Tween

Tweens.

Our daughter turns 12 in a few days. Here the transition to 'upper grader' happens at 7th grade. It is much like becoming a freshman in high school because of the way the campuses are integrated.

As a result of this new 'upper grader' status and all the many changes that come with it, my daughter fancies herself a teenager.

All you folks out there who have gone through the transition, will laugh and know what I'm going through.

All those who have yet to face it, consider this your warning.

Currently my home is no longer my castle, it is in fact, my daughter's castle. And we, her humble servants.

At least I am tempted to say that is what goes on in her mind.

As a result my wife and I are making attempts to get to know her friends more and become involved in youth ministry.

For those of you in youth ministry, I applaud you. How you can look at a kid and say 'they have a good heart' and desire to foster that, is a gift beyond my comprehension.

I instead look at the kids and say 'these boys are going to want to date my daughter FAR too soon.' It has to be a hard thing to look at a kid and recognize that they have growing up to do. I look at a kid and forget that and somehow think 'they're going to be like this their whole lives.'

Patience in the growing process.

My house has been turned upside down a bit. Dad is suddenly requested to do a lot of projects without warning, that MUST be completed immediately. I don't understand this, but other fathers tell me ..'yes, it's true, something happens to their brains and they can't think ahead.'

'Dad, I have to leave for school in 2 minutes and I need you to build me an invention for school, can it be done in 30 seconds?'

'Dad, I need you to construct a replica of the Eiffel tower with toothpicks in the next three moments, please hurry.'

Is it any wonder that this is also the time that teenagers begin to realize their parents are not in fact, super heroes?

I'm unable to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but given enough time, I could probably climb tall ladders in a short time, and then spend the next few days icing my knees.

I am learning however, that when confronted with an unreasonable expectation, and an emotional young girl wondering why I can not conjur school supplies from thin air, the BEST way to react is a loving and patient, 'I love you and want to help, but I am unable to do it immediately.'

And then for fun I throw in 'because you see, I spent all morning using my super powers at work this morning and I'm tired out.'

The point of this blog, is about life here. My wife and I are involved in youth ministry now, but only just. We are planning activity days, every 3 weeks. It seems there is no MALL here to hang out at, no movies to go see, no mini-golf to go do. So 4 adults band together for a group of kids (we have 40 7th and 8th graders), and we plan a night. We become the MALL, the theatre, the ... hang out place.

Last week we made up a life size version of battleship that involved dodge balls. Soon we'll be doing something else... but I can't say what it is in case any kids read the blog.

That's part of life here. The kids go to church and bible study, but we also know they need times to simply have FUN together. My wife and I (and another couple) are in charge of manufacturing that FUN.

As someone once said, 'sure there is LESS to do, but that hasn't really turned out to be a problem.'

Bridges

here are two pictures of typical village bridges. Papua New Guineans have an incredible sense of balance, rarely wear shoes, have very wide flat and thick soled feet. I've never seen one slip or fall (I've seen a few stagger).

So why do we care about these pictures of bridges other than that they are interesting to see?

Bridges are a huge thing here. The two main types, car bridges and foot bridges are both hazardous. The car bridges often wash out. There is so much rain here, that since moving here not a year goes by where some bridge somewhere isn't washed out making it so that travel and receiving supplies is difficult.

Everyone knows to do a bridge check before commencing a trip, otherwise you could face turning around. (a bridge check is asking around, and seeing who was last stuck at a bridge and if it's okay now.. it's all word of mouth, no official organization tracks bridge status).

Imagine you're a white-skin walking across this bridge with a laptop in your sack, and possibly some other electronic equipment. You definitely do not want to slip!

Well, as an I.T. guy, we often have to use variables to decide what types of laptops to buy or other items.

Criteria we use ranges, but among the top are:
-is it ruggedized?
-how long will the battery last?

'Ruggedized' defined: 'Able to be operational after being dropped, getting wet, having geckos live inside of it, will not short out when cockroaches climb inside, and rarely loses data when the wrong adaptor is used to charge it'

We've had laptops wind up at the bottom of the ocean, take a bath in a river, become a warm cozy home to several different types of creepy crawlies, rust over from living too close to the ocean, corroded internals and externals.

I once even had a hard drive enclosure corrode itself shut, such that I had to use a prybar to get the drive out to salvage the data. Once I did, I found gecko eggs inside.

And you know you live in a 3rd world country when a server crashes and your FIRST thought is 'a rat got inside and relieved itself on the power supply'

I recall crossing one such bridge trying to keep my balance, the nationals laughing at how uncoordinated I looked, and then having my daughter say 'daddy hold my hand, I need help'. Thinking 'wow, if I fall now I damage my daughter's sense of super-dad-dome'. But we got across fine. The trick with most things is to put fear aside and just do it.

Come on... anything else is boring (-;

Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Axe me about cupcakes

this image a is a bit late but I like it so I'm posting it.

In June, Kendal organized the baking of 12 dozen cupcakes (she baked several dozen and others chipped in) so that the 6th grade graduation class could have this cool display




Two week ago a tree fell in the back of my house.
A friend came over, grabbed my axe and started swinging. Canadians love chopping wood. I know this because 2 other Canadians showed up as soon as he began. Well I had this very nice fibre glass composite handled hatchet (black and yellow) that I brought from the U.S. and also had a standard wood handled axe here. I had my son take a few wacks at it with the hatchet, while we used the axe to separate the tree from the stump so I could drag it out of the yard.

That day, the hatchet handle broke.
The next day my axe handle broke... apparently the bugs got to the wood.

It's the chilliest it's been here in years at night and a fire is a very nice thing... but our fireplace is a tiny thing and needs small split logs. I had lost all splitting power. (i tried a sledge and using the axe head as a wedge but it was not working well).

So I asked around where I might be able to find a new axe handle, and they said 'in town'. Well our vehicle isn't working and I don't feel like driving 6 hours so I have to wait until someone else goes.

Meanwhile, we need an axe.

SO, I took a limb from the dead tree that fell, had my son strip the bark, and using a combination of tools, shaped it and split the top. Cut a wedge, sanded it to size, and then put the wedge with some glue in the top. Bingo.. makeshift temporary axe handle. Talk about WAY too much work for an axe handle. But the closest hardware store is 3 hours away over treacherous road, and often doesn't have what you need.

Everyone take a moment and appreciate their local hardware store for a tick. On furlough, walking into Home Depot was a wonderful moment for me. If I start a job here, an need something as simple as a nail, I have to wait until Monday and hope the local mini-store has some nails I can use. Either that or pull a rusty one out of an old board, hammer it straight and use that (I've done this....). You REALLY have to plan ahead if you want to do any work on the weekend around here. It's not so hard once you adjust to it, but it does take you a long time to adjust, especially if you don't have the personality traits required to think WAY ahead in a very detailed way.

I also welded a quick piece of rod to the hatchet, so my son and I were able to split enough wood and kindling today for a week's worth of fires.

part of our conversation

"son, part of being a good man is taking care of the ladies in your life."
'we're keeping them warm by doing this!'
'yes, that's right, a good man keeps his women warm.'

I chuckled to myself as I said it... but there you have it a real jury rig job, suitable for PNG.

Picturesque PNG

Here are some photos of life here, they include the market, a village at night, one of the many meandering rivers, mist settling in the morning, our planes (206), Yonki reservoir

Town

I'm tired today. I will be working the weekend to move 2TB of data storage for our main file server. Please pray that it goes well with ZERO data loss, and gets done in the 3 days we have planned for it. We've been working at a sprinting pace lately, trying to get all the work done we can during school break when many people are gone and the schools are not as active. (it's a good time to get work done).

I'm tired because at 3am a pack of 4 semi-wild dogs attacked our dog and I had to break it up. And you know how once you wake up and your adrenaline flows and your mind thinks and you can't get back to sleep? Well that's me. Only now I have to on half a night's sleep, work the weekend (-; So pray that my mind stays alert.

