Power in the jungle
How do missionaries living off-grid in the middle of the jungle get electricity for appliances and laptops? Take a quick look at the Stanley’s solar system to see for yourself.
Graduation party
Graduating from school and receiving a certificate is always an occasion to celebrate. When the graduation marks the first ever class who has learned to read and write in a language that previously had no written material it’s an especially big occasion.
Bible lesson preparation video
What is the process of preparing a Bible lesson in the Kovol language? This week Steve has been preparing the tower of Babel lesson, translating into the Kovol language and checking it communicates. Take a look to see what that looks like.
How good is a first draft?
Step 1 starts with a blank page. Not a word has been translated yet and the process needs to start somewhere. I do my best to study the passage to understand it’s meaning clearly and then I write the best Kovol I can. So how good is my first draft? How closely does it resemble the “final” translation. Have a look at the image below. You can see my original on the right and the version after step 6 of the process on the left.
Diggey diggey hole
So what to do with all our rubbish? We can throw the food waste in the bushes. The village pigs find some of it, and the rest decomposes. What of all our plastics and tins? The answer to that as been burning and landfill. We want to try and keep our area as nice possible and so that’s what we’ve been doing. Since moving in in 2020 we have now filled 3 rubbish holes and this weekend it was time to dig a new one.
Guinea pigs
The guinea pig cage is a microcosm of jungle life. It’s a tough environment where things wear out quickly. I grew up in the UK where problem solving is usually about finding the right product. It’s all about Googling reviews to find the best quality product for the best price that solves the problem. If that product breaks you get a different one or a replacement. We live in an ideas space where we think up solutions. Once we find a solution we move on to the next problem.
How to teach a tribal literacy class video
What does a literacy class in a minority language of Papua New Guinea look like?
After learning to speak the Kovol language the missionary team is now teaching reading and writing in the Kovol language. What does a day of class look like?
Bush life continues
Arriving back into Kovol after our break feels like returning home. Our break was fantastically refreshing and we really enjoyed it. As good as our break was arrival back at our bush home feels like coming back to where we belong. The Kovol community greeted us warmly, but at the same time our arrival was run of the mill, normal life which meant we weren’t overwhelmed with attention.
How to get into Kovol in 30s
The first of hopefully a few 30s videos giving a glimpse of missionary life.
Goroka break
Being as isolated as we are taking breaks is a really important habit. After 3 months in Kovol our time came for a 2 week break out at our support centre outside Goroka.