Classes at POC

Praise the Lord all you nations; extol him all you peoples.  For great is his love toward us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.  Psalms 117:1-2








 

Classroom before all the students arrived

Classes started at 8am with a devotion by one of the instructors or students. Next we would begin learning Tok Pisin by singing some songs and reading the Book of Jonah from the Tok Pisin Bible.  Next we would learn a few new words and something about the grammar.  After our large class session we would get into a smaller group of six students with a national teacher and an instructor. 

teacher on the far left

 We would practice listening and speaking.  At first we learned terms relating to family.  Next we learned terms about going to market, going to a garden and related to building a home. We actually took field trips to each of those places with our teacher. 

home being built

garden usually found on a hillside

Ibika greens

cocoa

vanilla

demonstrated making a mat

demonstrated making a basket

The later morning classes consisted of geography and history of PNG.  We viewed a few documentaries about Joe Leahy, a Papua New Guinean who was related to one of the first explorers of PNG. We had classes on discovering how our culture affects us and our world view.  The nurse on staff also gave lectures on medical issues that we might encounter such as malaria. There was even a lecture on driving in PNG.

Classes also consisted of hands on activities like building a fire, baking bread, building an outdoor kitchen and talking on an UdHF radio.  Homework included reading articles and books about PNG, spiritual issues and ministries in PNG.  We had to read nine items and write a paragraph about each. One other assignment was to translate our teacher’s 2 minute Tok Pisin story into English.  During this time we also had to write a testimony in Tok Pisin and share it with the group.  All of these activities help us gain insights into life in PNG.

  

Jay proud of his bread

Making bread

       

building a fire

A Day at POC

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

I Chronicles 16:34

 

So it has been a while since I have blogged.   Many things happened during POC. 

(Pacific Orientation Course) Some of you have read my Facebook posting or Jay’s blog.

(www.pettygroveprogress.org) I am going to try and tell a little bit about what we did every 

day at POC with some more pictures.

We were at POC from January 20^th to March 6^th. A normal day consisted of classes in the morning and more classes or activities in the afternoon.  We ate our meals together in a dining hall.  2 missionaries and 3 nationals managed the food.  As the course went on they enlisted our help for some preparation and clean up.  We ate breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1215pm, and supper at 545pm. Fortunately, there were nationals who laundered our clothes on Monday and Wednesday.  They washed them in machines and hung them out to dry.   It was our responsibility to collect them.  Sometimes we were able to do so before the rain; at other times we were not.

Dining hall

Kitchen

Dorm area

Our room from the outside(by the Box labeled with a "P"

Our room consisted of one bed covered with a mosquito net, a table, 2 chairs and shelves with a place to hang a few clothes.  We did bring a table fan which helped in the heat. The floor was cement with a couple mats. There were shaded slatted windows on two walls. The rooms were right next to each other with no insulation.  One could hear all the coughs and sneezes of their neighbor.  We had a group of 46 students (28 adults and 18 children under 6^th grade)

inside room

doing homework

The men and women’s bathroom each consisted of three toilet stalls and 3 shower stalls. The toilets did flush :)  The shower was cold river water piped in. Otherwise at 6am and 430pm someone was assigned to start a fire which would heat the water for the shower.  One could fill a bucket with hot water and use that to shower with.  The showers were full in the evening with children bathing before bed. It was quite the process for the families. 

Women's bathroom

Spout to get hot river water to fill the bucket with

Someone had to light this twice daily when we could have hot water

The Bucket Shower

Whenever we left the POC site as a group we rode in the hino.  The hino is truck with a covered bed with 3 benches in for us to sit on. It was full when we all went.  The road was dirt and gravel. It was basically a one way road with a few areas to pull over if you met an oncoming vehicle. It was a bumpy ride. Sometimes the road was dry but many times it was wet and muddy from the rain.

Loading the hino

The one way road is on the right