Eli away for the next four weeks.

Eli has scored a golden opportunity!
Eli heads out to a village in the Markham Valley for the next four weeks
with a lady by the name of Jessica whom is currently conducting research
towards her PhD in Social Geography. Jessica's specific area of study
has something to do with natural disasters and how the locals have coped
over the years. Their first port of call is a village by the name of
Kumalu in the Markham Valley which is about a 3 hours vehicle ride from
Lae town.
And Eli's role?
Guide and interpreter!
Eli's initial assignment was to translate two documents from English
into Tok Pisin and she was up all of last night typing a way on my
laptop and the night before I believe she only got around two or three
hours sleep. The challenge with translating into Tok Pisin is that the
verbal and written forms of the language are very different. This made
Eli's job that much more challenging, apart from the fact that she has
next to no experience using word processing software on a PC or laptop.
So, for the next four weeks – Eli will be working very closely with
Jessica as workshops and interviews are held with the locals. My
understanding is that Eli will be working on both written and verbal
translations.
I am rapt for Eli as this will be her 1st paid work for a couple of
years and could very well provide her with opportunities to do more
guiding or interpreting work down the track.
After Eli and Jessica get back from Kumalu, they will be in Lae for a
couple of weeks before heading out to a village called Erap – also
located in the Markham Valley. And then, after a short xmas break, they
headup to an island called Manam – situated off the north coast of PNG
near Madang.
I'm going to miss Eli dearly!