This week, I (finally) finished checking through a post-literacy book “How the Jews lived”. Completing the book was an important goal before leaving. I can draft Kovol reading books and Bible portions on my own in front of my computer; but there is a good chance the result isn’t very good!
Students will start at the snail level and move up through gecko, rat, wallaby, pig, cassowary and finally, eagle. Each number represents a task. When the student completes a task, the teacher takes a hole punch and punches out the task and the student levels up to the next task.
Holes 1-3 give the students a certain number of flashcards that they need to read correctly in 1 minute.
Holes 4-6 are writing tasks where students write in exercise books.
Holes 7-9 are reading tasks with comprehension questions.
Some young men in Kovol like to get their wife from town or other bush locations. One such guy came to us with his wife and his mother a few days ago. They came to us for advice because the wife was sick. She has had pain all over her body since she arrived in Kovol, so they said. Because of that, she can´t work. There is no fever, no sores, no other physical signs that could give us a clue about a sickness she might have. I was silently praying for wisdom. She didn’t say much, so I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to talk to her alone and took her aside. After I asked more questions, it appeared that she was homesick. Like many other young couples, they had run off together, not telling her parents who live far away in another remote place. Now, six weeks later, she is worried about her parents as they are still looking for her. There is no way to contact them from here.
Pigs are a big part of life in Kovol and Papua New Guinea in general. Pigs are a valuable source of meat, and the meat is an essential part of any important social event. If you apologize publicly to someone for wronging them, but don’t kill a pig to give meat, was it even a real apology? If you don’t kill a pig to celebrate a successful marriage in the pennam ceremony, your words and actions don’t match. You’re saying you have a good marriage with the celebration, but if you don’t kill a pig, then your actions are saying the marriage isn’t worth celebrating.