Things that Amuse me

The things that amuse me right now are things that are often uncommon here in Papua New Guinea. Things that stand out from the norm and yet in the states they would be considered "the norm".

New White Socks

The other day I realized I was in need of a new pair of socks. My old ones were loosing their elasticity, they were dyed a brownish-yellow color like most of our clothes, and were wearing down. I pulled out my bag of never been used clothing and found some white socks. They were so soft, so white, and fit! I was so thrilled that I even called my roommate in to admire them. She responded just like me...with excitement. 

 

Brightly Colored Clothing

Clothing in this country fade quickly. They fade and stretch from being dried on a clothes line, from being worn each week and for so long. So when someone puts on a new shirt…especially a white one…we all stop and stare. A new couple came to center a few weeks ago and I found myself staring at them. They asked me what was up and I said, “Oh sorry…I’m not used to seeing bright colors.”

 Paved Walkway

Across the street from my house a building is being renovated. Part of the renovation was to put in a paved walkway. When they first put down the cement I just stood there and looked. We missionaries do a lot of staring and looking. I wanted to touch it! When most of your travel is done on dirt, grass and rocks…pavement is amusing. I laughed to myself and thought what is the point of paved walkways?

 iPad

I was introduced to an iPad this week and it, too, amused me. I would like to preface by stating I have never been a techy kind of girl. I can get around facebook, websites, blogs, and new online grading systems but I have never been up to date on new technology, nor have I had the funds to purchase new gadgets. I remember buying an iPod in 2010 and realized I was WAY behind the time. Honestly though, I am okay with that. Sometimes, and I know Alan would agree with me, new technology is not worth raving about and can even distract us from enjoying one another in person. It still amused me.

Olive Oil

Our store is small and carries what we need. On occasion it has additional things (such as Pringles and Pop Tarts ;) but rarely does it have more than one brand. Today I found three brands of Olive Oil. First of all, might I had, we have not have Olive Oil in the store for a month or so. Now, we have three brands. I didn’t know what to do with so many options!

 Sports Car

The other day during journaling time, one of my second grade students wrote about his dad’s new car that came on a ship. Curious, I asked him if it was a toy car. Missionaries often ship boxes to PNG with toys, clothes, and household items, but have also been known to ship vehicles. He told me that he and his friend had ridden to school in the car. A sports car in PNG, what a concept. But sure enough, I saw it drive by on Saturday. 

Meet Alan

                                                         The first picture I had of Alan T.

In July a new single guy, Alan Halbrooks, arrived in Ukarumpa. It was quite an event, though I doubt he realized it. We all knew he was coming because in church on Sunday morning his picture showed up on the power point along with when he intended to arrive and what he intended to do. When a normal singles gathering is one guy to ten girls, and often the male represented is quite a bit older, we were delighted to have a new member of The Crowd as we call our singles group.

Alan arrived a few days before school began in July and took on his classes as the 9^th and 10^th grade English teacher. Since he came during break, he was invited to many social events. I, for one, only have time to plan game nights or parties when I am not completely consumed in teaching. So we got to know him a bit through our gatherings.

The school year started up but I had grown curious of this blond haired-red bearded man with a jolly laugh. I had decided I wanted to get to know him better. With in a few weeks my roommate Mandy and I were spending lots of time with Alan and our friends Leah, Donna, and Brandy (yes all girls, but this is how it goes).

In an attempt to get to know his students on a more personal level, Alan would throw pancake dinners and invite his students to his house. Leah, Mandy, and I would go as chaperones and to hang out with each other. I don’t think I realized as the time how blessed I was going to be to get to know the teens in this way. I was also able to get to know Alan and Leah better and hear their heart for the Lord, for missions and for the youth here on center.

