Me: “Where are we going?”
Another Missionary: “Pungwa’s place.”
Me: “Where’s that?”
Him: “I don’t know.”
Me: “When are we coming back?”
Him: “I don’t know.”
Myself and the three other guys also in the pidgin learning stage were invited to one of the national’s house this past Saturday. We didn’t really know where we were going or how long we would be there. A kind veteran missionary also informs us that when he was learning pidgin he got invited out by some nationals too. Once, he was gone for three days.
Thankfully, we were only gone for four hours. We hopped on a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle), the cheapest way to travel around here, and twenty minutes later we arrived in Pungwa’s village. They pulled out some logs for us to sit on as fifteen to twenty people, both young and old, gathered around. Awkward silence ensued.
The four of us “Nupela” (new) missionaries are limited in our ability to communicate in the local language but after a little bit we were conversing away in our poor broken pidgin gesturing and pointing to aid the process of communication. We were fed some delicious bananas and kau kau (sweet potato, though unlike America’s sweet potatoes), and enjoyed our time immensely.
We are in the next phase of language learning now. Our orientation is over and we’re pretty much on our own to learn the language. We go visit people’s houses and invite others over to our house. We spend hours poring over our notes and other study materials. This is our life for the next 16 weeks. Every four weeks we’ll be evaluated to see how we’re progressing. My goal is to not fall too far behind my too-smart wife. :’ )
