mumu

Mumu

Today we went to New Camp ( a village about 1/2 hour walk
from here) for a mumu (feast). It was a lot of fun and a
good cultural experience.

When we got there us girls had to peel the potatoes. I'm
glad my peeler was sharp. It made the job easy. After we
finished some men from the village started building the
mumu. First they had to heat the rocks. This was done
before we got there. Then the arrange banana logs around
the rocks in a circle. They put sticks in the logs to form
a frame. After that they started putting banana leaves on
top of the rocks. They continued to form a wall of banana
leaves inside the frame. It was neat to see.

After they did this they put some unpeeled kaukau (sweet
potato) in the mumu(also the oven.) Then they covered them
with leaves. From this point on they layered kaukau,
banana leaves, greens, and eventually the lamb flanks.
Afterward they put a pipe down the middle and covered the
mumu with more banana leaves and eventually dirt. After it
was finished being built they poured water down the pipe
and filled the mumu. Now all we had to do was wait for the
food to cook.

While we were waiting, my language helper Bunais, took us
to her house down the road. It was really cool to see her
place. We sat around inside and talked for a while. We got
to meet her 3 year old son, Boni. We returned to the
village and the mumu was just about ready. Finally the
food was done and it was time to eat.

The men laid out the banana leaves and piled the food on
top. We had all sorts of good food; orange kaukau, white
kaukau, greens, cabbage and best of all lamb. All of the
ITF(interface) girls ate around one pile of food. We had
to reach in and grab our food. Of course we ate with our
fingers. It was a lot of fun. This is an experience I will
never forget.

Then to top the afternoon off we ended up having a water
fight in the back of the truck on the way home. That was
fun until I got wet. Oh well.

This will probably be my last post for the week. On Friday
we are leaving to go on our side trips. Not sure where I'm
going yet (when I find out i'll post it if I get a
chance). There is no email in the villages we're heading
out to, so
I'll write about it when I get back on Tuesday.

This week has gone really fast. I have a feeling that as
the trip comes to a close the time is only going to go
faster. In two weeks I'll be home, but I think part of me
will be left here in PNG. I'm starting to fall in love
with this country and I'm sure I'm going to miss it.

Yesterday we toured the NTM headquarters in Lapilo. We
learned about the importance of support roles in missions.
Especially the role of Dorm Parent. This year New Tribes
had to pull a couple out of a tribe to become dorm
parents. Support roles are often understaffed. This
hinders the work being done out in the tribes.

After a tour of the offices and school we were let loose
to play sports or just hang out at the Kunai Kafe. The
kafe is run by a few of the MK's there. I had a lot of fun
playing carpet ball. (Carpet ball is played on a long
table with a lower box on each end. Each player lines up
their billard balls. The object is to roll a ball down the
table and knock the other player's ball into the box.) I
got pretty good at this game at WOL. So I was really
excited to play some of the MK's. It was a lot of fun.

Overall yesterday was a pretty good day.

Earlier this week I went to the village. Some of the kids
there wanted to show us the new house their dad was
building. It was neat to see that half finished house.
Then we took a lot of pictures with the kids. We also
played a game called "play meri on." It's a fun hand game.

Thursday at the village we sat and talked to some of the
women in Kitigi Fagu (next village up the road). It was
interesting as they told us how marriages work here. They
told us how it use to be and how it is now. We just sat
and talked as they worked on their bilums (bags). It is
times like these that I think I'm going to remember most
about this trip.

Well I should go. People are waiting to use email. Thank
you all for your prayers. I'll post again later.

Yesterday (tuesday) was Goroka day. The staff took us to
explore the city of Goroka. We started off the day at the
veggie market where there were rows of sweet potatoe,
greens, bananas and sugarfruit. There was also a
meriblouse store. A meri blouse is a the type of shirt
women wear here. It's kinda like a short dress with puffy
sleves. When I get home I'll post a picture of one. There
were all sorts of colors and patterns.

After the veggie market we went to a muesem. There they
had many pictures of how they use to dress. They also had
WWII artifacts as well as ancient artifacts. It was cool
to see. In the back they had a WWII plane.
After the muesem we went to a coffee factory. Coffee is
one of the main cash crops in this part of the country.
Our tour guide showed us the machines used to husk, roast
and package the coffee. It was a small factory, maybe 10
workers total. It was really neat to see.