Over school break the four of us were invited to go on a trip to Lae with our friend Donna. We traveled in her Japanese fire truck, avoided potholes, shopped till we dropped, and filled ourselves with oh-so-delicious restaurant goodness. Our trip was very relaxing and also very telling. This guy that was quite intriguing to me had become my friend but on this trip he had become a bit more than that. I found myself attracted to him. I realized I was also passionate about the things he was passionate about. I found that he enjoyed being around me as much as I enjoyed his company. He has direction but not just for a job but to do something that matters and that brings glory to God, which seems to be a rarity these days. My mind began to spin. It's been a while since anyone has been interested in me.

The week following we spent quite a bit of time together, to my delight. We are both fond of tennis so this became a common pastime (though we did more talking and laughing than actual playing…so don’t bother challenge us to a match J). The last day of the week Alan asked me to be his girlfriend. I said yes…and giggled stupidly!

We have officially been dating now for seven weeks. Being the only single dating couple here on center we are the talk of the town, though things are calming down a bit. If you think of if please pray for our relationship, for our direction, and our ministry- that we will continue to devote ourselves to ministering to the children of Ukarumpa.

Here are some pictures. The top one was from our first date at the lovely Led Café, a family in Ukarumpa sells coffee and breakfast at their house on occasional Saturdays. The bottom one was snapped by a papua-ratzi during our annual Carnvial put on by the teens for the community.

Best Good Teacher

I received this letter from one of my second grade students today and thought I would share it with you. It is typed as she wrote it but I will put the correct words, for clarification, in parenthesis.

Dear miss Wolf,
       I Like you. you are my best teacher. and a good teacher and the best teacher and you are nice and I Like you'r haar (hair). I Like you the best you are the very best teacher. and very good teacher. you can teach me very meny (many) things. Love Lidy


Some things I learned:

#1 We need to review letter writing
#2 We need to review what makes a sentence
#3 I need to write my name on the board
#4 I am loved and apparently...I am the best, good teacher

So... What's the Plan?

Sometimes, weekend plans do not stick. For a person who likes to make plans, keep plans, and plan into the future (though I am puzzled how this need remains after spending 27 years of my life succumbed to the change of missionary life) this can be irritating. Amazingly, this time, it felt more like a choose-your-own-adventure book. Have you read one? They are some of my favorite books. At certain points in the book the author gives the reader two choices. Each choice will continue the story but will take it in a different direction. 

Plan #1: A Village Stay

A few weeks ago my friend, Leah,  wrote to my group of friends and asked if we would be interested in going to visit a village this weekend. We would be helping to show the Jesus Video in the language of the people, eat with them (bung kai kai), talk around the fire at night, and spend the night in the village. We all, excitedly, agreed to this plan.

A week later we were told that the missionary in charge of leading our expedition would no longer be available. The trip was postponed to after Christmas.

Plan # 2: Connect

On occasion, ladies from our community gather together, on a Saturday, to connect with each other and with God. This Saturday different activities were planned. After a word from one of the ladies we are given the opportunity to attend different classes. The classes this time ranged from hair-cutting to cake decorating to other things such as weigh room instruction and Korean food demos. Since my plans had been canceled I figured it would be fun to learn to decorate cakes! I wrote the lady in charge of this class and asked if there was a spot available for me. She said it was full but she could squeeze me in…because I was her friend. (It helps to be kind to folks, even if you don’t know them real well) I was happy with this new development and began to look forward to learning a new skill.

Plan #3: Hike to Lone Tree

I am a community group leader. Did you know that? A community group is the youth department’s name for a discipleship group. There are six, oh-so-lovely-and-energetic, eighth grade girls in my group. On Sunday nights, the teens, 7^th - 12^th , meet at the Teen Centre to worship, fellowship, and hear from a speaker. As a community group leader I am also encouraged to come and worship. During our community group time on Wednesday nights we discuss what happened at Soul Purpose and share with one another. 

Last week I felt a bit disconnected from my girls. Only seeing them twice a week was not enough time to really get to know them. One of my passions, other than teaching at the primary school, is to be invested in the lives of teens. Convicted by this, I decided that this Wednesday would be a “hang out” night rather than a deep conversation where we stare at one another. Trust is built in time and with relationship. We made pretzels and told stories. They enjoyed themselves and actually ended up sharing more than I had anticipated.

