Graham and Carol Townley have been in Kovol, Papua New Guinea for almost a month and Steve and Gerdine Stanley and family are enjoying the company and have gratefully received their help. It gets a bit isolated in the village. Graham and Carol’s goal in supporting Steve and Gerdine is to help them get more language-learning time in, and for Gerdine that has been game changing. For example, while they were on a trip to a local hamlet, Carol played games with the kids so Steve and Gerdine could sit and work together on something. Gerdine was working through a language learning exercise and normally Steve would be off with Oscar, but this time he was able to help. Steve is ahead of Gerdine in language so he could add to the exercise and tell her if she misunderstood or missed something.
Having time to chat together as a couple without the children or being too exhausted anyway has been a huge blessing. Having someone around to bounce ideas off and share experiences with is much appreciated.
Steve has been working on gathering texts for upcoming discourse analysis.
Initially, Graham was brought low by a tropical bug, but paced himself and has been getting things done. He has made a huge bookshelf and now is almost finished making a room for Oscar in the roof space.
Carol has helped shoulder the burden of looking after the lady who has had difficult pregnancies in the past, and who recently delivered a healthy baby. After the stress and excitement around the delivery, the lady needed antibiotics for a prolonged fever.
Carol has also been helping with the household chores such as cooking and washing.
The children are really enjoying the extra attention and play times with Graham and Carol.