So as you know this blog is sometimes 'life in png' and sometimes 'what God is doing here'.

God is always working. We are always working. We get really excited when God chooses to encourage us with a glimpse of what He's doing.

Last week there was a large meeting of men repenting and seeking Christ. That is God's hand moving.

An old friend and neighbor is visiting us and snapped some photos on his trip back here that I thought I would share.



When we say we're going to town, this is what we mean. These photos are from the nearest town called 'Kainantu'.



and for fun, here is one of the signs around town... I'll translate


(I'll do a literal translation)
STOP CHOLERA!!
1. cook your food well, don't eat the food people sell alongside the road

2. cover up your food well, flies can't come and sit down on it.

3. use the toilet when you need to relieve yourself. Don't relieve yourself in the bushes or water.

4. Wash your hands well before you eat. Also after you use the toilet.

5. Before you drink, boil your water well.


I think we can all agree, these are words to live by if you want to avoid cholera.
At first seeing a sign like this (especially because of #4) you think 'well there's evidence I'm in a third world country)... but then you realize that education is the true battle against all kinds of disease.

We teach our kids to wash their hands, don't eat that, don't touch this... and after some time they know why, and understand the science of germs and health.

In fact it's so ingrained in us as kids we take if for granted as adults that the whole world knows this stuff.. but they don't.

We're reading through the Bible and when we came to the laws in Exodus and Leviticus the kids learned 2 things:
1 - God cares about us. He made all these laws partially for our own protection and health.
2 - God cares about the details. When the kids ask 'does God care about this?' the answer is yes...

Lost

so the other day I told my kids that when I was a kid, living in the mountains, I would go on long hikes or bike rides and seek adventure. I would try to get lost and find my way home again.

My son asked me 'how do you get yourself lost?'

I said, 'well you could take a bottle and spin it everytime you come to a fork, and go whichever way it points, until you feel like you've gotten very lost.'

So today he borrowed a plastic soda bottle and said 'I'm heading out for a long while, I'm going to try and get lost.'

after lunch I arrived back at work and heard 'hey dad!!!' and my son was about 50 yards away, up in an odd place on top of a hill.
I was proud...
for ten seconds... when he yelled so everyone around could hear him.


'I'm doing what you said to do!!! I'm gettin' LOST!'

this happened five minutes ago.

4th

(this pic is what steel wool looks like when it's on fire and you spin it... my son had a BLAST doing this... don't attempt in places lacking tropical rains.. it's not a fire hazard here there's too much water)

well it was raining all day... and we were concerned because we had plans.
Some friends of ours host the annual 4th of July party.... we were really looking forward to it. All of the Americans (and any other nationality are invited) come together to potluck and socialize and then when it gets dark, come up with any and all fireworks we can.

Calvin and I had tested out a few ideas to launch our air rockets (made out of paper).

if it rained, no one would go outside for the fireworks...

but, the party was starting over at the WA centre at 5pm and the rain stopped, and the ground was dry enough.

We grilled burgers and after a bit my son and I began launching the rockets we had made out of paper and duct tape, which went well over 100 feet up.
The kids were really excited by it, the high schoolers, even the adults... everyone was rather impressed by our rocket invention we had made out of pvc, a sprinkler valve, and an air pump.

Eventually the sun started to set.
1 rocket landed on the roof, and the other 2 eventually blew to smithereens (65psi AIR launcher can do that to paper) We only got about 6 successful launches with the rockets.

SO... then we started launching glow sticks. Those big thick ones.

We wadded the rocket tube with styrofoam, and then dropped the glow stick down in,

By this time the crowd was cheering '3 .. 2...1...FIRE!!!' and the glow stick went flying up into the air aboud 70 feet or so, spinning as it went.

Then, they started up the fire pit for steel wool.

Kendal and I broke out the glow stick bracelets for the younger kids who didn't get to play with steel wool. It is our way of playing Aunt and Uncle when we can't be around our true nieces and nephews. It gives us that feeling of family we miss. Soon the whole place was swarming with around 50 glowing kids running around outside on the 4th of July... like it should be.

Families here for the first time, away from home, got to see how we do the 4th of July here in PNG, and they were amazed. They didn't know you could do that with steel wool, or how close a community this could be. The 4th for us is bigger than it would be back in the U.S. because it's the one chance a year we get to celebrate loudly, being from the U.S.A.

The steel wool looked SO cool.
But that wasn't all.
a friend nudged me, pulled out a few packets of pen flares... and we went over and started firing them 2 , 3 ,4 at a time.. big RED glowing flares with smoke trails launching into the air in arcs and making big BANGS! when being fired. Nothing is more exciting then the smell of black powder and a ringing in your ears!!!

We sang the national anthem, we ate red, white and blue cupcakes. And since it was an American get together we invited people from all nations.

It was a lot of fun... a LOT of fun.

God created man with the need to celebrate.... in fact early on in the Bible HE commands us to celebrate and makes laws about feasts and celebrations.

It felt really good to be able to be a part of it, and launch our rockets, and share our glow sticks... which over here you can imagine are really appreciated since they are really hard to come by.

Calvin got to fire a pen flare, and spin steel wool for the first time.
Sydney got to run around with a sparkler.
I think it was Calvin's best 4th EVER... because of that.

Our family has been reading through the Bible and recently we were in Exodus where God lines out the importance of a day of rest, and the importance of certain celebration feasts. I think from time to time, we work so hard we forget that our soul has a mandated need for celebration and rest.

Celebrating together. Looking around at all the young kids, and the young parents, here for the first time, thinking 'wow... here I am in PNG, forgetting my homesickness for a moment, appreciating a wonderful part of the culture of living here, making new friends and neighbors, feeling part of a community with one common purpose... to see the Word of God, change lives.'

That's the kind of moment that fuels people to keep on... keeping on.

Overheard Conversation

my daughter comes running into the house shouting 'CAlvin, Calvin come quick!!!'
my son is barely waking up, sitting in bed.... and if you have a boy you realize this is not a 'come quick' situation.

He lies there, 'What?'
daughter: 'come quick you gotta come catch this huge grasshopper.'
son: 'huge?'
daughter: 'big enough to eat!'
my son gets up and runs outside on the way he says, 'wait? did you make this out of beads?'
daughter: 'nope! you can really eat it!'

and then they went outside.

Seeing change

I try to keep this blog an even balance of 'life as a missionary in PNG' and 'seeing God's Word change lives.'

This post is one is both. (-;

I can't share the names or the long drawn out story, but here is my personal synopsis.

God chose and sent a policeman from the U.S. here to handle security issues. He has been developing relationships with people and one of the men he developed a relationship with recently came forward and said that his faith in God didn't allow him to ignore the crimes against the missionaries any longer.

A nearby village had for a while, been treating us like their own personal piggy bank. Stealing property whenever they had a financial need or a whim.

So this individual came forward and started secretly being an informant. VERY quickly through these relationships, crime against us came to a stop.

Soon his village found out he was a 'traitor' and excised him, beat him, cut him, kidnapped his children, and essentially ruined his life in every way.

But the man turned to God and forgave the people. He was given 2 opportunities, to demand financial compensation or to send them to jail, and he passed on both, opting to forgive, stating that God gave him the power to forgive them.

He was no longer effective as an informant, but God wanted to use him for something else.
Forgiveness.
From that reaction, a snowball began.

Easter morning, people began coming forward, confessing sins, crimes, and repenting.

We haven't had this long of a peace time here in years.
This weekend is a public 'tok sori' where the repentant men will come forward and make amends with those they stole from.

We don't talk much about security issues here. We find it worries people back home, and it is something that is part of life for us. But this is a new twist.

The longer version exposes the cultural intricacies and would make for very long reading, suffice it to say, that God took a man and used his faith and his heart to bring about change in the valley.

It is VERY rare for what happened to happen because of the cultural boundaries... but God blasted through them in a remarkable never-before-seen way.

