Yesterday, a large group of guys from a three-hours-hike-away village came to help us clear the land where our house is going to be. Yesterday we chatted with them and marked out the area we wanted cleared and then this morning they got to work. It was amazing how much they could accomplish in such little time. I tried my hand at hacking bush with a bush-knife and I managed to cut a few blades of grass without cutting my own leg, but I did come out with a blister on my right hand. We spent most of the morning at work clearing the jungle and then took a break for lunch. After lunch, many of the guys went back to work to finish up, but a few other guys told me to sit with them and learn some “tok ples” (their language). So I sat with them and had them give me 10 different command utterances in the Pal language (You sit down. You stand up. You go outside. You go get the bush knife. Etc.). After I got them written down so I could study later I had one man start giving me the commands and I would obey, if I could remember what I was being commanded to do. After a little while I had mastered those 10 utterances and I asked for 10 more. After mastering the next 10 I went back through the 20 statements and rewrote them as “I” statements (I’m sitting down. I’m standing up. I’m going outside. Etc.). By mid-afternoon the work was done and the group was ready to head home as they had a long walk to make before dark. All in all it was a good day. It was exciting to get started on house building preparation, it was a good time of getting to know some more guys and loosening up with them, and I was able to move just a little bit further along in my knowledge and command of the Pal language. The first picture is the ‘before’ picture of the ground where (Lord willing) our future house will be, and the next two are the ‘during’ and ‘after’ pictures.