Sunday in Bougainville: February 1, 2009

A new experience.  Preaching in Bougainville.  The clouds cleared out for the first time in several days and it was a very warm morning (and I have to dress up!).  

Church was fun and interesting. Several different things going on and both Pidgin, English spoken with the local dialect thrown in from time to time.  The singing was typical of island singing, ragged beginning as one person starts it out and people join in a few at a time, but by the second verse, the harmonies (and dissonance) are in full bloom and it is wonderful.  The Wesleyans in Bougainville do not use instruments because that is what the Pentecostal churches do and we won’t be as worldly as they.  There is a push among the young to introduce instruments and so there is tension in the church over how worship music is to be used.  Sounds way too familiar.  

When it was my turn I got up to speak with not a little nervousness.  Stepping into something strange is always a bit scary.  I shouldn’t have worried.  God was right there to help.  I should 

mention here that one of the things I have been stressing with the men in class has been the importance of prayer for the preacher.  Ten minutes before class was to start, I gathered with the students and had them pray for me.  It was a very special time.  They are good men.

The message went well.  I told the story from 2 Chronicles 20 where a choir defeats an army.  The choir sang just before I got up to speak, so it was very timely and the people seemed to be with me throughout.  I had to speak very loudly, so my voice is a bit tired tonight.  Fortunately, I only had to preach it once, instead of the usual 4 times I would at Faith.   

After service there was “refreshment” which is really Sunday dinner.  It was good and the foods

 are familiar by now: kaukau, green vegetables, baked pumpkin, there was a fish and a chicken dish that I passed by and lots of rice.  The greens were a bit different than I had had and were quite bitter.  Otherwise, it was very tasty.  I am becoming a big fan of kaukau - the white sweet potato they have here.  The flesh is very similar to the consistency of boiled potatoes, but had that hint of sweetness so they can be eaten with nothing added and be quite enjoyable.  

When I arrived for refreshment, one of the women in the choir - a very outgoing sort - said she was sorry that she had kept her sunglasses on top of her head when she came forward to sing.  I joked with her that I thought she had four eyes and needed them and everyone laughed very loud.  Then I let her know I had not even noticed, but it did not matter.  The choir was good and we had a good day of worship.  

Chief Ezekiel showed me the drums they use for celebration and for communication with other villages.  They are very large, made out of logs.  They are dug out but only have a small slit open on the top through which all the material must be removed.  The Chief told me it takes many months of work to make these drums.  There were three there, each larger than the next.  They really follow the four part harmony pattern with these with the smallest being the highest and so on.  The bass drum was not there - Chief Ezekiel said it was what we would call a “woofer”!  (See yesterday's entry for a photo of Ezekiel and the drums)

Tasol!

More Culture Lessons: Saturday, January 31, 2009

A hard working Saturday in the morning.  We had class today to catch up from starting on Tuesday.  It was strange and made it feel like Friday.  I taught the last section on sermon structure and received their first major assignment on the text, proposition and purpose of their sermon.  Mostly they did very well.  I had two that I needed to have improvements completed.  Mostly they were very good and I was able to find positive things in each of their assignments.  

After class I talked with Lesly for a while then came down to the flat.  Jeff introduced me to

 Ezekiel Roman - Lesly’s dad and the clan chief.  It was good to meet him - a very intelligent and strong leader.  He works with co-op of farmers to help raise the standard of living on Buka Island.  We talked about many things and I learned a great deal about agriculture here on the island.  Their biggest cash crops are coconut products, mostly oil and copra (roasted coconut) and cocoa.  They send most of their cocoa raw to Samoa to be processed.  He would like to have a processing plant here on Buka, but there is the problem of finance and a greater problem of reliable electricity.  He estimates that the cost of setting up a plant would be about 2 million kina (something just under $700,000.00 USD).  It would allow them to give the farmers more for their raw cocoa and still make more profit for the processors.  Shipping would cost less also.  He

 said the processing plant on Samoa should be here because Samoa produces something like 5,000 tons of cocoa per year and Bougainville produces 80,000 tons.  I’m sure that part of the reason they don’t have it here yet is that the country has been politically unstable.  There are also some issues of culture to consider.  If one clan gets ahead of the others, the others will sabotage the first to bring them back in line with the rest.  The genius of the co-op is that all benefit, therefore no one needs to feel left behind.

(The picture is of Ezekiel Roman showing me the tribal drums.  Each takes 3 to 4 months to make.  He is holding up his hand to show the size of the largest drum which he called, "the woofer".)

