Papua New Guinea – Story 2 of 6

I added more vocabulary slowly, and I began to learn more about each of these deaf people. Kamun is a leader and has great initiative on his own. I was impressed with him. His brother, Koi, is stoic and a follower, yet I was very impressed with him also. He is definitely a thinker. I was also impressed with the young woman named Wero. She comes to church sometimes, but, again, there is no interpreter for her or for anyone as yet. Her brother, Kubu, never misses church, in spite of no interpretation for him. He is one of the main reasons why I went halfway around the world at great expense. These lost souls are worth the time and investment! Just ask Christ!
Later, I took them outside and we began working on our colors. I was really surprised how many hearing people came into the church and sat in the back watching and observing all that I was doing, and listening to all that I was teaching. Curious people coming down the mud road would stop and watch. I played a game with two of the deaf at a time. I had several items of different colors on a chair in the front yard of the church. With one deaf person on each side of the chair, I would use a sign for a certain color and there was competition as to who could pick the item up of the correct color first. They enjoyed this, and the first one to get five correct colors was the winner.
Another major part of my training with these deaf people was that, after teaching them certain verbs, nouns, and colors, then I would use some of the sharper deaf to lead in testing the others as to their understanding. This gave some of the sharper ones some leadership responsibility which made them think, and also proved to them that I have respect for them and love them. It was a great morning and I really wish some of it had been videoed for people to watch. The teaching and training this morning was a huge event for this mountain village! For the first time ever in this region of PNG, people realized that these deaf could learn … learn to sign and to communicate!