Getting ready for Christmas

My family and I are quite busy preparing to go to Port Moresby then to Hula village. After a few weeks we plan to go to Gulf Province, my wife's home. Yes, I have lived for the last 9 years in Banz which will soon become part of the new Jiwaka province.
Being away from home I have seen so many changes but I am also harnessing the new technological developments like blogs, face book, twitter and friend feed etc. These are all new to me.
I am seeing the good things that can come out from the internet. Although there is a bad side of the internet as well. Internet has helped me in my assignments and quick information, I needed.
One day my daughter wanted to know the names of some governors of certain provinces. I just got the information in a few seconds. The other time my wife wanted a recipe, it was available in seconds.
My e-mail is so full these days because I can get in the net and register to receive certain e-mails. At first when I started I was addicted but now I have slow down a bit.
Thank God for the new and latest technology. However we must discipline ourselves when to get to the net.
Happy reading.

PNG courses used overseas.

An Australian College has shown interest in CLTC TEE courses written in PNG.Amos Leana, who has been a great supporter of TEE now plans to introduce the CLTC TEE to the Bimbadeen College in Australia.
Amos was recently in CLTC with some of his colleagues to look at the TEE courses and do negotiations to sign an agreement. There were four leaders
who were at CLTC Banz, who attended the Langham Preaching Conference which from November 29th to December 4th. In the past the Bimbadeen students have studied “Come Follow Me” and “Come Let us Worship”. The College Board and the Training Committee have asked for Discipleship courses to be taught at the College. This is not the first time for CLTC TEE courses to be used overseas. Previously the discipleship and Ephesians courses were used in New Zealand. TEE course have been translated into Bahasa Indonesia, Fiji and Swiss languages as well. There was a quiry from Cambodia to translate the marriage courses into that language. So you can see that we are importing our courses as well. We have something to offer to the world.

Aboriginal symbolic writing

 

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Writing courses and being involved in curriculum

I thought that I would be a reporter for several years. After the closure of the Niugini Nius I in 1990,I ended up at the Bible Society as a part-time staff. However I worked for 4 years using my journalism training to write newsletters and do promotions as well as writing some brochures about Easter. After that I went back to the print media which was now computerised.In the early days of my career I was using electrical an electrical type writer. Then after a few months I went to work as the Media Coordinator with the PNG Bible Translation Association. This worked helped me to work on a magazine and do profiles for the translators and use a Risograph. Then I left to work with a someone who was self employed and I had to do administrative work and work on visas, passport and work permits. After two years I ended up with the print media again and then left to work in the Highlands for the last 9 years. I had to deal with student matters which were mostly administrative issues then for the last 4 years I have been involved in curriculum development writing course notes. This is something that I never learnt but my writing skills in the print media were put to good use. I also found that someone who is running a correspondence school in Australia was a former journalist and he has written so many new courses. Therefore do not think that all the skills you learnt were not appropriate. Some day somewhere you will utilise those skills in another field or profession

Self publishing in PNG

I met Rosie a week ago at a conference and she has been living in PNG for the last 13 years. When I saw her interest in writing books, I asked who was paying for the books she printed.
She replied that her supporters back in UK were helping her to pay for the cost. Some of her books were printed in Tari while others were printed overseas. Rosie keeps on writing and she is a doctor by profession. Seeing patients and attending to their needs does not stop her passion to write.
Melanesians can do that too. We can start a bank account for writing. Rosie's books are sold cheaply and the funds go into an account to get more books printed. Check the nearest bookshops, library, stationary shops and even schools to see what books or topics have not been written about. This will give you an idea to write issues that are relevant to Melanesians. Well, you may say that I do not have any money. You could start by writing a 2 page newsletter or even start a ezine, ebulletion or egazette. There are many opportunities and we need to harness them to work for us.

What careers can writers be involved in

You may see this heading in the post with the photo of a trained journalist. Caine Ruruk completed studies in 1981 at UPNG but after his graduation, his brother passed away. The only option was to return home and be a villager. However Caine still held onto his dreams. He was involved in the youth ministry as well as other community activities.

After living at Wanigela village, Oro Province for over 10 years he became involved in the literacy program and later ended up to work with the PNG Bible Translation Association (PNGBTA).

His work involved encouraging literacy teachers, training them and publishing literacy materials like big books, shell books and even working on curriculum. Well, you can see that Caine's journalism training became handy.

Come on you writers, authors, roving scribes and photo journalist, there's lot of opportunity out there and grab one if you can.

What careers can writers be involved in

 

Dikana

 

Help me know more about blogging

I am so excited about blogging. At times I do not have the time to write. With the students now on holidays, I seem to have some time.