After I spent time with Ezekiel, I went over to the office and finished off the message for Sunday and printed out enough copies for the students each to have a copy.  My hope is that they will see the things I have been teaching them in action and be able to understand better by example than they would by pure lecture.  Because of this, I had to be very careful in writing the message to follow the homiletical rules I have been teaching - what a pain!  I haven’t intentionally  written a proposition, purpose and transition statement in years.  But, on Monday we can use the message as a teaching tool.  Anything to help the team get better.

Telling Time in Bougainville: Friday, January 30, 2009

This morning was a fairly quiet morning.  Up around 5:30 had a shower, devotions and caught up on my blog from yesterday.  Breakfast with the guys and then off to class.

Today was chapel and I was surprised to see Alex being the one to bring devotions.  He did ok but his lack of experience showed.  It was brief, but also gave me some material for helping explain things later.  I also found out that I need to find the right words for people to understand what I am saying.

The first indication of it was when I was telling the class that we could take a break and start again at nine ten (9:10).  They all looked at me blankly and I tried again with ten after nine.  Someone got it and said ten past nine and then they all got it.  Seems simple, but if you are working in another language, it would be very difficult and nuances would make a difference.  Later I was teaching about a proposition statement.  Lesly asked the difference between a proposition statement and the theme.  I’m sure there are some differences, but not enough to count in this situation - it is now called the theme and they are all moving forward more easily now.  Then we got to the purpose statement and that became, “goal”.   Having the right word is so important here.  

Did a lot of resting today - it has been raining quite a bit, so not much chance of going out to explore. I did stop over to the student’s kitchen to see how they cleaned out and shredded coconut.  A really ingenious way using a bench with a round metal protrusion off the end that is serrated.  It works very well but still looks like plenty of work.  

Bougainville Update: Thursday, January 29, 2009

A full day.  The class went very well as I shared various types of preaching with the men.  Rev. Joe gave me a very good example in the devotion time and it was useful for tying things together.  The examples seemed to help the men connect, but it was not the only benefit; several times as I was sharing truth while sharing the example, the Spirit of the Lord settled down upon us.  They really connected when I shared the story style of preaching.  It was fun and lively and we are beginning to connect with one another.  

During my morning break, Rev. Joe came over and we talked at length.  It was a very good give and take.  He taught me much about the culture and students that was helpful to understanding.  He also shared several things with me about the struggles they face here and how he became national superintendent at such a young age.  He is very capable and is a tremendous asset here on Bougainville.  At the end of our time it was amazing to me how much our problems are alike though we have very different cultures.  

Most of the students had not made much progress on their inductive study, so in the afternoon study hour I spent 10 minutes with each of them.  It seemed to be good study and we shall see today if it made any difference.  Today begins the study of a proposition (big idea) statements.  

Jeff and I took another short walk after study and before dinner.

  It was a bit cooler (not cool) but considerably more comfortable today.  The jungle areas here are very dense.  Jeff says that if anything is left alone for a year or so, the jungle takes it back over.  When we got back, Alex and Lesly were working on the garden plot.  They are growing all kinds of interesting vegetables including broccoli and bok choi.  Lesly’s sister went to agricultural college and has passed her knowledge on.

Jonathan created another masterpiece of a meal last night.  We are eating far better than I imagined we would.  I took a picture of the meal just because it was so nicely presented and was quite tasty.  We had canned beef over rice (better than it sounds) kaukau - a sweet potato that is more white than ours and not as dry, various veggies as a garnish and the mystery spinach/asparagus bush that we have had most nights.  There was pineapple and mango for dessert - the tropical fruit here is amazing and will ruin me for ever eating mangos from Meijer.  

I decided not to use the message from Daniel on Sunday since Moses is using chapter one from Daniel for his sermon. So I will be writing a new one this week.  That will be better anyway.  So I worked on that for a while last night and then went to bed.  

Saw another cockroach last night when I got up to go to the toilet.  He was really fast.  And large.

  I had to be really careful where I stepped because even though I could see where he was, he moved so fast I almost had him run across my foot before I could pick it up for the next step.  GROSS!  Our friendly household gecko is getting more comfortable with us apparently, because he seems much more free to chatter in the middle of the night.  We have one large one as far as I can tell, and several really tiny ones.  It is more and more likely that the thing I had run across my neck the first night was one of these.  Jonathan saw one with a tail missing.  Could have been from being snatched up and thrown across the room.

lukim you behain  (see you later!)

