5k Kate

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 ...

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...

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...

I've missed writing the past few days because it's been a bit crazy and exciting around here. I did go on a run yesterday but it was a rough one. I had stayed up all night thinking about verbs and grammar and when I woke up all I wanted to do was not think about anything for a while. Yesterday, Tonny and I input the 500th verb into the verb database and the 4000th word into the dictionary. The 500th verb was suwe  tïngg which means 'to urinate on something', Tonny offered this one because he knows I like verbs that end in - ngg . When I put a verb into the database, I have to ask, how do I say "I verb one thing, I verb two things, We verb three things, today and yesterday" for each verb. So I got to ask Tonny how to say "Yesterday, we three peed on three trees each." He must know I'm crazy. The 4000th word in the dictionary was also a verb. That morning we knocked a ripe papaya out of the tree near our house for lunch. Tonny told me that the pap...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

It's been a few days since I last wrote. I've been sick and so I haven't been running. My appetite finally came back last night so I thought I might run today but I was only able to walk and then I had to stay close to the house (and toilet). Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  The past few days have been very productive though besides. More and more verbs keep coming in, and I started writing up a paper about the floating nasal pattern. I'm working on a few other papers too about general grammatical topics. Yesterday I had a productive conversation with a young woman who speaks an Ende language game where you replace the endings of words with the sound -sko. I hope that this may provide some evidence for stress and/or wordhood! Besides this I've gathered a number of stories and songs and have slowly been transcribing and processing them. It's very important to keep this going because I need examples of all the grammatical constructions that I claim are in the l...

Today, I am celebrating the new moon! In Ende, the phrase new moon (kok sisor) is used on the first day that a sliver of the moon is visible. When the moon is gone, it is called dead moon (kok kuddäll). Sometimes people greet the new moon by tapping their mouths with their hand and yelling out, which reminds me of my sweet baby Sisi.  My run today went well this morning. I walked the whole third kilometer because I was trying to figure out a phonology problem in my head. I have a few concurrent analyses about how some verbs have "moving" sounds. In one instance, the verb is tänd and in the next it's ntäd. The "n" moves from the middle to the beginning or vice versa. Anyway, I was worried because an alternative analysis that came to me in my dream last night seemed to negate my current analysis, but on the run I found the example that killed it so I could put it to rest! As I was walking back through the village home, I passed old man Giniya's house who becko...

Big milestone day! I think I passed my tenth 5k here in PNG, if not in Limol, which makes 50km! A distance that always reminds me of A. Today was a bit drizzly, which made the dirt trail a little slippery in places. I passed a few women on their way to the swamp and a man working in his garden. The whole village is feeling under pressure - it's time to build new gardens so everyone is out clearing trees, digging posts, and burning land. Barefoot and with rusty tools. Many people have come asking for medicine for body aches and it's hard to say no. Our policy is to only give medicine for non-chronic pain otherwise we will run out in just a few days and people might overwork their already overworked muscles. All the women are also going for sago, which involves falling a huge sago palm tree, debarking it, beating the pith into a powder, squeezing water through the powder into a pool and siphoning off the water to return with a super fine grained starch. This sago will be going to...

Another early morning run in before the heat. It's been higher than 90 degrees every day and well into the evening. It was a good way to start the day - much better than yesterday.  Yesterday I thought I might go on a run, but stayed in instead. I'm glad I did because the young boy with burns over half of his body came over again. He had fallen into a fire at the washing place. I had put a loose cloth over the burn gel the previous night to try to keep it clean but when he came in the morning, the third degree burns had stuck to the cloth, the second degree burns had all grown blisters and the first degree were more visible. I cried because I knew I couldn't help him. Grace helped take the bandages off. We gave him some more pain medicine and sent him with his mom to Upiara. It really tore me up inside, especially because I don't know if Upiara can care for him and his mom doesn't have a way to get to Daru. Grace and I comforted one another and sent some messages on...

Second Sunday. I can't believe the second week has come and gone. I've gotten into a running routine of warming up on my walk to little Dabi's house to give her her medicine at 6am and then a quick out and back run, back to Dabi's to pick up our plate and spoon and a cool down back home. Lately this has been followed by a water run around 7am with Grace. We take one of the big water rollers and a bucket and walk first to our friend Mecklyn's house who expertly ties a nice long rope onto our bucket. We then walk down to the new well, which is close to the health post that is being built. The well is deep so one of us throws the bucket in and the other pushes it down with a stick. Then we have to yank the bucket up and out in such a way so that the bucket doesn't hit the sides of the well which are covered in clay. We pour about six or seven buckets to fill the roller and then Grace and I both pull the roller back up the steep inclined path to the road. It's s...