He tends to do that.
This opportunity would have never happened if this man, this papua new guinean man, hadn't come into a relationship with Christ.

Fun product

from time to time we find a fun product description that is humorous to read because of the poor English translation.

this is from a Bible translator friend of mine:

"why the work of Translation consultants is so important...."

I recently bought a flashlight to take to the village.

The following model really intrigued me: "Hand-pressing Flash Light, NO BATTERIES NO BULB, simply shake to recharge."

After buying this promising thing, I read the product information on the box. It literally reads (and I'm not making this up!):


"Product Charcteristics:

1. This product is a new science and technology product and made with high and new science and technology. It can illuminate only placing it in rhythm.

2. No need any power no environmental pollution. Low noise and health. Comparing with common torch. it can be several times on lift.

3. Con stantly using this health torch. It can benefit to your palm. arm and shoulder stretching and blood circulation. so as to let your hands relax and brain clever. hand and brain coor dinate and promote your brain memory and health composition."


The sad thing about it is that that writer's English is certainly better than my Chinese.

Paratext Workshop

Paratext is a software that we use in translation work. It does all kinds of formatting and such. To truly know what we use it for you'd need to ask a translator.

These last 2 weeks our centre held a paratext training workshop.
4 weeks ago we were asked 'how can you guys help us with this?'.

We were faced with how to help the translators train future translators and current with this software, but having no man power to do it with. This time of year, we are very short on man power as people leave for furlough or finish, or vacation.

Well we did four things
1 - helped supply them with 60 netbooks so they had a platform to do the training on.
2 - setup a wireless network so they could access the internet for licensing
3 - thought up a creative way to help with little manpower and had 2 guys doing a lot of extra work, but doing it creatively
4 - prayed that God would provide the other needs they had.

God certainly did. They put out a 'help wanted' request for anyone with computer skills and they had 38 students with 20 helpers!!! That's awesome!

We're here to help with our computer skills. My department has an all time high of 8-10 people with computer skills. But, over the past 3 years, computer skilled people have been leaving the centre.

The high school lost 1,
the primary school lost 1
the translation department lost 3

which means the demands on people who have computer skills have gone up because the people have gone down. AND the use of technology has only increased in translating the Bible.
More and more people have more and more computer needs with less of us to meet them.

Which means we have a lot of work, and have to prioritize it properly.

Which means we have to say 'no' to a lot of things we'd prefer to say 'yes' to.

Which means there are needs not being met.

So to have this workshop something we had to say 'we can't help as much as we'd like to' to... a creative solution was to pray and send out that 'help wanted'... and people came.

God is good. We can't afford to think inside of the box, God's resources are endless.

I was so glad this workshop went well. Today is the last day.
I am sad that I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked to... but that's only because I enjoy training and learning!!

Please pray for more computer help.
I hear that next week we're getting a new programmer, and his name is Chad.
So there will be two Chad's working here in computers.

I'm hopeful he's a small guy, so I can get the nickname 'Big Chad'. (-;

50 Kina

In the U.S. if you ask someone if they will lend you money, it's often a statement about your relationship in some way. You wouldn't ask a total stranger, and you wouldn't ask someone you disliked. It is the same way in PNG. But there is also a part of the culture here that diverges from culture in the U.S. which is called the 'askim'. It means pretty much what it sounds like. An ASKIM is when you request a favor. An askim can be a small favor or a big favor. However unlike U.S. culture, there is little to no shame associated with an askim.
For example. In the U.S. if you go to a buddy and say 'hey I'm a little strapped for cash right now, can I borrow 50 bucks until payday?' You most likely feel a tiny bit of shame in admitting your need. Perhaps you ask for something bigger or smaller. Still there is a sense of shame and then a sense of debt.

I'm not saying whether or not the shame is right or wrong. I've noticed that this area of borrowing and lending seems to be one where cultures diverge quite often. I've had a few friends from the phillipines who have completely different views on borrowing and lending and if you're not expecting it, the differences in cultures can cause a huge clash.
Well, yesterday a knock came at my door and a man whom I know but would not call 'friend' necessarily asked, with no small talk, simply 'can I borrow 50 kina.' and then 'I'll pay you back on payday.'

It was the first time I was ever asked to borrow money. I've had other askims, some I've said yes to, some no. Often being white we're seen as rich, and so there is no shame in asking us for money and also no shame in not repaying the debt. So you need to be careful and wise.
It took me by suprise. I had no thought this person knew me well enough to ask me for such a large sum of money. I was flattered in a way that our relationship was at this point, but also slightly doubting that maybe I was being used. Quickly I reached for whatever wisdom I had and said 'let me go see if I have any cash.'. I went to my office to think, utter a quick word of prayer for wisdom and put the K50 in my pocket.
Then I returned.

I thought - if he were a white skin friend, I would not hesitate to lend the money. Does this make me a racist? No... their culture is different, I may not see this money back. If I lend it, I need to be prepared to not see it return. But what should I say to this man? If this is a relationship building moment, how should I respond? A flat no would communicate to him that I am not interested in friendship.

I went back outside to speak to him again.
'What is this for?' I asked.
He responded in Tok Pisin, his eyes glanced down, and didn't make contact with mine. A typical symptom of shame.
'My brother has beaten a women from a different village and now they are demanding compensation and he has come to me for help.' he replied.

Suddenly this entire transaction became a lot more sticky. Now what do I do? In lending him the money am I condoning this type of behavior? By not lending the money, if they can't come up with the compensation funds, there will be a fight that could lead to death.
I was thankful for the 4 years of living here thus far that gave me the cultural inside I've had, but I've heard missionaries say that after 20 years of living here you still don't understand all the complexities.

In my head was resonating this voice 'you have to earn the right to be heard.' He wasn't going to stand there and listen to a lecture about this from me if I didn't give him the money.
So I pulled out the 50 kina and as he reached for it I held it, his hand touching my hand we made eye contact and I said in tok pisin:
'I will lend you this money, but I do not like this behavior of your brother's. You can't go around beating women. You should not hurt women'.
He replied, "I know it's a bad thing.'

I continued, because in their culture, repetition adds strength to the point,
"This behavior, is very bad, you can't beat women it is a bad thing to do, you must talk to your brother and tell him he can not beat women. You tell him that I say, he can not hurt women any more and he must talk sorry to this woman."
And Andy replied, "I know, you are right, and I will talk very strong to my brother and explain to him that his bad behavior has put me into debt (dinau) with you and many others and I work hard for this money and he can't keep coming to me for this. I am going to talk very angrily with him."

At this point I had realized the situation and was glad I helped Andy. Andy was very upset with his brother. Andy was a good and hard worker, and his brother had done this bad thing and put him into a terrible situation where he HAD to honor his relationship and give his brother money, which meant he was working hard simply to fund his brothers woman beating.
Typically as a policy here, we do not aid or assist men who have beaten women. We don't admit them to our volunteer run clinic, we don't help them, we don't give them rides. IT seems heartless but we have to levy a very strict penalty for men who beat women.

Our policy as an organization is very strict regarding how we react to women beaters.
It's a sad commentary on the culture. There are many wonderful things about it, but the truth of the matter is that when the boys grow up without fathers, without God, they have no moral direction and do whatever they want to do. Thus spreads AIDS and thus spreads a great many sins of man. Living here you understand how important it is in a culture where men are the authority, that those men submit to GOD who is THE authority.
Anyway, so my prayer is that in lending the money, I wasn't condoning or contributing to anything other than peace and a chance to get the message into the right ears.

Fire Training

that's the fire.


that's me in full breathing apparatus next to our fire chief (I'm the bigger guy) ready to go in an fight the fire burning inside


that's me busting a hole in the wall of the burning house we were training in.

that's a blurry me, busting in the door with a sledge hammer.

One of the side-jobs I do besides computers, is volunteer with our fire-team. We train once a month on Saturdays.