Creepy Crawlies, Craters & Communication

I had an uneventful night of sleep, no creepy crawlies again, but each of us have killed a 2 inch cockroach in the last 24 hours.  The ants are under control and the flies are down to a few hundred.  

Class got off to a noisy start today.  Just as devotions were concluding it started to rain and when I got up to start class I had to shout to be heard as the rain beat on the steel panel roof.  

I’m not sure I’m getting through but I hope so.  They seemed to catch the concepts of the study tools and I wish I could get more to them.  It seems a shame that I have a library full of stuff I only use occasionally and they have nearly nothing.  Even the Bible school library is very limited.  There are lots of books, but many of them are very old and/or culturally irrelevant.  Several books I have used in the past and have cast off as outdated.  Others have done the same and so the books end up here.

I showed them some of the good classics that are useful - Halley’s Bible Handbook and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.  Moses asked if they were available - I doubt it - but I will look into getting some shipped here.  Bringing them here in the luggage isn’t really practical because of the massive weight.  I guess I’m just frustrated by the whole have/have not dilemma.  

I do love the way the team is working together and the easy camaraderie of the three of us.  There is a good spirit of doing whatever we can to work together to get things done.

After classes last night Jeff and I went for a walk around.  He pointed out an interesting feature of the campus.  In the main yard there are three large depressions.  They are bomb craters from WWII!  They aren’t all that deep any longer but are quite large around.  This area was an area of heavy conflict during the war and the locals hid in caves down by the ocean.

We made our way down there this evening - taking a trail that led down and I wasn’t really believing where we were going.  The trail got fairly steep as we descended over coral and then there was a place where you used a knotted rope to lead to an aluminum ladder set into the wall to get down another 20 feet.  Then it was still down hill over jagged coral until it finally leveled out.  The ocean was beautiful and I picked up a shell and a bit of coral as a souvenir.  

When we got back I stopped by the cooking hut of the guys.  They were making KauKau - a cross between potato and sweet potato. We got talking about crops grown different places and Raymond asked me to describe maize.  I told him how it grew on a stalk and had one ear that grew rows of large yellow seeds.  Jairus said, “sounds like corn”!  We had quite a laugh over that one.  

Then tonight after dinner Rev. Joe came over to talk.  We had a great time with him.  He is very helpful in understanding the culture and has explained many things to me.  He also has an engaging personality and great sense of humor.  I’m loving this place and loving the people.

Mmmm - Tastes Like Asparagus!

The green stuff from yesterday’s entry turned out to be very good.  It did indeed taste like asparagus, but a little stronger and a bit tangy - but good with no ill effects.  We have also been enjoying mangos - very delicious and refreshing.

Sleeping started out well last night.  I was wiped out by 9:00 and lay down and soon was out until about midnight when I had a yet unidentified creature crawl across my neck.  I instinctively grabbed it and threw it away from me.  I didn’t experience any poisonous bites or swelling, so I guess I’ve survived another adventure.  I did not, however, sleep that well for the rest of the night.  Any slight tingle or the curtain moving against my leg put me on high alert.  It was hot, but not unbearably through the night.

Jonathan has been taking great care of us.  The laundry was done and the meals have been very tasty.  He also is very inventive.  He made french toast this morning, but since we didn’t have syrup (not many maple trees on Bougainville) he made his own by boiling down sugar and water.  It really was quite nice - not over sweet as maple sometimes can be. 

The first day of class went well.  We only had three students to start, because three of the

 students thought class began next week.  They arrived mid afternoon.  The day began with devotions, singing and prayer.  Then introductions were made and I began my class.

With only three students, it went faster than I anticipated and we were done a bit early.  I hope I was able to communicate O.K.  One of the students was quite sharp but another was very shy and I’m not sure he understands English well enough to keep up.  Have I mentioned that it’s hot here?  By the end of class, my shirt was soaked through.  Clothes won’t last long here as I am going through a couple sets per day.  

I was reflecting on the remoteness of this place.  When I was in Zambia, it was backward and Haiti was oppressive, but both places were very advanced in the tools that can be put into the hands of pastors there.  Both places the pastors have computers and many have laptops.  They have access to books and other basic tools for preaching.  This country has almost nothing.  I am very glad to be able to provide the NIV study bibles for the students.  It will give them the most basic, but adequate starting place. On the other hand, almost everyone carries a cell phone now.  They only came in a year ago but most have them and have adapted quickly to the technology.  Texting is the choice of communication as it is cheaper here than talk minutes.  