They also shared that their eighth grade class was going on a hike to Lone Tree. Lone Tree is outside our centre gate, about a two hour hike away. It is named “Lone Tree” because it used to be defined by just that…a lone tree, but now it is a row of trees cascading over a mountain top. They informed me that they were still in need of some adult sponsors. Thinking about my recent commitment to attend Connect, I declined their offer, which was retorted with many sighs. Before they left I told them that I would consider it, I would talk to a friend and see if he was interested in going, and get back to them. The last thing I asked was who was in charge of this sporadic event. Their response: an eighth grade boy.

The girls had asked me to be a sponsor on Wednesday. My boyfriend, Alan, was asked on Thursday. And somewhere in there they had asked a mother of one of my girls. The trip was intended to take place on Saturday. Did you see how I wrote intended? This plan, sadly, did not come to fruition. Now, do not hear me wrong, I am not against events planned by teenagers. I do feel, however, that often we adults do one of three things. I have seen adults not allow teens to try but also not help them. There are other adults who do everything for the teens. And lastly, I have seen adults who allow teens to lead and yet make themselves available to help think through each step.

My question to the first two groups of adults is: how are they going to learn if they aren’t given the chance to try or given the support to be successful?

Let me continue my story. On Friday afternoon I decided, as a sponsor/chaperone, I needed to know what Saturday looked like. I tracked down the boy in charge and asked him what the plan was. He informed me that we were leaving at ten o’clock, hiking, having a picnic, hiking, and returning around three o’clock. I then asked him who the sponsors were. He told me it would be me, Alan, and Mrs. Lenn. Knowing that three of us were unfamiliar with the trek I then asked: who knows the way. He informed me that he did. Again, I am neither against teen leadership nor teens taking initiative but I do have an issue when safety is not considered. I promptly informed him that he needed to find one if not two more male sponsors, who know the way, to go with us. I also did my best to remind him that in order for girls or women to leave centre we need a number of men to accompany us. If they were doing a youth event on centre the sponsors he had secured would be satisfactory.

He proceeded to look for sponsors but was unsuccessful. I’m sure we can do it another time.

Plan #4: Gummy Trip

Waking up on Saturday morning and cooking with Alan and my roommate Mandy, was not a bad beginning to my weekend. Different than what I had expected, sure, but not bad at all. Mandy and I take great joy in our PNG coffee with fresh cow’s milk. YUM! Alan proceeded to make a hardy meal of potatoes and eggs, which were quite delish!

Afterwards we took a walk and happened by our friend’s house, who lives close to the river. It had been raining heavily the previous night so the river was high and fast. Remembering that our friend had some gummies, or inner tubes, that could be used in the river, we decided to ask. Throwing us her keys, she gave us free access to her storage shed where we found just enough tubes for our newest idea…tubing down the Ba-e River. Excited about this sporadic venture, we rushed off to find others willing to join us. We successfully found seven teens of who quickly changed and followed our lead. Oh the bliss of jumping into a freezing cold, caramel colored river. We jumped in close to our friends house and climbed out at the main bridge. Surprisingly this was a longer trip than we had expected. After climbing the muddy bank up to the road we agreed to make the trip a second time.

So even though my first three plans for the weekend were repeatedly altered it was still fun and memorable for all.

There are Moments...

There are moments, as a teacher, where my students make me laugh and other moments where I feel like crying. Sometimes these moments can happen with in minutes of each other. When I was teaching in the North Carolina I would say, “Every day something happens to remind me why I am enjoy teaching and something else to remind me that I still have a long way to go.”

This past week I was teaching my second grade students how to improve their sentences. We began with a simple sentence:

            We are having fun.

I explained that this sentence is okay. It has a subject, an action, and is a complete sentence. We talked about how we can use “meatier” words to make the sentence more interesting and give the reader a better mental picture. We talked about how often readers ask questions such as: Where are you having fun? Who are you having fun with? What are you doing that is fun?

