Back to School

Although Eric and I have both been working at the school since we got to Ukarumpa, this past week was our first week with a full load of classes. You may be wondering, what is the same about teaching in Ukarumpa as it is in the US and what is different?

What is the same?

• Students take most of the same subjects that are offered in the US, such as English, social studies, science, math, languages, and some electives like music and computers. In fact, the curriculum is based on a US-curriculum to allow for ease of transition when students go back to the US.
• The secondary school has basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, and track teams (as well as girls’ and boys’ rugby!).
• Around campus, you’ll see a lot of familiar sights: libraries at both schools, a playground at the primary campus, a track of sorts at the secondary campus, computer labs, etc.
• Bells ring to dismiss students from their classes.

What is different?

• I can’t go to Target or a school supply store to buy something when I want to do a hands-on activity in class. We do have school supplies here, but we have to get creative (or do without) if we want something that can’t be found in the school supply room or the grocery store. There also aren’t any back-to-school sales!
• Homeroom only happens once a week at the secondary school—in the middle of the day—and it is used as a time for student government representatives to meet with their grade levels.
• There are no hallways. There are several buildings around the campus (both at the primary and secondary schools) that house two or more classrooms. Each classroom has a door that opens directly to the sidewalk.
  
  
  
• Most secondary students go home for lunch, while parents are invited to the primary school on Fridays to eat lunch with their students.
• There were only five weeks to prepare between the end of last school year and the start of this one! School starts in July instead of August or September.
• Eric’s classes are the smallest he’s ever had (ranging from 5-14 students), and mine are the biggest I’ve ever had (12-18)!
• Some non-native English speaking students are able to take classes in their mother tongue if a teacher is available.

10 Things About Life in Ukarumpa

1. Most people walk everywhere—to work, to the store, to school…and some people (mostly kids) walk barefoot.
2.  Most people don’t have dryers, so our laundry is hung outside to dry. That is a challenge during rainy season!
   
3. We have frequent power outages (though they usually only last for a few seconds). We’ve stopped resetting the clock on the stove every time the power goes out, and instead it now keeps track of how long it has been since the last power outage.
4. The secondary campus has a one-hour lunch break, so many students (and teachers) go home for lunch.
5. We have a horse pasture, and it is not uncommon to see people riding horses through the center on Saturday mornings.
   
6. There is no pastor at our church, so various missionaries take turns speaking, and different teams of musicians lead music every week. Once a month, we have a combined service with the Tok Pisin church that meets on center.
7. School starts in July and ends in June. There are two five-week breaks (Christmas and “summer”) and two shorter breaks during the school year.
8. We are surrounded on all sides by mountains, which makes for beautiful views, but also for challenging walks, especially at our high elevation.
   
9.  There are several different countries represented in Ukarumpa, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Korea, and of course PNG, as well as a few other nationalities.
10. When people go on furlough, they ask other people on center to take care of their pets. We currently have 8 animals living with us (just for a little while)! Two dogs, two cats, and one cat just had four kittens!

Guest Blog: Eric

Computers have revolutionized so many different aspects of our lives, whether it’s communication, creating documents and presentations, doing research, or following the news. The same is true for Bible translation; computer programs have enhanced translation projects everywhere. But what happens when nationals want to get involved with translating the Bible into their own language, but they have never touched a computer before in their life?

Over the last week and a half, I had the privilege to serve as one of several mentors for the 12 students in the Basic Computing Course at the Training Center here in Ukarumpa, a course that provides computer training for national translators, as well as any other Papua New Guineans who are looking to become familiar with using a computer. We began with how to properly plug a computer into a power source and turn it on, worked on introductory typing and mouse exercises, and by the end of the course students were creating their own power point presentations, adding themes, transitions, and animations. It was a lot of learning in such a small amount of time!

Class ran from 8:30am-12:00pm every morning, including a tea break at 10:00, and then resumed in the afternoon from 1:30pm-4:30pm, with another tea break at 3:00. The morning would include the teaching time and different guided exercises, and the afternoon was often reserved for more individual practice of what was learned that morning, as well as opportunities for more mouse skills or typing practice.

There were definitely some challenges. Some students really caught on fast, and only asked questions about extra things they were discovering on their own, while others needed constant guidance to help them navigate all the different aspects of Microsoft that the course explored. So achievement levels were definitely varied among the different members of the class, but everyone grew, and left with more knowledge and ability than they arrived with. And to be honest, I learned a lot as well. Plenty were little things that I will probably never use, but there were several things I learned that will benefit me in my computer use!

Mentoring the course was a great reminder of why we are here. Working at the school is an important cog to keep SIL’s work running smoothly, but you can easily become isolated from a lot of the work that SIL is doing in the surrounding area, much less throughout the whole country. My assigned role may be teacher, but my work here is to serve the people of Papua New Guinea, whatever that may look like.