powered boom boxes fill the air, punctuated by loud booms, cracks, and cries of “2017 yawo! (bye!) 2018 sebor e! (welcome!)” Our last day of 2017 was spent happily. Three young women joined me on my run this morning! I hope it becomes a regular thing. It was fun to run and walk together, then do some stretches and go to the bathing hole. I wish I had some more tennis shoes or shorts for them to wear too... I just brought one set. I went to church again this morning since people were so happy to see me there last week. It was a packed house and the message was “God wants us to be happy today so be happy and peaceful (and don’t do anything bad)”. I brought my translation work and glossed a part of a text during the ser...

Yesterday Wagiba and I were walking together when something I feared would happen since the day I met her happened. Wagiba’s knife and my hand had a clumsy rendezvous as I swung my arms to walk and she waved her machete to gesticulate. Wagiba cried out “ngämo män! ngämo män! ngämo män! (my daughter! my daughter! my daughter!)” and I instantly went back in my mind to that wonderful moment walking down the village street of Batyrevo, Chuvashia and my mama in love calling out, introducing me to the gossiping neighbors “манан юратна херача!” (моя любимая дочка! my lovely daughter!) and I understood her and I went from feeling so awkward and tall and out of place to feeling like I belong and that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, and besides the fear of the machete, I felt so loved as Wagiba fussed over me.  I haven’t been officially adopted into a family here - even though the obvious one is Warama and Wagiba’s who invited me here, feed me, house me, and work with me. There’s a ver...

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...

Greetings from Daru, where three outbreaks are raging (if you don’t count poverty): typhoid, dry cough, and the flu. I caught the flu immediately (not sure what that says about my immune system) and spent yesterday throwing up while out shopping in the 40 degree heat. Definitely not my most pleasant trip to Daru. But I spent the rest of the day sleeping and I’m feeling better now. I enjoyed my flights from Canberra to Daru. I was carrying Nick’s grey pelican briefcase with my recording equipment in it and I got a lot of curious looks. One woman took my picture then came up to me to say that she sent it to her son saying “this is what you could be doing if you finished your science degree!” I liked being perceived as a scientist! Even if it took a briefcase to prove it.  I met some nice people while in Daru: a university professor in food science who’s here doing inspections and a man from Balimo who was visiting to settle a land dispute were both staying at Tobest as well. Many Lim...

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...

Another no-run streak of days. I feel like there is always something. On Saturday when I caught those fish, I took my shirt off so it would stay dry and clean while I jumped in the swamp. I was in and out of the water for about an hour or two, then we harvested sweet potatoes for a while. Anyway, I got a terrible sunburn on my entire back, so much that I haven't been able to wear a bra for past three days - so running is out.  Moreover, yesterday morning we received the news that a woman in next-door village Malam died in childbirth. She was in labor for four days and no one brought her to Limol or to Upiara where there is a health center. Many Malam people, and all the leaders, were in Upiara, so when they came home yesterday via Limol, they heard the conch shell from Limol on the way and learned the sad news at the canoe place. The mother and father of the girl jumped out of their canoe in grief. I was able to carry the mother's baskets to Limol, when Wagiba, Grace, Lauren an...

Had to skip my run this morning because of heavy rain - it made the trail very slippery. I did however walk nearly 7km with a heavy load to and from the canoe spot on my first fishing trip! Everyone went, but our fishing party was Wagiba, Wendy, Lauren. Grace, and me. Many other woman and small girls also walked down with us to go fishing. When we got to the canoe place, we bailed the rain water out of the canoes, spent a little time digging in the mud for worms, then settled in to Wagibas big canoe and took off. Others were throwing lines but we were going to drag a net to catch fish. Riding in the canoe was beautiful but frightening. I was so worried I would topple out.  I helped Wagiba throw out the net properly, we tied one end to a stick in the mud then paddled out into the clear part of the swamp tossing the net out as we went and back to the stick in a big circle. One side of the net had floaters and the other had sinkers. Then with the circle complete, you drag the net in f...

Beautiful but hot run to the canoe place late this morning. The canoe place is 3.33 km away from the edge of the village. I ran to the end then back to where Grace and Lauren were walking behind and back again for a little more than 5k. I felt strong and didn't walk, but it was very hot.  It's a Saturday today and the goal is to rest but I just want to work. There is a big community meeting happening today and Joshua and Saly came from Malam to see us. After lunch with them I took a nice long nap in the hammock with my computer. I wrote up some pages on vowel harmony and fell asleep. When I woke up it was nearly evening. Grace and I attempted to pass out cooking oil in a plastic funnel but it failed. I took Joshua to rerecord a story of his fathers but a loud fight with lots of yelling started so we paused.  Then a man came by asking for some medicine for his daughter who got a terrible cut on her buttock from a shovel (we learned later that he had hit her). Fortunately we wen...

Today was our first full day in Limol! Everyone was tired today from the journey. Although many people brought us food from their gardens, Wagiba was too tired to cook for us and so I didn't eat until dinner. We also ran out of water in the morning but had to wait until evening to go to the well. The well is quite far away but has good water.  Anyway this resulted in another "rest day" from running because I couldn't run without eating or drinking. Things will settle in soon :) My favorite part of today was in the afternoon. Manaleato and Kauga came back from Malam and I ran to them to give them hugs and kisses. Manaleato is wonderful - she has a beautiful spirit and nine sweet children. Her husband, Kauga, is the school teacher. We all gathered at the new language house, which is twice as big as last year. At one point, I brought up the photos from last year that I printed and everyone wanted to see them. I set them out along the tables and big groups of peop...

Wow, very hot 5k today! Even though I waited until the heat broke, it was a tough run. I found a trail around the back of the hotel that had a long steep hill (about 5 floors), that I ran up and over, then back over, 5 times. The sunset on the top made all the climbs worth it and I was much less center of attention, only saw a few other ex-pats walking the trail and a few kids.  Today was a really great day. Grace and I had a buffet breakfast and morning chat. The food here incredibly expensive so we were being sneaky, with me paying for the buffet and bringing out a nice big plate for us to share. We weren't sneaky enough though because one of the waiters came up to me and said "It's okay if your daughter eats your food too." I, of course, laughed and the guy got very embarrassed and said he was sorry. He brought us heaps of food to the table and Grace messed with him by calling me Mom in front of him. We suspect it's the height difference and the matching shoes....

First run in Papua New Guinea today! And wow, what a day. I feel like my run was a good metaphor for the past day: difficult, overwhelming, attention-grabbing, and led me to somewhere beautiful. Lauren, Grace, and I are at the Gateway Hotel right near the Port Moresby airport. We all flew in this morning from Brisbane (we flew out of Cairns at 6:30) and while it wasn't perfect (we had quite a few issues with bags, including one lost solar panel, and a scare at customs when they nearly didn't let me through), it was a good journey.  I'm just so grateful for Penny for driving us in so early, for Lauren who is fitting in to the team so easily, and for Grace who is amazing as always. She's brought up plans to help the village really excel at chicken farming - so exciting! Running around the hotel wasn't great and I stopped early. Lots of people commenting at me, but nicely. Just too much attention. Plus it is really hot here, about 90 degrees! Cooled off by swimming aro...