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...

Finally another run in! Today was my fifth day of being sick, and by sick I mean having cramps and stomach pains and having to go to the bathroom many times in the day/night. But a quick pep talk from Grace who said, "don't you remember this always happened and just kinda stuck around the whole trip?" I realized that I need to except this digestion issue as my new normal and not let it get in the way of doing things that I love, like running. So I went on a short run today to the fallen tree and back to see how I would feel. Sore back rest of the day but overall ok! I've been feeling pretty down the last week or so - perhaps since getting sick - but mostly just feeling restless. Today I did something special for Grace and Lauren, I wrote them small speeches on how much I appreciate them to be read at breakfast, and that seemed to reset my mood. The village is empty due to a big men's fellowship meeting in Upiara. Everyone went. So today was a quiet day of transcri...

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...