i need to have a plan.

--take 1 hour after class on Mondays (8:45 – 9:45) to write/blog about experience
--take 1 hour on Sundays after church or after college group to write/blog about experience
--read 1 book a week about PNG starting after Spring Break
--take note of elements of culture, travel writing
--read 2 books during Spring Break
--contact Rolf Potts during Spring Break
--order tape recorder by April 1st
--review vocab on Wednesdays
--go to the gym 3x a week

the whole point.

I'm going to Papua New Guinea because of a grant from the Richter Scholars fund through George Fox University. They grant funds to students who would like to do summer research in a certain area. Most of the grants are for the sciences, but humanities proposals are gaining credibility with the committee. I submitted my proposal right before Christmas break, and then the committee invited me to resubmit with certain changes.

The issues the committee had with my proposal were many and crucial to the purpose of the project, so I was frustrated and disheartened. I was considering not resubmitting my proposal for a few reasons (including a nonrefundable down payment for the trip that would have to be submitted before a decision would be made by the committee), but then I had a conversation with a good friend. Jen urged me to resubmit, because she said that I would always wonder if my proposal would have been accepted had I resubmitted. And how was God to work if I didn't step out in faith? And so I did. And it was accepted. And I'm going to Papua New Guinea.

Stories from Papua New Guinea: Finding Myself in a Primitive Culture

Richter Grant Proposal

2009

Submitted by: Sara Kelm

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Melanie Springer Mock

Department of Writing and Literature

“The antidote to cultural discombobulation is never retreat; it is immersion.”[1]

–Gayle Foreman, You Can’t Get There from Here

Topic of Research

The significance of story pervades nearly every culture. History remembered through the telling and retelling of stories helps bind individuals to their people. Grandpas still take little boys onto their laps to tell stories, and moms still read Dr. Seuss to their little girls before bedtime. Stories can also bring humans of disparate backgrounds together and create understanding. When people engage a different culture, they find that stories may be told in different languages but their themes are similar.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a much different culture than that of the United States. The technological age seems to have missed the small country, located on the island of New Guinea and where about 820 indigenous languages are spoken daily—a number that is over one-tenth of the world’s total languages.[2] Americans tend to know little about Papua New Guinea. The culture of PNG and Americans’ experience with it will be the topic of my research. I will join a group of students from George Fox University traveling to PNG this May to exchange American stories with New Guinean stories through the art of theatre. I do not plan to participate in this aspect of the trip, though I will be a willing observer and reteller of the stories that I hear. My main function on this trip will be to, through writing, engage the culture, report it as I experience it, and tie it with my own. I will synthesize the stories of the people I meet in PNG, the people with whom I travel, and my own story. As I see others’ stories come to life, I will write one full story of culture, God, and humanity of all colors, genders, and languages.

Existing Research

Most of the books about Papua New Guinea can be divided into two categories. The first is anthropological studies chronicling the customs, practices, and history of any one of the hundreds of tribes that live in PNG. These authors live among and study the people’s distinctive cultural traits, an example being Margaret Mead and her work in the islands of the Pacific. She wrote Growing Up in New Guinea in 1930 after visiting Manus Island off of the mainland of Papua New Guinea. Mead chronicles the attitudes the Manus tribe had toward gender, sex, commerce, and the supernatural, weaving an imagery-filled tale of the Manus people. There are many other books similar to Mead’s that analyze any one of the numerous tribes in New Guinea and its specific culture and language.

Travel nonfiction comprises the other category of books about Papua New Guinea. With the shrinking of the world, travel essays have become more prevalent on a global basis. People read these books to learn about unfamiliar – and often bizarre – parts of the world. This style of writing is part of “New Journalism,” a creative nonfiction genre where writers use a first-person voice and stylistic devices in the act of reporting, marrying traditional journalism with personal essay. Some writers in this genre are Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, and Norman Mailer, and magazines like Salon, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New Republic often publish these essays.

My written project will fall under this genre, involving research in a few ways. First, in order to write an engaging travel nonfiction essay, the writer needs to go somewhere. The travel itself is research, for the entire piece will be based on the experiences had in this unfamiliar place. This is not tourism travel; this is traveler travel. Rolf Potts (a George Fox alum and well-known travel writer) makes this distinction, saying, “Tourists leave home to escape the world, while travelers leave home to experience the world.”[3] It is travel with a specific focus and purpose: to relay the information of a new culture to those who have never experienced it. This involves great attention to detail, including a great deal of note-taking and asking of questions.

The other aspect to the research comes after the experience. Travel writing, in order for it to be truly impacting, must inform. The numerous travel essays I read were peppered with facts about the place the author had experienced. To do this requires a thorough knowledge of the place and its history, including economic information, social structure, and political experiences. These facts never stuck out in the well-written essays I read; they were interwoven within the text, tying the facts and figures into the narrative. There is a delicate balance between the story and the history, a difficult line to walk as Potts relays in his book.

