Why build a house in the first place?

Though it is true we currently have a house that we live in while in the village of Avevete, it is insufficient to the task of effectively translating the Bible. It is rudimentary at best, and does not contain sufficient space to gather the translators and other language workers together to do the work. Especially in this culture, having a place to gather and work is of paramount importance to actually motivating the work. This is why though we will be building living space for the Carwile family, there is just as much space dedicated to the work of Bible translation.

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Convenience or obstacle?

There is a real struggle to find where the line is for convenience that enables the work and lifestyle choices that hinder the work. At some point, the further away from the lifestyle of the Pamosu people we get, the less they will accept us and our work. So we must always be willing to make sacrifices and accept some of the things we would like to happen just can not be reconciled with our ultimate goals. However, there are real hindrances to the work on the other end as well. If Brenda is spending 4 hours a day doing laundry, we have really only 3 options. 1. Accept she has less time to do ministry for the Pamosu or to our children. 2. Try to make laundry more convenient by bringing out a washing machine or finding other methodologies to do it more efficiently. 3. Adopt a more native lifestyle choice of just owning less clothes and only washing them when absolutely necessary. In this case we are opting for option 2 by trying to build a house that will make regular day to day business easier so we can focus on ministry. A similar stance is taken by bringing food with us instead of farming our own food like the Pamosu. We could do it, but it would consume nearly all our time which would undermine the entire purpose for us being there. On the other hand, things like video game consoles, tvs, heated running water, or some other conveniences are either entirely unnecessary or a low priority and may be abandoned in our village life. Still yet other conveniences, like electricity, are more necessary since we will be working on laptops and use networking technologies to improve our ability to facilitate work, so we plan to put solar panels and batteries on/in this new house/office.

Some challenges

It is not easy to build a house in a remote village. Or more exactly, its not easy to build a house with the capabilities we would like to improve our work like electrical wiring, sturdy foundations, and a life expectancy of more than 5-15 years like Pamosu buildings. Here are some, but not necessarily all of the challenges to building this new building.

Transportation

The only means of transportation out to the remote village of Avevete are by helicopter or by foot. The mountains are too rugged for airplanes and we do not have the means to move enough earth to flatten out a long enough section to build an airstrip. There are no roads that go out to this area, largely because building one would be an engineering marvel in the first place and because maintenance would be a real boondoggle with frequent landslides and very steep slopes. This leaves only helicopters and foot traffic in the area. Carrying materials for the house by foot would be possible, but incredibly prohibitive unless it was the only method of doing it. Having a helicopter, though expensive, is a far more reasonable option. We would have to make multiple trips with supplies out to the village to take out the people and materials needed to build the house/office.

Materials

Lumber, especially after the past few years has become very expensive. We have two options, buy professionally cut lumber from a lumberyard in the Madang area. We would then transport it up the coast along a road to a point where we are fairly close to the village(about 20-30 miles by air to the village) and ferry materials. The second option is to try and source local lumber from the Pamosu speakers area. This, at this point in time would likely be the preferred option, but will require negotiation and communication with the locals to make a deal for the lumber. This also brings up the challenge of actually processing the wood. The current plan is to offer to buy a sawmill for the building project that the Pamosu people would be allowed to keep at the end of the project.

Labor

Contingent on whether we are able to reach a reasonable agreement concerning the lumber, we may be able to employ Pamosu speakers to then process the wood into sufficient building materials. It is more likely however we will need to contract skilled labor for the cutting from SIL’s CAM department that handles things like building projects for our organization. We’re still trying to figure out the logistics of the Pamosu learning how to safely use the equipment, but it is our understanding that the company we will be buying the equipment from should be able to provide training to the Pamosu for their future use of the equipment.

Finally, labor will be needed to actually build the house. Since this labor will need to be skilled labor of a sort most of the Pamosu are not familiar with(electrician, modern construction experience, water piping, networking, etc.) it is unclear if we’ll be able to include the Pamosu speakers directly in the actual building phase. We would prefer if we could have someone who would be doing this work while also helping the Pamosu to learn some of these skills. We do not yet know if that is possible. Nevertheless our three main options for the building is the housing department of SIL-PNG our organization that we work with in Papua New Guinea, outside help in the form of an experienced housebuilder from the United States coming to work for a short period, and the Pamosu speakers themselves.

Cost

Of course cost is always an obstacle. However, in a remote village with almost no infrastructure, it is increased multiple times due to the factors mentioned above. Our personal financial support is not sufficient to cover the costs of such a project. We need help. If you are willing to help in this way click the button below.