Our adventure continued with a tour of New Tribes
Aviation's hanger at the airport. There we had our bagged
lunches.

After lunch we headed to the middle of the city, and
parked at the Bird of Paradise hotel. We split into groups
and hit the streets for some shopping. We went to the
artifact market which was on the sidewalk along the hotel.
There I saw what the staff calls the "great wall of
bilums." Bilums are knitted bags that everyone carries
here.
After the artifact market we went shopping at the stores.
Emmerson, our fearless leader, headed the mission to find
that perfect PNG baseball cap for Chuck to buy. We looked
in every store, big and small. We went to one store called
SVS.It's kinda like the super Walmart of PNG. Half of it
was a department store and half a supermarket. It wasn't
very big and there were a lot of people there.
As we continued our search, I picked up stuff for my
family. We also stopped in the christian bookstore

Hi to everyone,

I had a good weekend. Saturday night was game night. We
rotated between Pictionary, Jenga, Cranium, and
Catchphrase. To top it all off we had icecream sundays. It
was a lot of fun.

On Friday I went to the village and played some games with
the kids. We played a few hand clapping games. They were
just like the ones I played when I was little but they had
Tok Pisin words.

We are going to spend all of tomorrow in Goroka,
shopping and visiting a muesem. It should be fun. Well I'm
off to the village again.

Greetings to all from PNG.

I've tried to post earlier but I was sending the emails to
the wrong address. Oops

So far my time here has been good. Last week we started
working with our language helpers. My helpers name is
Bunais. She is really nice. I'm learning a lot from her.

I had a good weekend. On saturday we went on a hike to a
ridge in the plains. It's hard to describe. It took about
an hour to get there. I took the car back because I was
too tired. My asthma was bothering me a little bit too. We
stop at a village called New Camp along the way. There we
picked up a few kids. They just followed us on the hike.
It was fun.

Sunday I went to the village and visited with some of
the ladies. Our directors wife and 2 year old daughter,
Emma, came too. I met a lapun meri (old lady). They say
she's the oldest in the village. Emma calls her grandma in
pidgin. Emma blew bubbles with her. It was really neat to
see how they interacted.

Yesterday (monday) we went to the village with our
language helpers. They made a fire and showed us how to
cook kaukau (sweet potatoe) and strongpela bananas
(cooking bananas). Then we got to eat them. The kaukau was
good but the banana really did not have any taste. I
learned quite a bit more Tok Pisin though. It's funny, I
can understand a lot more Tok Pisin than I can speak. I
know some phrases but I forget them when I want to talk to
the ladies. Please pray that I can learn quickly.

This morning we once again watch them make kaukau, because
the camera crew wanted to film it. We've had this crew
following us, they're making a new interface promo video.

Today was market day in the closest village. I bought a
bilum (knitted bag), along with some items for my family.
There was a wide variety of things to buy. It was really
cool.

Hello everyone. I can't believe I've already been in Png
for four days. So far it has been great. I have already
met a few of the bena people who come down from the
village. I can't wait to get into language class so that I
can talk with them better. Classes are going good. Well I
gotta go. I'll try to post latter this week.

Singapore

I made it to singapore in one piece. I only have a few minutes. I'm going on a tour in a little bit. The flight over was really nice, not too much turbulance. I'll write again when I get to PNG.

5 1/2 hours

In 5 1/2 hours I will be walking out my front door, starting my journey to Papua New Guinea. I leave the airport in Rochester at 7:00 am and after a short layover in Cleveland I will arrive at LAX at 10:35 (pacific time). I will be leaving the country at 1am on the 4th. Our first stop is Tai Pei and then a long layover in Singapore. I will get to Singapore at 11:35 am on the 5th. That is a 19:30 hour flight. I leave for PNG at 8:55pm that day and arrive in Port Moresby at 5:25 am. My journey finally ends when I leave Port Moresby at 9:15 am and arrive in Goroka at 10:35 am (8:35pm EST Thursday). That's a lot of flying.

If you want to contact me while I'm there I have e-mail. The address is itf_kimberly_phillips@ntm.org.pg . I only have e-mail access a few times a week, but it's better than nothing.

Thank you to all who have supported me and continue to support me with prayer.