Through my own research, I am interested in continuing to read these essays and anthropological studies and comparing them with what I see and experience in Papua New Guinea. I will see how other writers recorded this place: what literary devices they used and how they described the place and the people. Then I will craft my own essay.

Methodology

If awarded the Richter Scholars grant, I will begin in Spring 2009 by researching the culture and people of Papua New Guinea. I will especially focus on memoirs of people who have spent time in PNG or are currently living there, and how they express their experiences in terms of theme, images, and language. This will assist me in writing my own narrative of experience with the PNG culture.

I will be doing this research in conjunction with a Cross-Cultural Study trip from George Fox University, an in-depth cultural experience and alternative to the traditional Juniors Abroad trip. This trip’s purpose is to exchange American stories with New Guinean stories, the actors essentially learning to perform with and to this culture. This is not my purpose. I will assist the team and attend the classes in exchange for the opportunity to travel with them. There are three reasons for my inclusion within the team. The first is that it is simply less expensive. If I were to go on my own, without the group rate of tickets, the airfare itself would be over $4000. Because PNG is not a tourist destination, the airline has no competition and can charge what it likes. The second reason for my association with the George Fox trip is that it is safer. PNG has been through a significant amount of political turmoil in the last fifty years. While currently the area is relatively stable, it is not safe for a white foreign woman to travel alone. There is safety in numbers, and I will be able to observe more carefully if I am not constantly afraid for my well-being. A third reason that I am traveling with a George Fox University group is that I hope to benefit the university itself. I will go into this further later in the proposal.

The team will be led by Rhett Luedtke, an associate professor of theatre; Todd Luedtke, an adjunct professor of theatre; and Jere Witherspoon, the executive assistant to the Vice President of Student Life; all three have lived in Papua New Guinea. In addition to our three faculty advisors, this trip will be composed of nine George Fox University undergraduate students including myself. Class will be one day a week during the Spring 2009 semester. The team will learn about PNG and its specifics, including geography, history, politics, cultural diversity, and the lingua franca of PNG, Melanesian Pidgin. I will be doing a more in-depth study, with a focus on story and its importance to the PNG culture. As well, I will research cultural distinctives of PNG, especially gender relations, so that I will have a background on how to communicate with women I interview and how to act culturally appropriate in PNG. During this time of training, I will be paying close attention to my fellow students, their voices, and their stories, as they may be part of the story of my experience in PNG.

The group leaves for PNG arrives in PNG on May 7^th, 2009. We will spend time at Balob Teachers College and Martin Luther Seminary. While there, I will be able to speak with some of the women who live at the seminary and record their stories while accompanied by a translator and another member of my team. With any of these situations, I will have to be flexible in terms of who I get to speak with and what questions I ask. I will strive to be constantly aware of everyone around me, understanding that they may or may not be a significant part of my story, depending on what direction my story takes.

Next the team will travel to Ukarumpa, the center for the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and a base of operations for translating the Bible into the numerous tribal languages contained within PNG. While there, I will talk with missionary women and children about their experiences in PNG, as well as the indigenous people who live and work with the missionaries.

Following Ukarumpa, we will travel to Goroka and meet up with the National Performing Arts Troupe (NPAT), a group that brings arts into highland villages. NPAT will teach the team to dance and express native stories, while the George Fox actors will teach them some American stories. During this time, I will be an observer of the native lifestyle of many New Guineans, and record it to the best of my ability, while always looking for opportunities to hear people’s stories.

As I am not a full-fledged member of the team, my qualifications are different, reflecting my purpose. I am not an actor; instead, I have a unique mixture of gifts that make me the right purpose to engage in this research. First, I am a student of literature. It is my major and my hobby, reading works and analyzing them and their effectiveness. I am also a student of writing, and I desire to learn how to more effectively communicate through the written word. Secondly, I am a student of psychology. I am fascinated by the human mind and what makes a person who she is. The interplay between nature and nurture is no more vivid than in an unfamiliar culture, where an observer can see obvious similarities and differences between himself and an individual of the other culture. These two areas of study both value the concept of story and its impact in the lives of people all over the world, whether the story is fiction or nonfiction. And while I have never been an actor, I have been previously involved in the world of theatre, so I understand the concepts behind the stories that the team will be telling and the stories that the New Guineans will tell us back.

When I return, I will embark on writing this piece of travel nonfiction. My faculty sponsor is Writing and Literature professor Dr. Melanie Springer Mock, a scholar of creative nonfiction and autobiography. Throughout summer 2009, working half-time and paid by a stipend from the Richter Grant, I will meet with her in person and over email to discuss specific tactics to strengthen my writing for impact on various audiences. Her experience and expertise lends her to being a discerning critic of nonfiction work, and her input will be invaluable.

