One Month in a Village

Sawyer and our wasfamili's daughter.

We have finished the Pacific Orientation Course and we are at our home in Goroka, PNG. The last month of the course we spent in a village as a family to be fully immersed in the language and culture. We had a Papua New Guinean 'wasfamili' that watched out for us and taught us about life in PNG. We lived in a house with walls and floors made of bamboo and a roof made of sago leaves. There was no electricity or running water in the village.

We washed or clothes and bathed in the creek and cooked over a fire. We went to the gardens with our wasfamili. We ate lots of “kaukau” (a white sweet potato), pumpkins, cooking bananas and greens from the garden. We even tried sago grubs (which aren't too bad fried). We brought food from town as well and introduced our wasfamili to pancakes and pizza.

This experience was something we had looked forward to and really thought we would enjoy, but honestly it was very hard. Sawyer didn't sleep very well at all and Jemimah was very stubborn most of the time. That and being sick part of the time made it harder to deal with the stresses of a new culture and language.

But we did learn a lot, and there were times that we really did enjoy. One thing in particular that I (Sarah) enjoyed was going to the water to wash the clothes. It was a good time to talk to the ladies and to get a break from the baby who stayed with Kelly. Jemimah made lots of friends and learned a lot of the language, both Tok Pisin and the tribal language. Kelly became known as a “man bilong mekim pani” meaning he was good at telling jokes.

Even though our time in the village was really hard, we are very glad for our time there. It was a huge help in learning the language and culture of Papua New Guinea. Please enjoy the following pictures from our time in the village!

Kelly and our waspapa made a banana cake with M&M's in our pot oven!

Jemimah coloring inside our house. 

Our kitchen or "haus kuk". 

The inside of our kitchen or "haus kuk". 

Sawyer taking a nap in a "bilum" or string bag. 

Our toilet or "liklik haus". 

Our house. 

Sarah scraping a coconut.

Sarah and our wasmama planting "kaukau" or sweet potato. 

Smiley Sawyer.

Jemimah talking in Tok Pisin with a bunch of the adults in the village.

Cocoa! This is where chocolate begins! 

Hiking down from the garden.

Snack break!

Sago grubs. Yes, we did eat them!

Sarah making flatbread over the fire.

It took two hours to get to town, but the ice cream was worth it!