Bright and early 5k this AM. Felt slow but had lots to think about. I dropped off the medicine for little Dabi and she wasn't looking very good. I don't think her parents are caring for her and I was a bit angry at her father for letting her wound get so dirty. She looks stiff and I'm worried she's getting sicker.  On the run I was thinking about the verbs and about how there might be evidence for clitics. Some post nominal morphology seems to be closer to the noun than other postpositions, but they don't harmonize with the noun, suggesting a distinction between suffix and clitic perhaps? I'll write a squib up today. I got back home and did some work in Wagiba's garden, then showered and washed some clothes. As I was finishing up, the village erupted with "Käza! Käza! Käza da aittan!" A crocodile! A crocodile had been caught! I grabbed a video camera and followed the young men down the narrow bush track to the creek. It was my first time down this ...

Officially in week 2 and feeling good. Went on a run this morning that was pretty slow first because my stomach was being funny, and hungry, and sick-feeling and second because I had a lot to think about. I ran out towards the canoe place again, which conveniently brings me past little girl Dabi's house who needed her 6am antibiotic hidden in peanut butter. She has such a sweet smile whenever I come by, which makes it all worth it. Tessa says her good temperament speaks volumes about her health so I'm reassured. After I pass Dabi's house, I pass Christina and Gidu's. Gidu is the town announcer and is unique for having  dreadlocks. He also killed a python two days ago and I got to see it, huge, coiled, and bleeding from a tree branch. I saw it again last night when they brought some over for our dinner! It was weird to eat, very chewy and muscly, but tasted like tuna. It was obviously a dear present for us. I thanked them again even though I think the python is to blame ...

Second 5k in Limol! I ran down to the canoe place again and made it all the way to the border between the grasslands and the swamp. The run was pretty uneventful. I only saw one person, a man who has been ostracized by the community, but he was friendly. I felt more confident of my footing this morning so had time to think about other things like (i) what to do for Grace's birthday on November 13, (ii) which verbs to elicit today, and (iii) what chores needed doing.  When I came back, Grace and I went straight on a water run to a new well with very nice water. Some young men helped us which was nice because we had to pull the water up a very steep hill. They took the roller and we carried two buckets on our heads. Very heavy.  I've come back to this post on Friday because I fell asleep before finishing. I'm pretty exhausted once I get to my little sanctuary in my room. I brought myself a small mosquito tent that zips closed and has a full bottom to keep away both mosquitos ...

Second day in Limol and my first 5k! I woke at 6 and got ready to run, connected my watch in front of the house and took off. I was a little worried about causing a scene (running for no reason) and as soon as I started running, dogs began to bark and chase me! So I walked the first half kilometer through the village, than ran 2.25 kilometers down the path towards the canoe place, then back to the village 'gate'. It felt good to run! So many different bird sounds: owls, friar birds, parrots, and more. I ran through so many little spider webs with my legs. The sunrise colored sky was beautiful.  The rest of the day was eventful so I'm glad I got the run in early. Big community meeting was productive. We introduced Lauren, presented presents and discussed plans. Lauren and Grace did really good jobs. I explained how most of the solar lights and water rollers are lost and people were understanding but maybe disappointed? There was a big discussion about the gifts and whether s...

Japingka Aboriginal Art Alma Nungarrayi Granites - Seven Sisters Although I woke up at 3am again, this mornings run was a bit later, but much faster, then yesterday's. I was really surprised not to be too sore because of the busy day yesterday! After having a delicious breakfast with N&P, we spent an hour or two in the garden, which was so much fun. I restacked some firewood and raked the fall leaves! How lovely to do spring cleaning twice this year! After gardening, I went to go finally meet Lauren. What a wonderful person! We connected instantly and I feel like I've known her a long time. We've got so much solar that we are bringing in that I think this will finally be the year when I can use my laptop to work! I bought Moana just in case we have a film showing. After meeting Lauren, Nick and I went to an exhibit at the National Museum of Australia called Songlines: The Seven Sisters. It was really well done. Through out the entire exhibit multiple technologies guides...

Just got back from a beautiful sunrise 5k in Canberra. I took off from N&Ps house again today and found a beautiful bike path surrounded on both sides by trees, flowers, and beautiful houses. I saw so many rabbits, some magpies, and even two red and blue parrots! As I was running, I was mostly reminding myself to keep left and to look right before looking left when crossing the streets. I feel like this is a pretty good example of how mentally exhausting it can be to be in a different culture, especially one that's so similar to your own. So much energy spent paying attention to things that others don't even think about. I was also thinking about how grateful I am to N&P for letting me stay in their beautiful house. I am so happy here and they are so kind. I also spent some time being grateful to Grace, who saved me but packing me a mosquito net last minute as I forgot mine in the closet! This year I'm bringing a special pop-up style mosquito "tent", c...