Miani

(Papa Miani and baby Miani)

    Ok, so Miani is not a full time employee of POC but he was in the picture and we love him so here goes. When we came to POC as students Miani and Judi (his wife) volunteered to be our “was famili”. First, they came up to POC and had dinner with us. I thought it was a disaster. We barely spoke any Tok Pisin and the parts of the evening that I didn’t fumble through trying to talk were spent in complete silence. Fortunately, Papua New Guineans are fine with silence. Though they love a good story, just being together is the most important thing.

     Our relationship continued to grow as we went through the course. We went to eat at their house just about every week and eventually even spent the night. I think Miani gave me the best advice about language learning I ever received. He said, “If you want to learn Tok Pisin you have to go hangout with Papua New Guineans and talk. You might mess up but it will be ok and they will help you get better.”I took his advice, I went out that weekend to a soccer game in the community and started talking to anyone who would listen.  I was afraid to mess up but once I started I realized most people wanted to help me to speak better and they were genuinely interested in what I had to say.

     When we returned to POC as permanent staff our relationship with Miani and Judi picked up right where it left off. We quickly became great friends. He even marked off a piece of their garden for us. Miani comes to our house all the time and it not uncommon for us to sit and talk for hours. We love him so much, we even named our youngest child after him. he has assumed a place as our children’s uncle. In PNG this is a place of great honor and responsibility. We are very privileged to have him as a friend.  

     Up next will be Kui.