Well friends, it's already October...where has the time gone? We've been out here just about 3 months now and in some ways it feels like we've been here longer and in other ways it feels like we just got here! When we look at the count down (which we try not to) we've been here for 1/8th of our time out here. :)
This week is our last of language study. We'll do classes on tuesday and thursday afternoon with village visits after class, then on saturday we're doing a traditional mumu (can't remember the exact name) but we're doing a kind of bbq where all our food is roasted over a fire in a bamboo shoot. Our language helpers, Aute and his wife Georgina, will take us to town to buy all our veggies and food that we need for the mumu and then help us cook it all up for lunch. I'm looking forward to it! Either tuesday or thursday I'll be going into Helisaro (our language helpers village across the river), to learn some of the women's work (ie. cutting grasses for houses, gardening). The last time I went to the village I learned how the women wash their clothes in the river and how they make their traditional "purses" called bilums. I can say that I did catch on quick to the clothes washing in the river, but making those bilums takes a special touch! :) My language helper was very patient with me and kept saying "try again", it was nice to just sit by the river and "story" with her. She was very patient with my attempts at speaking pidgin and she would repeat things so I could catch what she was saying. For the most part, the nationals speak very fast and it's quite hard to catch all that they are saying. Clinton and I can now atleast understand most of what they are saying, though speaking pidgin back to them is still difficult. But they are very understanding and forgiving as long as you try! :)
As for the potty training sega, Aowyn is now diaper free for naps (though she still wears one for night), and Rorik still wears a diaper for naps and nighttime. He's a little tougher to train than Aowyn as he doesn't seem to mind the feel of wet shorts and he seems to really enjoy making puddles on the living room floor! Lucky for me we have hard-wood floors! No carpet in this house! I wonder if NTM put us in this house on purpose? :)
Tayah's been really enjoying kindergarten (I'm homeschooling her), but I know she'll be glad to join all the other kids next year in school. She's still such a social kid and is loving getting to know new people out here. She was quite emotional yesterday and told me that she wanted to go home to Canada where she doesn't have to speak pidgin to her friends! :) It was quite funny to hear as she doesn't speak pidgin out here and only has one little national friend so far on the center. But culture shock is affecting our little almost-five year old. We remind ourselves to be patient with her as she struggles to find her place here at Lapilo, as we as adults have also struggled with culture shock out here.
It is slowly starting to feel like "home" out here, although I'm sure we'll always call Steinbach "home" no matter how long we're out here. We've just passed thanksgiving out here and greatly missed our family gatherings back home as well as our church supper. We did have a large feast (potluck) out here with all the other Canadian families (including the Banmans and Doerksens) so that was wonderful! Atleast we did get to pig out and eat some pumpkin pie. :) Before we left Canada, we felt that we were trying to not take our friends and families for granted, but being out here you realize that it's hard not to take something for granted that's right in front of you all the time. In the spirit of thanksgiving, we are extremely thankful for our friends and families, our supporters and our home church, and also for the incredible opportunity that we have to serve out here in PNG. It's been an incredible experience so far and we look forward to what God has in store for the rest of the 7/8ths of our time here! :)
Love, Clinton & Rolanda (Tayah, Aowyn & Rorik)