WE learned a LOT during this training. Also I think we learned that what I'm best at, is knocking holes in walls and busting down doors.

as you would imagine, being INSIDE a burning building with breathing apparatus and fire gear on.. is HOT.. but that GEAR (donated) really does work. The last fire I fought without gear, I couldn't get close enough to help so I worked the outside more. But we're geared up now to where we can go inside... but training taught us, the only reason we would, is if there was someone inside.

At that point, being big and able to carry people is a bonus. I also learned that without a sledge hammer, these walls are constructed such that by sheer mass and force I can knock a hole in one and get out.

Pray we never have do, but we're thankful that we're more skilled and ready if we did have to.

we did it

SWEET and praise God.

it was a very productive week...
we swapped satellites and ISPs,
and it all got done today... the power stayed on.

Thanks God for keeping the rain off our sensitive digital test equipment, and for getting my co-workers back safe and on time.

hey folks,
we doubled our internet speed today!!! ... and... kept it as the same cost.... AND reduced our latency quite a bit.

BIG WIN TODAY!!!
thanks God.

Too much on Friday

please say a quick prayer for me today.

-I'm alone in the network room, usually we have 3 guys
-I have to handle the backup changeover - tapes (no big deal)
-We had been given a warning a week ago that 1/2 of our power will go out which is fine, since we have double backups.
-I was told yesterday that we will be re-aiming our SAT dish this afternoon (might take a few hours if done right)
-I JUST got the message that the other 1/2 of our power is going out today... which means I have to bring down all of our servers now, which often takes a few hours.
-My daughter graduates 6th grade tonight, so I have all these extra little tasks to do.


In other words, at the checking of my email this morning, I realized I have far too much work to do today than is humanly possible, and the ramifications of that, is that the center may be without internet for the weekend, OR I miss my daughter's graduation.. OR I work the weekend.

If I work the weekend, I will have to cancel on the other things I have volunteered to help with.

SO, please pray.
PRAY that my co-workers return today, and that they have a safe trip and get here early.

There is hope we can pull it all off today if they get here.
I of course won't be missing my daughter's graduation ceremony, but I may not be able to stick around for the celebration which I'd like to be at.

This is how it goes... some things are totally unpredictable and you have to cope.
OFten times when I arrive at work in the morning I find my day plunged into total chaos...

and 99% of those times, it's on a Friday, which is why I always try to be extra energetic and early on Fridays. Don't ask me why it's always Friday.

Time

tomorrow several 'newbies' go on furlough.
You typically are here 2-3 years before your first furlough.

I've been here long enough to have seen new people come, go on furlough and come back.

That blows my mind. Time passes so fast here, possibly due to the lack of season change... that I lose track of who is no longer a 'newbie'.

In fact the guy I keep calling 'the new guy' has been here almost a year now.

GEESH.

Time she flies.

Pray for my co-workers in Madang, they are trying to install a new wireless link.

ALSO for this friday (2 days from now) as we will be repointing our sat dish and hopefully improving our bandwidth!!!

One, Two, TREE

On friday we got to watch both our kids perform in a choir concert. They sang some wonderfully fun songs with a real heart-wrencher at the end. They sang 'We are the future, give us hope, teach us the way, show us Christ.' Of course it was more lyrical at the time. It was a nice moment to be a parent.

On Saturday we got to see Sydney perform her trumpet in a middle school band. WOW this band is good. Much better than some high school bands I've heard. The bands here are simply excellent. They did some fun songs and I never had to take my advil! (-;

On Sunday night a tree fell in our back yard, narrowly missing the house. The windows in the picture is our bedroom window. Had the tree fallen 1 foot more to the right it may have caused the window to break and rain broken glass on my wife's head.

It wasn't windy or raining, the tree wasn't rotten or dying. It was perfectly healthy. Later investigation showed that there were tons of ants around the base. Apparently the wood ants ate away at the root system enough to cause the tree to lose connnection and it fell over because it had no roots connected. It was a great shade tree for our yard, and we're sad to see it go. That's 2 trees fallen in 4 years here. And both times, no damage to any structures, we're so thankful.

So I spent monday (a holiday for us, the Queen's bday) cutting and hauling the tree out.... then the kids and I went to the river.

Where we found our dog loves the water now... he used to hate it. HE had fun with the kids in the Bae' river... it was a good day of hard work and clean fun.

Key to Friday

Broken

If you happen to be reading this and thinking about what job you might one day want to do, here's a tip to help guide you away from the wrong direction.

If you can't emotionally handle a day where everything breaks, then don't become an I.T. person. (-;

Yesterday was one of those days.
Our team were all very tired because we put a lot of effort into this new project, and it finally went public and we were glad.
Today stuff broke.

-email ssl cert expired
-vpn stopped working
-email wasn't getting delivered
-people weren't able to log in from work
-radius server went offline so no one could access the internet
-I had to tell a crying translator her work needed re-doing.

then, quitting time rolled around and I went home.

-my truck broke - a short in the wiring causes the fuel injector fuse to blow repeatedly so I can't start it
-my wife told me the fridge is on the blink

then add to that the normal aches and pains of daily living,
-my wrist is banged up because of some fire training we did on the weekend.
-my son's health is slowly getting better but not as fast as we'd like.

so.. the theme of Tuesday was.... -BROKEN-

Having a day where everything seems to be falling down around you is a typical thing when you work in I.T. no matter where you are. The difference between somewhere else and here, is that when something breaks, like a refrigerator, it takes weeks to get a new one.

Well, I'll tell you my honest reaction at times like these, and they do happen regularly in my line of work....

If I'm energetic, I sink my teeth into the problems and go after them aggressively.

My honest reaction if I'm tired is to get down in the mouth a little, without realizing it.
And then, when I do realize it, I stop, and find a quiet spot and take a few minutes and pray.

Yesterday I prayed, 'God, I'm tired and stuff is breaking. I need to fix them well, and I don't have the energy, please help me in whatever way is right, to do You proud today.'

By the end of the day,
-the SSL cert was put back in place
-vpn was working (no thanks to microsoft it was THEIR patch that broke it)
-email got delivered
-people could log in to work
-the radius server was put back online with a script to refresh it when it dies AND it helped us troubleshoot another problem.
-The translator found someone to help

-my truck is still broken but my mechanic friend is looking at it.
-the fridge turned out to be fine.
-my wrist still hurts but is healing up... telling me it isn't broken.


Being on the field, having a bad attitude, or a depressed attitude, or letting problems get you down, can be a definite advantage to the enemy. Since I honestly view my work as battling the enemy and trying to push the lines of God's forces against the enemy's lines, I see things like getting discouraged as spiritual warfare.

I do not mean that I have to always be upbeat and happy. I allow myself to get rest when I'm tired. And to talk out problems when they bug me.

But I also am always aware that exhaustion and discouragement are weapons in the enemy's arsenal that I have to have defenses against.


SO, if you're working in I.T. and you have a day where everything breaks, think 2 things:
1 - this is great job security for you!! (-;
2 - every day you find a solution, is preceded by a day where you're given a problem. So if today you found a problem, tomorrow, may be the day you find the solution!

Why it takes a Team

I've been asked 'why is support staff required, why can't the translator do all the work?'

Here's a good example why:

Currently the guys who really know the software well for Bible translation are gone and so this morning we had a translator who had a problem and I got the call.

I went over to help them.
They had spent three days and three nights working on a booklet in two different languages and were unable to print it.

So I installed printer drivers and got the printers working.

She was very emotional and obviously exhausted and at her wits end and it was difficult for me to get an answer from her regarding certain things. She kept repeating 'I don't know'.

Typically before she got to that point, a member of the team who knows the software would have helped her.

I was unable to because I simply didn't know all the required formatting, the page size, the fonts for her language, etc... for making a booklet. I could have gotten her stuff successfully on paper, but not into the booklet form she wanted.

