Protocol and Pits

Clockwise from top left – Elias gives dad the ‘rat-chewed-it-off’ treatment, then runs away. Noah and Tim hold a frog they caught in our new garbage pit. Elizabeth teaches the fine art of jump-rope. Tim and some Pal guys work on making a smooth new tetherball pole.

Protocol

It is an interesting bit of trivia to know that the title of the person who takes care of all of the boring details of State visits (ie: when an ambassador from X country comes to visit you do the napkins go on the left, the right, or down the front of your shirt?) is called the Chief of Protocol. Seriously. It must be a seriously important seating arrangement in order for the arranger to be working on it full-time (imaginary conversation: You know that the vice-ambassador from Montenegro should sit a little below the Mayor of … please, just shoot me now…)

The problem is, that I am beginning to understand the need for something like a protocol overlord. You see in general, people who come to see us have in their mind an accepted form of interaction and some basic expectations as to how we will react/interact to them. I would love to turn over the awkward silence and feelings of ‘am I doing the right thing here?’ to some self-assured Protocol Professional.

For instance, this last week, we have had three different groups of visitors, each with its own agenda and expectations, arrive unannounced at our home. For the most part, we were able to just spend time listening to them and that was all that they wanted. Some were excited to hear about the upcoming launch of literacy courses in the next couple of months and wondered when their villages would be allowed to participate*. The problem was that long awkward pause between arrival and getting down to the actual relating. We feel the need to balance  our respect and care for those arrivals while keeping an eye healthily fixed on the mountain of work that is not growing any smaller. How do we relate well with our friends while juggling the preparations for teaching and translation and family needs? We could use your prayers in this area.

Pits

If you’ve ever wondered what we do for entertainment here in the bush, here is your answer; dig a hole. Yup, that’s it. We just dig a big ol’ hole in the ground (preferably 6-9 feet deep) and let the kids go at it. A recent example of such a hole (our prospective trash pit) provided 4 days of solid entertainment (and dirty clothes). First it was a trap to jump in, then a sculptor’s paradise with clay faces decorating the walls, then it was an escape challenge course where the kids were literally climbing the walls. Finally it became the Pit-o-Science wherein whatever small creature happened to fall in in the night was retrieved and suddenly placed in front of Mom’s nose to judge her reaction time (.02 seconds from silence to shriek for those who are counting).

One happy, albeit undocumented, feature of the Pit-o-Science is a sense of poetic justice. After one night of heavy rain, the boys were eager to get down into the pit to collect three large frogs that seemed unable to get out. Splash, Splash, Splash, they went in and quite happily pursued their quarry. All it took was the forelegs, beady eyes, and left claw of a fairly sized ground crab appearing above the muddy surface of the water to set the bottom of the pit (4 feet by 5 feet) into pandemonium. Mostly that is. Tim calmly held his catch of the day while his brothers frenzied themselves up the steep sides. Above ground things became calmer and now the boys try to capture their creatures by dropping in a bucket. Mom at least is glad for the lasting effects – she hasn’t nearly kissed a frog for almost a week. Please pray for our family as we relate to each other and encourage one another.  

One of those people

If you hated, passionately hated, reading your grammar textbook in school, I can totally relate. Yet (wait for it)… in a turn of poetic justice, I am in the process of creating one for a previously undocumented language. Oh travesty! If you have the heart to, please pray for my weary soul and the end to my grammatical labors. We need this thing to be good, clear, and complete.

Thanks so much for praying for us.

Nate for us 5

Posted via email from PNG Time