Some of you might know that Jack Johnson song! It’s playing through my head as I am waiting for my language helper to come! Papua New Guinea people run on their own time! Not wrong…just different!
My language helper told me that she would come Monday at 1, to help me learn tok pisin (the national language). One o’clock rolls around, we just put the kids to nap and I am ready. 30 minutes go by…No language helper. BJ told me that when they say 1:00, they mean anywhere between 1:00 and 1:59…makes sense! I should also mention that they don’t wear clocks/watches. They simply know what time it is by the sun! I have to have them teach me that! Anyways, I’m still waiting at 3:00 and I decide to continue on with my day. We have a guy from the leadership coming to tell us more about the tribe that he was in and, how his family did ministry. So I start cooking for him. Lo and behold, at about 5:00, my language helper comes! Ahhh! She did realize that she forgot, so she wanted to come say sorry. I am in the middle of cooking for the leadership guy, and it would be rude if I don’t drop everything and talk to her. She ended up staying until the guy came, and I had to tell him sorry for not having dinner ready! He totally understood!
Wednesday rolls around and my language helper is supposed to come at 1 again. I went to sit down at the gate and wait for her. The song starts running through my head again! At about 1:30, I decided to go back home and go on with my routine…it was BJ’s birthday and I had a lot to do! She ended up not showing at all. I really like her a lot, but I might need to find a new language helper!
Okay…scratch that…guess who just showed up (Thursday)?! Rosemary (my language helper!) I should of known something was off, since she didn’t show at all. Her sister is in the hospital in town. She went yesterday, spent the night, came back to cook food for her, and stopped by my house on the way back up to the hospital. Now bear in mind, they have no cars, so she has to catch a public motorized vehicle (PMV) for $2 (they are poor) each trip…and hospitals don’t serve food. It really is a different place here in PNG. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it?!?! I’ll end on this. Rosemary asked me to pray for her sister (there are a lot of works based religions in town). I really want to learn this language so that I can talk to Rosemary on a deeper level.
Em ta sol! (means, “that’s all!”)