Had a brief walk around the neighborhood with Jeff this evening.  Saw a few interesting sights including a cocoa tree with pods on it.  MMMMM chocolate!  But it wasn’t ours to harvest.  A nice evening meal and a shower and I am ready to call it a day.

Tasol!  (That’s all!)

Day One - Arrival January 26, 2009

Day One - Arrival

I’m sitting in the kitchen of the Bougainville Bible College guest house, surrounded by half-naked men.  It is HOT - but a lovely hot.  We’ve arrived safely in Tanamalo - a small village on the north coast of Buka Island.  Buka-town is the main trade area for Bougainville and also where the airport is.  

We departed from Port Moresby this morning - leaving the house @ 4:50 a.m. and boarding our plane at 6:30 a.m..  We had a long wait in the line at the airport to check in and while doing it met a cacao farmer from Rabaul, New Britain.  He was a fascinating fellow and very friendly.  He said that he normally harvests 4 tons of cocoa beans per month - enough to keep all the women in Lansing, MI happy for about a week.  

Once again, our flight was on time and really a pleasure.  (Are you listening US air industry?).  We flew to Rabaul for a brief lay over.  The island of New Britain is gorgeous!  I took several photos from the air.  One of them is of an active volcano which also complicated our landing pattern since we had to go out over the sea and come back in to avoid the volcanic ash cloud.  The airport had been closed briefly earlier this week to sweep up the ash accumulating on the runway.  

We had to de-plane in Rabaul - and get right back on after going through security.  Then

we flew into Buka - our approach was again breathtaking.  Beauty, not scary - the flight was smooth and good.  The airport is really small, which is to be expected.  The interesting bit was the WWII anti-aircraft gun by the terminal.  

We collected our luggage and began meeting lots of people.  Rev. Joe who is the principle of the Bible School and National Supt. for Bougainville, Leslie, one of the students, Nathaniel who is National treasurer, National evangelism director and District Superintendent for the East Buka district as well as a local pastor and he is very young.  Pastor Wesley is the pastor of the church here in Tanamalo.  It wasn’t long before we warmed up and began having a great time of sharing.  

We caught a ride into Buka-town to do some banking and shopping and wait for our ride out to

Tanamalo.  The town is not very large, but very busy.  Market is each day and it is the place where most people come to do business because some parts of the main Bougainville island “do 

not have law and order”.  The main island is only about ½ mile away across a channel.  I remember Marcia teaching about the long boats that take people back and forth across the channel in the children’s mission class.  Today I got to see them in action.  Quite interesting.  You can cross for 2 Kina - a little less than a dollar.  

Leslie took Jonathan and I to do the grocery shopping while Pastor Joe and Jeff went to do some banking.  The store was very crowded - what no shopping carts!  And very hot - what, no air conditioning!.  But we found everything we need and tried a few local treats that were recommended to me by missionaries in Port Moresby the night before.  The beef flavored biscuit was really quite tasty!

Speaking of food, (kai-kai is the Pidgin word), we ate lunch at the local restaurant - it was interesting - but edible.  I had two sausages (luke-warm) and rice.  Also on the menu was a chicken curry where the chicken was simply chopped up bone and all & huge chunks of taro root on the side.  Taro is a staple here, but is about 120% starch and very dry.  Tapioca is also grown here and I look forward to trying it, but I understand it will be nothing like the nice pudding I enjoy so much.  Fun little bit: There was a sign on the wall informing their “valued customers” that the price of soft drinks is now 2.50 kina.  Then, “10 Q for your understanding”.  Pidgin is really a very logical language.  Say it out loud and often, you will have it.  

We stayed in Buka-town for most of the day waiting for our ride.  Part of the delay was a really impressive downpour which put a stop to most commerce and traffic in town.  It rained for about an hour and dropped a good 1 - 2 inches of rain.  

We started out for Tanamalo in the back of a Toyota pick-up around 1:00 - The three white men got the seat of honor - a board across the top of the bed of the truck up by the cab.  The others rode sitting on the top edge of the bed and seeming to not hang on all that desperately.  Our driver was inspired and we flew up the increasingly narrow road until we arrived.  

Our lodgings are adequate, though we are doing battle with flies and ants right now.  I have murdered easily 30 flies and another one just buzzed me.  The ants are all over the place.  We will deal with them in a bit.  But we are settled in and showered and shirtless and about to enjoy our first meal whipped up by Jonathan - Tuna, rice and some green stuff we picked up at a stand along side the road.   If I don’t write tomorrow......