God's Big Banana Leaf

Well, let me give a big "Moning, poro!" from Papua New Guinea! We've (finally) just about settled in to our houses here, I know how to say a little more than "I'm trying to learn how to speak Pidgin" in Pidgin, and my body is slowly getting used to the time change (every night, I start getting tired around 6 pm, and most mornings I wake up automatically around 4 am).

Our travel couldn't have gone better. We had no missed layovers and no lost luggage, so we appreciate all of the prayers that went up on our behalf! I still don't really know where June 14 went, but I've heard that we'll pick it up on the way back to the States in August.

In case you're worried about where I'm sleeping or what I'm eating, rest assured that we are well taken care of. I'm living in a one-bedroom flat behind the girls' house, which is a two-bedroom house. Many of the missionaries here have been kind to feed us, but most of our meals are up to us and our ability to buy things from the market and stores. I feel confident enough to be able to shop in Pidgin, though a recent disaster involving my failed attempt to make hot chocolate may have hurt my confidence for cooking (the raw sugar really did look like hot cocoa mix, leading to super-sugary-hot-milk). We've been eating a large variety of foods, but nothing too too scary since we're preparing our own meals. We have been able to taste kulau (a hard coconut-shaped fruit filled with a sweet, electrolyte-filled liquid), rambutan (an angry-looking little sweet fruit), taro, and kaukau (like a sweet potato).

It's amazing how quickly you get used to doing stuff the PNG way. Already, I've learned not to make eye contact with a woman for more than a few seconds, I know that riding "shotgun" means sitting in the front-left seat, and it's weird to see a woman wearing pants instead of a skirt. Every morning, I know that the large flocks flying overhead are not birds but big bats (see picture below). Obviously, I'm years away from blending in as a Papua New Guinean speaking fluent Pidgin, but until then I can just throw up my hands and explain, "Mi no PNG man!"

This week, our major goals have been getting oriented to PNG, beginning to learn Pidgin, and preparing for our time in the bush over the next three and a half weeks (planning menus, buying food, packing supplies, etc.). We spend most of our day at the Pioneer Bible Translators main office, and it's been really cool to see all of the traffic of missionaries, national workers, and other visitors coming in and out.

And speaking of translation, one of our other main goals for this week has been checking a back translation of I Corinthians for one of the people groups with whom we'll be living. Obviously, Bible translators want the text to be as accurate as possible, so there is a long series of checks and re-checks before the scriptures are published. One of these checks is a "back translation," where they take the scriptures in the new language and translate them back into English so that workers (who probably don't speak the new language) can give an unbiased look at whether the new text reflects the original content of the Bible. As I read through this back translation of I Corinthians, I'm checking to see if anything has been added, poorly interpreted, or omitted.

Because the text has passed through so many different languages (Greek and English into the new language into English), the back translation can often give you quite a few odd sentence constructions or phrasings. I'm constantly coming across verses like this snippet of I Corinthians 6:12: "Half some men are habitually speaking like that. You habitually say, 'Saying, "I will do whatever whatever," I will do good.' Given that, half some whatever whatever will not help me." Fortunately, they give us lots of help to let us know what those phrases mean ("Whatever whatever" = "All kinds of things"). When we finally meet with the missionary in her village, we'll get to go through our corrections with her to discuss problems we found. The experience will be good since we'll get a look at the difficulties of cross-cultural translation and the ways missionaries have found to solve such problems.

The title of this post comes from a back translation, as the way "God's word" was translated to a paperless tribe who writes on banana leaves was "God's big banana leaf."

Today, we got to sit in on a translation check, which is another important step in the translation process involving native speakers and a missionary who is simultaneously comparing the new translation, the trade language (Pidgin), the English, and the original language (Greek or Hebrew). The process is rather slow, as the team may spend anywhere between two minutes and an hour on any particular verse, making sure that the translation is as accurate and nuanced as possible. I still just feel so blessed to be here, because so much of what we're experiencing (like this session, involving missionaries and nationals) would only be possible by traveling here. I feel so privileged to have this opportunity.

Language learning is going really well. We did some practice before we left the States, so we came in with a little head start. Today, our team successfully navigated the market and a few stores in order to buy lunch and dinner (without any help), so that was a real confidence booster. After lunch, I managed to tell a (very choppy, very poor grammatically) story in Pidgin, including a joke, which was also a good inspiration to keep working hard. One word at a time!

If you are praying, continue to lift up my team as we deal with changing cultures and time zones. We really enjoy cooking and eating our meals together like a little family, praying and singing together in the mornings, and encouraging each other in our work, and I'm still amazed at how well we function together and get along. Pray that we will be able to continue extending grace and love for each other, especially as we prepare to rough it for the next three weeks in the bush.

Also, pray that God will reveal his will for me specifically regarding the summer. From the beginning, I've seen this internship as a learning experience, a chance to try translation out. Unfortunately, I'm already seeing the limits of doing short-term missions...after all, I've been told that eight weeks is just enough time to really understand how much you don't know about a culture. Pray that God will show me what he wants to do in or with me and that I will be content with his work.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to write again before we head out into the bush, where we'll be without internet at least for a few weeks. Thanks for reading! Now, for the pictures:

Our first view of PNG from the plane

The hand-carved "storyboard" for the PBT office. You see these everywhere, and the skill and attention to detail is incredible.

A flock of bats, which greets us every morning (and afternoon and night, depending on the day)