One thing I want to do now is to have a new mail to blogger. Can someone who is reading this help. I have made some changes so you will now see more changes coming.

Thanks

How to write despite being busy

As Melanesians we seem to lag behind in writing. This is because we are oral learners. However we do have our own writing which was so symbolic. Such writing is seen in designs on tapa cloth, designs in lime pots, even tatooing of bodies.

This should not stop us from striving to write. I just attended a conference conducted by some Australian preachers and their idea for people to continue preaching is to start a preaching class. The preachers will meet and discuss their outlines and encourage each other. This is the same concept use by the TEE department.

I believe Melanesian writers can form such groups in their towns or villages and start encouraging each other. The writers can share ideas and be accountable to a leader. They may write book reviews, short stories, legends, poems and other forms of writing.

In the past there were writing competitons but I hardly see one these days. I remember while I was at High School,the English teacher offered a prize for the best essay. There were rules made to stop people from speaking their languages. Such regulations helped us but I also value my own language.

Any we need to encourage a new breed of writers. Now with the internet and the different programs writers can write as much as they like. That's all for today.

Naming a child the Jiwaka way

On Saturday my family and I were invited to attend a child naming ceremony at Bung village. The child was about three months old and his name was not called until the ceremony was made. The child had two other cousins and one of the cousins was almost six months but his name was not given yet.

We walked for over 30 minutes and reached the destination. When we arrived there were a group of people making a mumu. Other ladies were cooking and preparing greens to be boiled in a huge pot.

The family decided that they would also make their eldest daughter's birthday. We brough five banana cakes. All the invited guests were busy preparing food. The ceremony which was supposed to be held on Christmas Day had to be rescheduled as I had planned to be at home for Christmas.

Table were taken and food was put on two tables while waiting for the mumu. We celebrated the birthday and then later the grand father, chief of the Asamp clan stood up and shouted: "Who is waiting at the back of the house, you must come out. My wife carried the child in the bilum and the child's grand mother was there as well. The grand mother shouted: "Oh hhh ohhh!". The she accompanied my wife to the table. The grand father called " Timothy John, you come and get your food". The crowd cheered and shouted and they congratulated me as the child is my name sake.

Grand father Ali read Psalm 139:15 and prayed. Then he dedicated the child to God so that the Lord would protect him and keep him and use him for his glory. That was the event that I witnessed and it is similar to the naming of John the Baptist. However in the olden days the Jiwaka people worshipped the sun god. All the babies were dedicated to the sun god. These days as the people are Christians they dedicate their children to God.

Keep writing

I have kept exercise books which I use as journals. This is good. Whenever you think of something you need to write it down. Always keep a pen handy. One day I got a few TEE courses and I marked when I was travelling on my way to the hospital. I am motivated to see such people as Governor General Grand Chief, Sir Paulias Matane who keeps on writing. He has written so many books. We need more Melanesian writers who can write about their experience to motivate others. There is no need to wait. We must also look for printers or people who will fund the books that we will be writing. Furthermore we need to start networking and starting writer's guilds or start small writing groups to keep everything going. We cannot wait. I was challenged by a friend who never had any experience in carpentary and building, but these person who was good at organising found some people to work with him. My freind learnt from his experience. Do not think that you are not good at writing so that you can just sit and wait. The best thing is to team up with gifted artists, proof readers and teachers who can help you out.
Make friends with people who have IT savy so that they motivate you and help you. Think of a subject or a theme and start writing now. When I was about to start my thesis I sought advice from people who were academics to get ideas from them.

Writing in busyness

For the last few months I kept writing my thesis. I wrote at night, early morning and when my wife and daughter were watching TV. I even wrote after eating lunch. I had to be disciplined and I manage to write 10, 300 words or so.

Now I will be working on the bibliography and to do the corrections and reduce the number of words. It is not easy but one must put aside other work and interest to complete the thesis. It has been a challenge for me.

Besides that I counsel and help other students who write their thesis especially proof reading them. My dream is to write a book of my own. For the last 5 years that I have been in the DTE department, I have written at least 5 Tutor guides. This is a small achievement but I must write more and more. I completed one TEE course but now I will have to work on the corrections. There are more books or studies to be worked on.

Never give up. If you do not have the time you need to collect items and also to make plans to write and set aside some time and write. Even if you spend five minutes to correct a footnote or locate some of the books or notes that you have used. These days modern technology has made write much easier. So keep writing and think about Melanesian issues.

Thanks and have a enjoyable time reading. TKwara