After modeling how to write an “okay” sentence, I modeled how to write a “good” and a “great” sentence. They were then left on their own to write an okay, a good and a great sentence. The ones I read and that were read out loud seemed to sound as though they understood the concept.

            We are having fun. (okay)

          We are having fun at the beach with my family. (good)

          My family is  having fun surfing on the waves at the beach. (great)

          We are having fun. (okay)

          We are having a lot of fun. (good)

          My brother and I are having a lot of fun at the store. (great)

And then I read these:

            We are having fun. (okay)

          We are really, really having fun. (good)

          We are having really, really, great, super fun. (great)

          We are having fun! (okay)

          We are having lots of fun! (good)

We are having lots and lots of fun with my friends at my house and we laugh until we cry! (great)

We are having fun. (okay)

We are having good good fun. (good)

We are having the best funnest fun ever from the whole world! (great)

This of course, made me laugh and sigh. I guess I will be teaching this concept again next week. 

Teaching

It occurred to me that many of you may not know what I do on the mission field and how that supports Bible Translation. Hopefully you will get a glimpse into my every day life...well at least the working side of things.

Tucked away in the valley of the Eastern Highlands lays Ukarumpa. We have two schools, a primary campus for prekindergarten- sixth grade, that is seconds away from my house, and a secondary campus for seventh-twelfth grade. I am currently working at Ukarumpa International School at the Primary Campus (UISPC). I am the Grade 2 teacher (that's second grade for all you Americans reading) and I love it! Last year I was co-teaching in the kindergarten classroom until I was asked if I would move up to second. It has taken a bit to adjust and I certainly do not know everything (or will I) but I continue to learn and appreciate where God has me for this time. Just a side note, does ANY teacher every REALLY know what they are teaching? I have not yet been blessed with having the same grade or curriculum for more than one year in a row, and this is my fifth year teaching. Every year I have either had to change schools, grades, or curriculum. It certainly keeps me on my toes.

Change is not uncommon at this school. Flexibility is a must. A couple came to visit a few days ago and a few of my teacher friends had dinner with them. They are recruiters for Wycliffe and they asked us this question: What do you like and dislike about teaching at UIS? We thought about this for a few seconds but none of us had any trouble thinking of something. We said: kids are excited to learn. Kids thank us for teaching them. Kids have two parents who love them, love the Lord, and work hard. Kids are disciplined at home and work to stay in touch with what is happening at school. Parents trust that their children are getting a good education. The cultural diversity of both teachers and students makes life interesting. There were many other responses but I won't continue.

Our responses to our dislikes varied a bit pending on the campus we work at. Being the only primary school teacher at the dinner table I mentioned the struggle with the village program. Let me just add here that preparing things for the village program takes a lot of time but I REALLY do enjoy the role I have in Bible Translation through preparing materials for village families. I will talk more about this later in my blog. I also said it is difficult to meet the needs of students who are coming from a wide variety of previous educational experiences.

This is what I am facing this year. Missionaries are encouraged to take furloughs (trips back to their passport countries after a certain amount of time to refresh, catch up with friends and supporters, or for a variety of other reasons) meaning their children are removed from our school system and are educated at home or in a school system in their home country. This year I have: six students who were here for 1st grade but not necessarily for Kindergarten, four students who are Papua New Guinean (they have been in our school system since prekindergarten, but English is not their first language so they are still working to catch up with their peers in some areas), four students who missed 1st grade here and were either home schooled or went to a school in their home country, three students who are new to this country and the school, and one child who has never been in a school setting before and who is new to the country. Can you see my struggle? How do I teach new materials when I am not sure what each of them has mastered the year before? I continue to struggle with this but thankfully it is getting easier as I get to know each child.

