Meeting the Bishop

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Our second morning in Mount Hagen started early with a visit from Robert Schild, who was working with the NGO "Susu Mama" that supports the education of urban women in child care.  Enjoying the cool morning on the hotel veranda, Robert further instructed Alvilda and Shiva in the details of cell phone use in PNG.

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Soon Danny arrived with the WTYSL team to drive us all back to the Anglican Center for the appointment that had been made the day before.

Bishop Nathan led us around to the garden at the back of the residence where he had set up chairs and a makeshift desk for our meeting. As we had seen the day before, the office was too small for all of us to gather. The garden, on the other hand, was large, shady and quiet.

 

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There was plenty of space for the film team to work easily.

 

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I was finally able to give Bishop Nathan a very precious book we had carried from Sydney.   It was "The Dictionary of Kalam"   -  the language of the people living in Simbai.  The author, linguist Andrew Pawley, had sent it to Shiva from Canberra, especially asking us to take it to Bishop Nathan so he could safe-keep it for the Simbai Congregation.

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Bishop Nathan and Dick, the church secretary, were greatly appreciative, even though, as the bishop went on to explain, he himself was actually not from Simbai, the heartland of Kalam speakers,  but rather from the Kaironk valley further to the northwest where the Kobong people lived.  Though I had never been to the Kaironk Valley, I had heard of it as the site of a major archeological dig.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As we talked, various members of the congregation filtered into the edges of the garden to listen to the conversation.

 

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TBC

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