It turns out, the harsh reality of the fact was that all her time and effort formatting and including pictures, was wasted, because she didn't start out with the proper template, and therefore everything was on A5 paper instead of the smaller booklet size.

She would have to reformat it all, twice.

It was a sad moment for me. Not unlike when I used to have to tell students in college that they accidentally deleted their term paper.

There are times when I get to be the hero, and there are times when I have to be the bearer of bad news.

The bad news was that were a vital team member present then they could have told her how to do it right from the beginning. Instead she plugged along with her best guess and spent days doing the wrong thing.

So, can a translator do it all on their own?
You tell me. Having the proper support would have saved her days of wasted work and hours of emotional anguish. It would have brought the pamphlet to print much faster, and enabled her to do work where her strengths lie, instead of spinning wheels in areas where she is weaker.

Support staff is the coming together of the body with their different talents and giftings to help others who need it.

My job is to enable her, and today I had to help and watch as she realized that there was a gap between what I knew and what she knew, and there was no one around to fill the gap.

It was a sad moment for both of us, but even sadder for the Nankina and Ngain people who won't be getting a pamphlet in their heart language today.

They will eventually get it, but it will be late.

This scenario is also a good example of how sometimes, two people can't fill the shoes of 1 person with very specific knowledge. This is why we are constantly praying for God to be moving more people to come here. We need people to fill the holes that are left when people leave.

From the Keepers File

It is easy to forget 'thanks'. That's why I have a 'keepers' file. This is a folder where all emailed 'thanks' that come to me or my department get filed away. Another thing hard to remember because we do so much in a year, is to recall at the end of a year what we have accomplished.

The reason I want to keep the thanks, and the accomplishments is so that I can effectively communicate them to YOU, the people who enable us to be here.

This month I was able to volunteer some time each day at the TTC training course. I met several Papua New Guineans learning how to translate and use the Scripture in their heart language. It was refreshing to work with people at this level because often times behind a monitor you can feel detached from the actual translation effort even though your work does support it.

Anyway this morning I got a thank you for helping at TTC and I pass the thank you on to you, this was from the 'boss' the coordinator of the TTC

Thanks so much for your help during TTC – it has been SO much appreciated. Can’t really say it enough. For me this has been the best TTC I have been part of, and having you around has been a key part of this. Last year I was not able to do my job because I was constantly helping people try to solve network problems, or worrying about people’s network problems, or trying to contact CTS. Just knowing that you were there, that you were coming at a set time, that you were available was such a huge psychological burden removed and I could actually concentrate on doing things I am supposed to do – like checking how the teachers were doing and any help they needed with the content of their courses.

So, thanks very much!!!

so thanks to you. This is the difference between support and no support. Sure this man could have done the class without us. I'm sure with a lot of effort he could have gotten things to print and found a way around requiring a network.

But thank you so much that he didn't have to!!!

communication

tonight at midnight we're rolling out a huge change to our network which should enable much more simplicity and functionality. It requires a large change of thinking for the people who live here and we have labored over how to best communicate that.

We have begun a series of open houses, in which we give the same presentation repeatedly at the top of the hour.

It's something new, and it has in fact been really well received.

The sacrifice is that in order to be available, we have to do this after hours.

So most of the computer staff here have been donating their nights this week to train the community on this 'new' way of doing internet access.

Pray that it goes well. It is one of the most ambitious projects to date, that we have tried, and we want the first impressions of it to be good, as it hopefully will be very reliable going forward and be a massive improvement for the community.

ABC....

Translation Update

Seija M[...edit/...], together with her 6 translators, finished the gospel of
Luke today. They still need to work on checking it, but the milestone of
getting the first bigger book in pretty good condition was reached.

Why is Internet so Expensive in PNG

I get this question a lot.
'why is internet connection so expensive in PNG'

The good news is that it's all getting better. The bad news is that it should already have been better.

Here is a really good summary article containing far much more than you ever wanted to know about it... but the summary is... this is GOOD for us!



Internet Growth in PNG Going From Stagnant to Very Exciting
Article by: Charlie Gilichibi, Team Leader IT & Special Projects Coordinator
Bandwidth Capacity Major Stages of Internet Gateway Development in PNG
16 Megabits per second APNG-1 (October 1967) on copper wire intended for telephone communications
560 Megabits per second APNG-2: (October 2006) on optic fibre for telephone and internet communication
10,500 Megabits per second APNG-2 + PIPE (September 2009) and National Broadband Network (work in progress to be completed in 2015) on optic fibre and power lines
Internet Price Comparisions
Internet Service Provider Prepaid Cost / MB Postpaid Cost / MB Cost of Setup or Dongle Purchase Coverage Centers
Daltron 40 toea 56 to 20 toea K400
Data Nets 40 toea 40 to 25 toea 30 centers
Datec 60 to 66 toea 60 to 20 toea
Digicel GSM 33 toea peak hours
25 toea off peak 22 toea peak hours
16 toea off peak hours K99 Port Moresby, Lae, Hagen and Kokopo
Global Internet 61 to 23 toea 61 to 23 toea
Hitron 20 toea K750 – K5920
Telinet CDMA 29 toea 40 to 16 toea

Why is internet expensive in PNG?

It is easy to point fingers at ISPs and blame them for un-affordability of the internet. Then again those pointing the fingers from the business and social space and the civil society at large can’t be blamed for their ignorance on why internet prices are so high compared to the rest of the world.

The basic economic principle of demand and supply is the immediate phenomenon that drives up cost of living including the cost of internet services. In the grand scheme of things and at its most fundamental, it is the lack of visionary leadership at the national and sub-national levels, so not to single out anyone as the problem is an inherited one as well as on-going the reasons are best left to your imagination.

When the internet took its first baby steps in the 1980s and the world was watching and nurturing it, when it developed to be a teenager in the 1990s and went rebellious with the parent world always counselling and guiding it and doing everything right in terms of national policy development and investment in a child in the PNG context that would later provide a welfare net for the parents in old age, leadership in PNG was too bothered in power plays then worried about what would become of the future.

Going back to demand and supply as the invisible hand that sets market prices, Sundar Ramamurthy CEO of Data Nets during an Emerging Technologies Seminar on Tuesday 10th of April 2011 said whilst the current capacity shared amongst the ISPs in PNG for internet services is 265 Megabits per second (Mbps), the overall demand is at 285 Mbps far outstripping supply.

PNG Internet Bandwidth Analysis

Current capacity between PNG and the rest of the world shared by ISPs is 265Mbps
Current total demand in Papua New Guinea is 285Mbps
Internet gateway undersupply by 20Mbps

PIPE Capacity into Madang is estimated to deliver extra capacity of 10,000Mbps
PNG’s Total Capacity once PIPE cable (via Madang) comes online is 10,500 Mbps

Source: Sundar Ramamurthy, Emerging Technologies Seminar 10.05.2011, Crowne Plaza

PNG’s National Broadband Network (NBN)

Once the National Broadband Network, currently work in progress is completed and links the PIPE optic fibre cable in Madang (from Guam) to the rest of PNG we can expect the power of the internet to be let loose running wild in the country just like how the nation experienced the explosion of mobile phone sector around 2006 and 2007.

Whilst the government will reserve some chunk of the 10,000 Mbps capacity for other projects of national significance even half of this capacity when divided and rented to each ISP would leave each of them with at least a whopping 265Mbps equivalent to the total capacity currently shared by all the ISPs. Benefits from this development would include:
• streaming of audio and video data (multimedia) that is of telephone quality at around 8Mbps
• CD quality audio compressed in MP3 format at 192 Kbps
• HDTV at 27Mbps – for instance distribution of EMTV via the internet
• Rest of the benefits aside, internet affordability for the masses. ISPs would initially throw in all differentiation gimmicks by packaging internet plans and selling them to existing customers. When they realise they are too big for the markets in the urban centers or when they have developed the winning business strategies to go hunting in the country side they will but eventually take the plunge. As Sundar Ramamurthy said, Papua New Guineans are our own worst enemies. We discount the majority as illiterate and ignore their will for the want of progress and when mobile competition arrived with handsets flooding even to those areas considered as the most disadvantaged by lack of access to reasonable education, the country was awestruck by the rapid proliferation of mobile devices even those with the best educated pessimism that the high illiteracy rate is an obstacle.