My writing process will be synthesizing those stories I recorded into an interesting and readable format, then combining them with my personal story. I will focus on the events that occurred during my trip, the people I met while in PNG, and the significant moments I encountered. I will also include the observations and experiences of my fellow travelers, in terms of their reactions and interactions with the culture. The final piece of the story will be an informative aspect, a vital aspect as discussed previously. As PNG is an isolated island with very little tourist culture, the general public is sorely uneducated about the people that survive there. This section of my writing will require much research so that I report the facts about PNG to the best of my ability. I will use this piece in its entirety as a chance to entertain and educate the reader. All throughout this time of writing, I will continue to read other travel memoirs to see how others craft their stories about PNG and other places around the world.

After revisions and criticism from various other literary professors at George Fox, I will finish my final draft. Once it is finished, I will have a better idea of where my contribution should fit into the realm of travel essays or George Fox culture. I will seek to publish my work in magazines about travel, faith, and/or culture, as well as through George Fox University to benefit the Fox community.

Benefits

George Fox will reap benefits from this research. As stated earlier, there are few people who know anything about Papua New Guinea. Instead of simply touring a country and seeing the sights before leaving, this trip is an opportunity for students to truly dive into a culture and understand the people within it a little better. I want to let the George Fox community into this experience. The university’s Blueprint for Diversity hopes that the Fox community will “cultivate awareness, respect, understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity throughout the University community to provide members of diverse races and cultures an affirming environment that encourages cross-cultural sharing in the context of Christian lifestyle expectations."[4] I trust that the work I produce from this cross-cultural experience will further all four of the desired aspects of cultural diversity and create a greater interest in the people and places of PNG. The community of George Fox University will see that New Guineans are not that different from Americans and that all humans’ stories are of value.

I see a great deal of personal benefits. I believe this experience in Papua New Guinea will bring me to a greater understanding of the world and myself, and I want to take a risk and reap the benefits as I engage an unfamiliar culture. I also desire to challenge myself in my craft by taking on a more complex writing process that involves multiple stories, speakers, and viewpoints, combining them in a way that retains the integrity of each person’s voice and integrates each story together so they become one larger narrative.

Outcomes

The outcome of this project will be a research-based travel and cross-cultural creative nonfiction work of writing about the country of Papua New Guinea as experienced by myself, my fellow student travelers from George Fox University, the faculty that accompany us, and those who live and work in PNG. The piece will be at least 25 pages long, and contain stories from native Papua New Guineans, stories from Americans, and aspects of the history of PNG.

Once my piece is finished, it may be of use to George Fox University. First, it may be used to promote the theatre department and the cross-cultural work it is doing, as well as creating interest in more trips of this nature. Secondly, pieces of my writing may serve to assist the formation of more Cross-Cultural Study trips, as opposed to the traditional Juniors Abroad trip. My writing could serve as a support for the more in-depth perspective on culture that the Cross-Cultural Study trips. Finally, I see a market for this in publication of the university as a whole. The university is striving toward being more culturally aware and embracing, so this trip is a step in that direction. I will submit a piece of my writing to the George Fox University Journal to show the greater GFU community the opportunity the university created for our team.

I will also seek publication outside the George Fox community. I am unsure as to how long the final piece will be, but I will submit it for publication either in whole or in parts. There are numerous creative nonfiction markets where potential publication could occur. Creative nonfiction magazines such as Brevity, Image, Relief, Ruminate, and Literary Traveler are possible markets for publication. I could also see my work in the magazines like Salon and Smithsonian. If possible, I would like to present my work at the Northwest Undergraduate Literature Conference at The University of Portland; the National Undergraduate Literature Conference in Ogden, Utah; and Northwest University’s Sigma Tau Delta Conference.

Lastly, I will seek to create a public reading night for Writing/Literature majors and minors to share the pieces that they have been working on. My desire is that the night will generate support for peers who create art rarely expressed in the classroom setting. It will be in a public place (such as Chapters), open to the George Fox community, and hopefully stir some excitement and pride in what we as students, scholars, and people of faith can produce. I will present this piece of writing at that time.

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[1] Foreman, Gayle. You Can’t Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World. New York: Rodale, 2005.

[2] “Papua New Guinea.” The World Factbook. 20 November 2008. Central Intelligence Agency. 20 November 2008. .

[3] Potts, Rolf. “Storming ‘The Beach.’” Marco Polo Didn’t Go There. Palo Alto: Solas House, 2008.

[4] George Fox University. Blueprint for Diversity. .

First Post

This is my first post. And I fully admit I have no idea what I am doing.

I am going to Papua New Guinea. In less than 7 weeks.