an island journey

December 08, 2013

an island journey

It's hard to describe the beauty in this country. Pictures often fail to capture it, but they are something. I wonder sometimes if I'll become desensitized to it after time, I hope not. What a wonderful gift it is to see and appreciate God's artistry.

These are some photo highlights of my recent trip to the islands.

On the Kodiak flight to the Capitol to catch a national airline to my destination.

A war memorial, written in bullet casings.

The harbor next to the airport. So pretty!

We stopped to collect rock and coral from the beach to put in a soggy driveway.

It was a nice welcome to the island. :)

This is one of the places to catch a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) to one of the small islands surrounding the main island or somewhere along the coast. Most of the travel is done on one of these boats.

I saw lots of varieties of hibiscus. And since I love the colors, I took lots of pictures. :)

I got to help some local translators with a two day workshop on translation principles.

This is the book of Mark in three languages: English, Tok Pisin, and a local language.

Reviewing translations after looking at some key terms.

In town, we saw Santa. :)

These gorgeous orchids were near where I stayed for part of the time.

I got to visit some friends I met in June and see where they live.

The main road. It's pretty bumpy in places and only covers part of the northeastern section of the island.

One friend I visited had kittens. :)

And another was chopping saksak "sago"

Speaking of sago (from the Sago Palm), it's a staple here. I've had it many different ways, but had the opportunity to try it fixed two new ways on this trip.

This type is fried with coconut oil and I mixed it with rice.

Here are leaf pouches of sago at a local bride price custom. They were part of the food offering from one side of the family.

The dark brown squares (looks like chocolate cake, right?) are mumu-ed sago. However, the color comes from letting sago sit out for a few days before cooking it. You can definitely taste the difference. The green square is mumu-ed taro greens and then the other is mumu-ed fish. To mumu the food, it is cooked with fire and rocks, typically.

Along the road, these beautiful orchids grow wild. Everywhere.

I saw this variety in these three different shades of purple and white. So pretty!

One village I stayed in had a large bride price custom going on while I was there. It was interesting to see this part of the local culture, even if there was an overwhelming amount of people for days on end. And the drums . . . the non-stop drums.

These are garamut drums. They are hollowed out and then beat with sticks. There are five sizes and they all make a different sound. The group of guys playing the drums would rotate almost seamlessly throughout the days.

Some rice (more like a lot of rice), dishes, etc as part of the bride price. The clearing is where the dancing was.

The lady on the left is wearing one of the local baskets. These are very common to see, more so than the bilums (the next lady has one on her shoulder).

There was a lot of rain during my visit. It helped to cool the temperature some, so I can't really complain. And there were also several beautiful, sunny days. The island is just two degrees south of the equator.