APNG1 & APNG2

Until recently (in early 2000s), connectivity to the rest of the world was via the 897Km long Australia-PNG (APNG) cable, a copper coaxial analogue telephone cable laid between Cairns and Port Moresby in 1967, and by Intelsat Earth stations at Port Moresby and Lae.

Telikom retired the legacy APNG (APNG-1) coaxial copper cable of 16 Mbit/s in 2006 replacing it with the 1800Km APNG-2 optic fibre cable that used to link Sydney to Guam redeploying it between Sydney and Port Moresby at an estimated cost of US$11 million. This was a wise decision by Telikom because a new 2nd generation optic fibre cable would cost an estimated US$60 million. Why the advanced countries were selling off these cables was because they have surplus 2nd generation optic fibre cable capacity to cater for their growing market demands for internet and voice communications.
The APNG2 cable has a capacity of 560 Megabits/second (Mbps). While 560 Mbps this is a lot of internet capacity compared to the 16Megabits/second prior to 2006 it still wasn’t enough as only roughly 270Mbps is shared amongst the ISPs for internet purposes whilst the rest is used by Telikom for voice communication purposes as that required a lot of capacity for the voice clarity required in telephone conversations. Not withstanding, while the rest of the world moved on to higher capacity cabling between 1980 and 1995 noting the demand placed on these cables, no longer for growth of voice demand alone but the rapid proliferation of the internet stripping constrained capacity from these telephone cables. This resulted in the 16Mbps capacity of APNG-1 between Cairns and Port Moresby originally intended for telephone communications stripping telephone communications capacity to be shared with internet communications in the 1990s.

This explains why when the internet first hit PNG in dribs and drabs in the early 1990s, cost was way out of reach even for small to medium enterprises and the word “internet” and its wonder world of benefits was only a word shared by the technology savy in the offices, streets and homes around the country.

The APNG-2 optic fibre cable has a serviceable life of 15 years since its commissioning in October 2006 and will be retired in or around 2021. That’s only 10 years away so where to from here?
Source: http://soft-brain.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html



It’s in the PIPE-line from Madang

The PIPE optic fibre cable gateway in Madang was commissioned for service in September of 2009 and like the split segment of this cable that was re-aligned linking Sydney to Port Moresby it also has a serviceable lifespan of 15 years.

It was reported in The National and Post Courier of 20.05.2011 that the Governor for Southern Highlands, Anderson Agiru and Peter Graham the Country Manager for ExxonMobil signed off on the construction of the 750km segment of the National Broadband Network Project that will link Port Moresby to Tari and Mendi at a cost of US$70 (K169.5) million. It was also reported that it will take 4 years to link up rest of Papua New Guinea from the date of project implementation sign off (19.05.2011) to the PIPE gateway in Madang. This means critical mass utilisation of the PIPE’s 10,000 Mbps will start around 2015. In that time PNG taxpayers will have accrued a loss in value utilisation of US$24 million (6 years of idle time divided by 15 year lifespan times US$60 million investment in PIPE) let alone the opportunity cost in the 6 years the PIPE Gateway from Madang will have been lying idle since it was commissioned in 2009.

The murky-side of communications development in PNG aside, we can expect and anticipate greater reduction of internet costs where it will eventually become more afforadable for the masses. This will be a result of fierce competition in the ISP sector and pleasing to note this competition process has already started. ISPs are now consolidating and preparing their battle plans for when the National Broadband Network will be unleashed. A good ISP will triumph by adapting to the times and taking advantage of opportunities as they come. A great ISP anticipates openings others don't see and creates possibilities that were not there before for their immediate survival, long-term growth.

Where to from here for Papua New Guinea after the serviceable life of the 1st generation optic fibre cables connecting us to the rest of the world reach end of life?

The answer is no one knows as there is no specific national policy or plan(s) for life after APNG-2 and PIPE optic fibre gateways connecting PNG to the rest of the world.

Generating confidence through the media and other means for the National Broadband Network may be crucial to creating demand and supply in anticipation of broadband services in PNG but so is candor.

References
Pacific Connectivity - HighLevel Consultation-18May07
Chapter 2 – Technical Viability
http://www.unescap.org/LDCCU/Meetings/PacificConnectivity-HighLevelConsultation-18May07-Almaty/VersionFromAlmaty-June07/2_Technical.pdf

Re-use and Re-routing of Retiring Cables (check the website where this article was downloaded)
Jamie Merrett, Remy Laude
http://suboptic.org/App/Uploads/Files/We1.09.pdf

PIPE Pacific Cable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_Pacific_Cable

Madang Landing Station
http://www.pipeinternational.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&task=tag&category=Landing+Station+Madang&Itemid=53

PTC09 Submarine Cable
http://manymedia.com/2009/01/ptc09-submarine-cable/

Telikom starts fibre optic plans
http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID
=23375/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl

APNG2 – Cable System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG-2_(cable_system)

Environment Warrior of Madang and Information Access a David & Goliath Story
http://heatheryoungleslie.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/enviro-warriors-of-madang-and-info-access-a-david-and-goliath-story/

Fibre Optic Network Test Run Lae to Madang on PNG Powers Infrastructure
http://pngengineering.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:fibre-optic-network-test-run-lae-to-madang-on-png-powers-infrastructure&catid=39:communication&Itemid=53

Telikom PNG's View of PPC-1: Madang-Guam (10Gbps)
http://soft-brain.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Digicel launches mobile 3G Broadband
Monday 9th May 2011
www.postcourier.com.pg

US Government Oks PIPEs Submarine Cable to Land in Guam
http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/networking/20669-us-govt-oks-pipes-submarine-cable-to-land-in-guam

Confessions of a single dad part II finale

well I got word today that my wife and son will be returning tomorrow!!! So we'll all be in the same country again! So this is the last installment of confessions....

Day 6 Sunday - Syd has a fever and chills so going to church is right out. Making this the 6th consecutive day of very little social interaction. I realize my wife is the tie that binds here. On the flip side, we're not producing a lot of laundry. Hmmn... coincidence? Trying to keep my daughter's spirits up, we still have our traditional family movie night, only with leftover pasta as our dinner instead of pizza. She's not that hungry anyway so it's fine. We both were kinda down because we'd been inside all day so we went for a trip around the center and said 'see you later' to some friends. I try to be extra goofy for her to cheer her up, and it's not hard to cheer her, she's a pretty optimistic kid.

Day 7 Monday - a lot of work to do, and Syd is feeling better so she's off to school. I come home dead tired and a friend delivers a home made dinner to us. WHAT a cool place this is to live! When the chips are down, the community pulls together. Syd and I have a quiet meal because the food was so good, and as she says 'this is funny we're quiet except to say 'mmm this is good'. ' Ever since a toddler she's always known how to cheer me up... a well timed hug, a good joke. Together we're doing okay without mom and calvin around. But the place is a bit empty without them.

Day 8 Tuesday - another long day of work, some GREAT things have happened. I have now gotten to the point where I can handle what comes at me, and fill in the gaps, but realize that not only is my wife an incredible woman and help to this family, but that single parents are probably always tired. It takes a lot of energy to be do all the things needing done, and still be emotionally available for your children. My daughter wanted to play with me every moment she could, which was exhausting but in the long run good for our relationship. I get the great news that my wife and son are returning tomorrow!!!! I'm excited for that.

Two weeks ago I prayed that God would give me the time to spend some alone time with my daughter to help build the relationship. Well we've had that.

1 week ago you all prayed that my son would get to the hospital safely. He did.
5 days ago you all prayed that he'd be disharged from the hospital, and he was.
Last night you all prayed that they'd come home tomorrow, and they are.
Tonight please pray for their safe travels.