In addition to this, my classroom is constantly changing. When missionaries arrive they attend a Pacific Orientation Course (POC) in Madang Province. This  course introduces them to the culture, language, and climate of Papua New Guinea, and equips them with tools they need to survive on the mission field. These courses currently run in August and January. This means that the teachers are responsible for providing materials for students who attend POC. This year I have four students attending the August POC and one (as far as I know) attending the January POC. When we are informed of students who are going to POC or to the village we begin to make a "village bag". You can see in my picture above what all might be included in a "village bag". I make sure there is a folder with our curriculum map, weekly plans, student parents, lesson plans, math manipulatives, student workbooks, students readers, pencils, etc. Once everything is put together I make sure to meet with the parents to explain what I have put together and how it will, hopefully, make their teaching experience run smoothly. This is all done in addition to my normal teaching week.

Please don't read this and think I am asking for pity. I am writing to inform you of what all my job requires and also to show you that as a teacher, I am directly helping Bible translation. I am honored to be helping make a parents load lighter while they are living in the village. I also very much enjoy being able to encourage my students and their parents by speaking with them each day on the radio. When asked How do teachers help make your time in the village more bearable? one translation family replied:

" This (having a village program) made home-schooling so much easier, making Susan's load bearable when basic living was so much more difficult and time-consuming in the village. It also kept the kids on task with their class, making the transition back and forth between the village and Ukarumpa smooth and easy. Our kids looked forward to talking to their teachers and friends on the radio each week. Our kids' classes would be praying for them while they were in the village and would sometimes also sends notes of encouragement to them. All of these things helped our children to feel they were still part of the class, even when away from them.  When we are in Ukarumpa, having our kids in school frees Susan to concentrate on other work. We are often able to bring national men here and make progress on translation work and training."

I am honored to be able to assist parents who are translators in preparing materials for their children. 

Hopefully you have a better idea of how God is using me here in Papua New Guinea.

Next week I will share some oh so funny stories from my two little boys who are currently in their villages. Stay tuned!

Simple Luxuries

There is something about food that just comforts my heart! This blog post is all about the simple luxuries of food! My family jokes that you are not a Wulff if you don't like to eat, sleep, and laze around...I guess I am a "good Wulff". 

My first simple luxury is box of blueberry pop-tarts. To be completely honest I wouldn't buy these in the states, mostly because there are so many other options but this box was given to me for my birthday! What a great birthday present! Thank you Mark and Lynn! There is just something about having an easy breakfast that is full of sugar to warm my little Southern heart. 

Another simple luxury is making "concoctions" with my roommates. Every once in a while they turn out great! Our frappuccino out delicious. We took a picture and drank them slowly. I closed my eyes and put on some Jack Johnson and pretended we were at Starbucks. When I opened my eyes I asked if we wrote down  how we made them...nope. Oh well, maybe we will figure it out again but this moment will always be remembered. In addition to the frappuccino we added sweetened heavy whipping cream and chocolate shavings. What luxury! All you Ukarumpians who are reading this don't come knocking on our door...we don't remember how we made them! Sori tru.

One of my favorite lunch options is a packet of Indo Mie noodles. They are great! I love that they come with different season packets. As pathetic as this may sound, they always makes me smile. Well done Indo Mie! You make my day.

My last simple luxury for today is a strawberry milkshake with a dollop of whip cream. This milkshake seriously made me think of Chick-fil-A. Soon I will partake in your wonderful goodness, but until then I will mix my own strawberries, milk, and cream for a mouth full of happiness.

By far the best luxury, in my book, is Led Cafe. A family in our community graciously open their beautiful house on Saturday mornings from 8-11. They serve breakfast burritos with homemade sausage, scones, hot drinks and other delicious goodies. Yesterday I partook in the breakfast burrito and my favorite hot beverage...the latte! My first roommate, Joy Candee, introduced me to it and I have taken it upon myself to introduce it to others ever since. Led Cafe is also a great place for a date! :)

My current roommate, Mandy, and were talking yesterday and we remembered back to a weekend that we went "out for coffee" every day! Friday night we enjoyed coffee, dessert and games at the WA center with friends. Saturday we attended Led Cafe for our lattes. And Sunday we went to a neighbors for a cup a' and dessert. Take joy in the little things.