Praise God and thank you.

Confessions of a Single Dad part 1

Day 1 - Weds. People offered to invited us to dinner, but work is really busy and I have to figure out how to work late hours and still provide the emotional support for my daughter if we're going to make this June deadline. On top of that I've donated mornings to this training course. It's funny how this month was supposed to be about this new project roll out and TTC training, and now it's about surviving a medivac. Life changes quickly.

Last night Sydney and I made tacos. It was an easy meal, if you don't have to make sour cream. It was simple and nice, and we had left overs for dinner the next night. Tons of leftovers in the fridge. Sydney has music practice so that takes me to 4pm, work ends at 5pm and a friend volunteers to watch her until I get off work.

Day 2 - Thurs - yesterday wasn't so hard! I think I can handle this, especially since we've been invited to dinner tonight. "Hey Daddy, did you know that tomorrow there is no school all day!!! We can play!" I'm thinking.... how am I going to get someone to watch her, because I have to go to work. I'm sure they'd understand if I didn't, but the pressure is on, and I need to make progress. Still, my little girl might be needing extra hugs during this time of family separation. Ouch my back still hurts.

Well I found someone to watch her, but then she came down with a fever and she's cold and headachy. Must be this virus. So I cancel the afternoon plans...

I come home later and find my home alarm is sounding and my dog has jumped the fence. That is odd.

The day feels overall, sort of OFF... like nothing goes to plan. But, I didn't need to make dinner and the rest of the night goes well.

Day 3 - Friday - Sydney packs her own lunch, makes her own breakfast and heads off to school with her backpack and trumpet. Her fever is gone, and today looks to be productive. Dinner tonight is already covered, but I have to find time to go to the store, because we committed to seeing some friends off with a meal, and I will prepare some pasta tomorrow. 1pm the phone rings, Sydney's lunch was 'rotten' and she wanted me to bring her a new lunch... okay so now I pack a new lunch, and find time to get to the store. At the store, I can't find a can of mushrooms. I don't know if they're not there or if I can't find them. I ask a friend, they're not where they usually are. I find that our house is well stocked enough that I really don't need much of anything to host this meal. That's good!

Day 4 - Saturday - I wake up deciding today will be a sydney and dad day, we'll go to the river, make bread rolls, make dessert, cook dinner, play games. So I start by cooking up the leftover potatoes for country fries, and make an omelette with tomatoes, olives and avocado.. all produce I didn't want to go bad. And after cooking all this up Sydney looks at me and says 'Dad i think I'm going to throw up...' she hadn't even tasted it yet!!! She says 'but I'm happy you made breakfast.' Her fever is back. I tell her had I known she was feeling that sick, I would have made us some simple toast. So half my elaborate breakfast goes to waste.

Now she's on the couch resting, and I'm punching buttons figuring out how to work various kitchen appliances and meeting with relative success. I do not know how my wife stays in the kitchen all day on saturdays making cookies and whatnot, but I find it makes my back hurt.

My wife is an amazing woman, and very helpful to the community. I feel tad guilty that the community is lavishing love and care on us in her absence, almost like I'm collecting on her good will. But as of now, we have meals arranged for us for almost every day next week.

Which is awesome, but it means that the only time in the kitchen for me and sydney to share, is today and tomorrow. So we'll make the best of it.

Medivac

the word has already gone out about my son's medivac. A virus brought on an exacerbation of his asthma which required we fly him to a hospital. So my wife and son flew to a different country leaving me and my daughter in PNG.

PRAISE GOD, Calvin is out of the hospital now, exactly as we prayed he would be. Thanks to those who prayed!!! Praise to GOD!! We knew God would do something incredible for Calvin and getting him out of that hospital when so many were praying, helped show our son the power of prayer.

Now that things have calmed for a bit, Kendal and Calvin have another week or so in Australia to do follow up checks, etc.

I thought some of you might get a chuckle out of a few blogs on what it's like for me to be a single dad of 1 parent in PNG, given that I now have to tackle a lot of things my wife does... and if I cut down what she does to the absolute bare minimum, I might have a chance.... and so... I bring to you

'confessions of a single dad'. until the family is reunited.

Enormity

I'm sitting here in TTC1 class, observing and helping as computer needs arise.
TTC1 teaches basic English concepts and basic Bible translation and some other things I'm sure I don't understand.

As I look around I see the age of people. Some look over 60, few look under 30 years old.

Which makes me realize the task of bringing the Word of God to this country is enormous.

If it takes 20 years plus, to do a translation, I'm seeing many of these people here learning skills that will take them another 6 years to master. They will be translating while they learn.... but we're talking many many years before seeing fruits.

I admire teachers, knowing they are investing in the future... a computer guy like me demands instant results, if you told me to fix a computer and I wouldn't know if it worked for 20 years... well.... I might not respond well.

But in the midst of feeling this huge and heavy burden for all the work to be done... and the duration that it'll take...

I hear at the table next to me in Tok Ples, then English then Tok Pisin 'What's Grace... ' and they are opening books and talking and working out the concept of grace and pantomiming what they compare it to in their culture....

and I think again, yeah lots of work to do, but it's God's work, and He has a good plan.

Dinner Guests Pics

Dinner Guests

Ituma Tobeen I have no idea how to spell it, but it means 'Good Night' in Nankina.

A while ago some friends of ours asked about the Nankina language project and how it was coming, and my wife remembered that. A few days ago some Papua New Guineans from that area were visiting a some friends that we were visiting and we found out who they were, so we invited them for dinner. Turns out, they leave on a plane tomorrow, so our meeting was timely.

From left to right meet:
Wienare - the Nankina language project leader
Tomas - a friend from the Ngaing language
Hubert - a mentor from Ngaing language who helps with Nankina.
Barbara - an Australian translator who is the ex-pat mentor for Ngaing and a friend to the Nankina group

Not knowing the history myself it turns out this was a very interesting night.

Several years ago, the Spaldings, a couple from my wife's home church worked on a translation for the Nankina people. After they left, the project went untended for a while, until Wienare got the fire to pick it back up.

Wienare is one of those guys who is really on fire for the work God has for his people.
We asked him about his people group.

3000 people - that's a large language group
His home village - Guarawon has 1200 people in it.
He has started literacy training, Bible translation, schooling, their village even has a medical centre.

The short version of his story is that he worked with the Spaldings, and attended TTC. the SAME training course I'm volunteering at right now. He learned English and how to translate and took that fire and went back to his village.

And from there, they've progressed to finishing Mark and have much of Genesis done, as well as literacy training curriculum and worship songs in their tok ples.

Ahvy - that means 'thank you very much' in their language.

One story they told was how in their village there was a cruel murdering man, who came to hear the Word of God in his own language. He had read in Tok Pisin, and heard in English the same things, but it didn't register. After he heard for the first time in his language, the fire of God went into his stomach, and he changed, and is now following God and leading the community.

It is one of many miracles God's Word has performed when people hear it in their own language.

Wienare has a lot of work ahead of him. This is a sort of stray language group that doesn't have an ex-pat translator assigned, but God put the fire and the ability in a national man, and the task is huge for him, and his wife and 5 children.... but he is excited and able.

I asked him what the needs were, and how we can pray.
He paused because the list of needs was very long, and gave us the short version

-the house they have is finally a semi-permanent house, but there is not enough room for translators to work inside and there is need for more room for literacy workshops.

-they have need of a water system, right now they go out to a rain barrel to get water

-they have need of another solar panel

-they need more workers, for the literacy work to take hold.


On top of all that, I learned many new things about Barbara as well. It took her ten years to get to Papua New Guinea. 10!!

So many people get discouraged after 2 or 3. But she kept going on... and we're thankful because she is a powerhouse of translation work. Not only does she lead her Ngaing work, but is sort of a helper for the Nankinas as well. And advocate.


The themes of the evening were:
-excitement for the miraculous work God is doing... even without an ex-pat affiliated.
-endurance and determination because the work is long

For us as support workers, it was great to get to spend time with these people, eat a good meal (that my wife prepared), and hear about what they are doing, it helps us connect what we do, to what they do.

I was glad to be able to lend a few words on technical aspects to them as well.

I can tell, only a week into it, that this month is going to be one to remember. God is showing us some neat stuff as far as directly working with translation.

Did you know that the homework assignment for TTC2 course is to translate huge parts of Genesis, and that students can't return for the third course until they've completed it!

This course is one of the kinds that gets things done.. actual translation is happening into tok ples!

God ... He will do this work without us, we are privileged to be along for the ride.

Pray for Wienare and the Nankina and their needs.

Defining Urgent

Today two people came to ask me to get their email working.
I'm volunteering this month down at the training course where about 70 Papua New Guineans are learning anything from English to how to translate original Hebrew Scripture.

One person was an ex-pat who said 'I need my email working down here'. And she meant today, quickly, now please!! She was polite, but the urgency was there, knowing full well it works at home, but being as how this training facility is new, and it takes months to order network equipmenet like cables, and media converters and surge surpressors, we're only now bringing up the wireless for this building that 2 days ago didn't have power. Anyway, for them it was urgent.

Then I had a Papua New Guinean man ask me 'Chad can you make my email work?"
and I said 'yes, when did you last check it?'... assuming I'd hear 'yesterday at noon'.

He said 'hmmn.... well.. I haven't checked it last month.'

I didn't laugh, but inside it reminded me of the cultural definition of URGENT.

Tonight we have invited two new acquaintances to dinner, they are working in the Nankani language and we have friends back home who are interested in an update from them. We invited them for dinner at 6pm.

We are curious as to a few things:
1 - when will they arrive
2 - how many will there be
3 - do they anticipate talking all night or will they leave early?

With people of your same culture you often know what to expect. In the U.S. if you say 'we eat at 6' you expect people to show up 15 minutes prior or so... then pick up on social cues to go home .. ie.. a yawn.. etc.

With PNG you never know. You have no idea what's going to happen at any given exchange. It makes it exciting, but you have to be willing to put aside convention and invest in the relationship... so if you get wrapped up in 'I have to do this.. and this.. and this... " agenda thinking, you'll end up having a horrible experience.

As such my wife is preparing a meal that can stay warm for a while if they come late, and making more than enough should they bring friends.

It will be a good night I'm sure.

Mothers day

for some mother's day is about appreciating your mom, treating her with kindness.

for others, it's about getting extra opportunities to exercise motherly grace.

Today one of my children, whom shall remain nameless broke the microwave plate.

These things cost $40 bucks to replace, and will take about a month to arrive.

The microwave, even in PNG is an essential bit of life for us because the kids aren't allowed to use the gas stove on their own to heat their own lunches, and it's also much quicker.

Repair DAD to the rescue.
Superglue didn't hold it, but... I did bring 2 rolls of the 'good stuff' duct tape. You can not get good tape in country, it doesn't hold. MAsking tape, duct tape, both are rubbish here. Maybe scotch tape is okay.

SO, for those who would like to know...

cooking duct tape in a microwave appears to have no negative... no negative no negative.. no negative...no negative...no negative... side effects whatsoever.

(-;

seriously though, it didn't burn, nor give off any smellable gas, nor even heat up that much.

So I suppose, a duct tape microwave plate will keep us in reheated happiness until I can get one re-ordered from the states or find one in a leftover microwave around here.

Happy Mother's Day....

this year for Father's Day I'm hoping my kids break something I can fix with a swiss army knife and a paper clip. (-;

Power Choice

this morning for the training course, I was migrating their file server, something I announced in advanced and planned for 9am.

I was in the middle of the project, ant at 8:59am someone ran in and said 'we're teaching a course and the projection won't work, can you come help?'

I had to choose between the urgent and the priority.... and decided to go help with the projection.

Well it didn't take long before I realized the projector was plugged into a UPS, and the battery was dead.
why?
because the switch enabling the outlet from the power was off (in PNG/AUS all outlets are called powerpoints and each outlet has a switch to turn on the power right above the outlet itself).

So I flicked the switch, easy fix... what? still no power.

So I went from outlet to outlet, room to room, trying to be invisible since class was still going on and whenever I moved the pngians seemed to track me with their eyes.

I finally found one powerpoint (outlet) with power, and the ups began to charge and they were up in under 3 minutes total.

Then I went back to continue the server migration.

on the way I ran into the building manager and said 'there is no power in there' he replied, 'I know we have an electrician trying to figure out why right now, but he doesn't know'.

....pause...

sorry had to swipe a horse fly out of my hair, it decided to dive bomb me and got stuck.

where was I?

oh the point about power.
No matter how much technology we employ we're still limited by the power.
power here is completely unreliable.
The only reliable power you get is if you run an inverter system of your own and regulate the voltage.

Things that simply plug into outlet, die quickly.
kitchen appliances, get burned out
electronics get surged and fried
monitors catch on fire.

the voltage and the frequency alter minute by minute and so UPS (battery back up) is a think of life here... surge supressors often give their lives up during lightning storms to save more expensive equipment.

If I had to guess I would say there are maybe 1000 surge surpressors on center,
3 dozen lightning arrestors
600 UPS's
300 power regulators
25 inverter systems (AC to DC power with battery backup)

and 2 gigantic generators to power it all when the power goes out.

we are always battling electricity.

Out of my Element,... and loving it.

Yesterday I began my new assignment for this month. I have been loaned to a training course for teaching Papua New Guineans how to translate the Bible. It is a yearly course, and last year there were multiple network errors that caused the instructors many headaches. Typically they have someone with computer skills but this year's course they were short handed so we (my dept) volunteered me for 4 weeks.

There is a growing emphasis on training here. Yesterday I heard a 2 minute speech on how if this course fails, we might as well all go home because there will be no Bible translating going on in the country. I thought that a bit overly dramatic but was encouraged by the passion people have for this course.

Still, I'm not sitting at my normal desk, working on normal projects, and I am excited about this opportunity to work more directly with the process, however it's like your first day at a new job.

I'm still getting my bearings. Trying to figure out how this all works together, what their normal habits are.

I've been for a long time saying we should donate our people to each department for a week so we get an idea of how people actually use their network and computers. So this is my chance!

Today I decided to sit down with some people I didn't know at tea time and tried to talk. I was surprised at how timid I was. I'm not a timid guy, but it dawned on me... right after this moment:

Stephen, a PNG friend said, 'we are so happy you are here, very encouraging. I'm reading a book about Mother Theresa and she said that 'the smallest things done with the biggest love, make the biggest impact.' He then went on to explain to me how everyone teaching at TTC is very encouraged because it shows that they are being taken seriously.

It hit me that my presence here means more than fixing computers, it means that our department supports and is putting people behind the training effort, which is a big stamp of approval for the trainers.

It was after this moment, that I realized why I was timid.

In my office I'm seen as an expert, a good guy to come to. But here I'm amidst some of the top minds in translation and training in the country as well as side by side with the actual men and women working on bringing the Bible to their people.

THIS is where it gets real. This is where I'm amid some very intelligent and passionate people. This is a very direct application of my skills makes a big difference. And so I realize my respect for these people, and I do not fully understand their processes and do not wish to expose my ignorance without also exposing my desire to help them.

So, this month should be interesting, and stretching. I'm looking forward to getting to know the software they use a bit more and how they use their systems a bit more.

Mostly I'm excited at what God has in store for this month, because at the beginning of day 2 I can already see this is going to be a very interesting month. I've heard stories of being getting excited by training and getting addicted to it and leaving their posts for a job in training. I don't see myself going there, but I definitely understand the appeal of passing skills on in a way that teaches men to fish rather than giving them fish.

Hearers