Harvest is in full motion here near my hometown of Sutton, NE. My mom’s side of the family finished their harvest this week and my dad is helping our renter finish up the last weeks’ worth of custom corn. This will make five straight weeks of running the combine, augur wagon, and semis.

For the past week I have been at home quarantining because I had been near my friend the last weekend and she tested positive for COVID-19. I then proceeded to get tested myself and the test came back negative. The college still said I had to stay at home and quarantine even though I felt fine and had a negative result. I didn’t argue too much because I have had the chance to enjoy some spare time actually living and not just going day to day without more than seven or eight hours of sleep and a hundred assignments all due on the same day. The assignments are still rolling in and none of my professors have the option to Zoom into class so guess who gets to play catch-up? (this girl)

Only one of my professors out right told me she would catch me up with class when I got back, and that’s okay because we are working on an oral history report about a minority person (I chose my grandpa). So, thank you Deb for being so attentive.

My grandpa grew up in Madang, Papua New Guinea, with his parents and siblings doing missionary work. He talks about how he had a pineapple patch in his backyard and anytime he wanted fresh fruit, all he had to do was walk outside and pick it. Madang, Papua New Guinea is beautiful and full of remarkable plants, animals and people. My grandpa’s parents were American missionaries and helped spread Christianity to the native New Guineans. My grandpa’s father also taught the natives working skills in his automotive and wood milling shop. My grandpa grew up only four blocks away from the Bismarck Sea and lived near the lighthouse. He talks about the heat, humidity and mosquito problems they faced living near the equator and right on the ocean. I asked him if he would ever return and he replied with a simple no. He said he was getting too old to travel across country, let alone across oceans.

I will be presenting my oral history report in my intercultural communications class sometime next week so I hope my classmates will be interested in hearing more about Madang and the history of Papua New Guinea.

If any of my readers are interested in learning more about life in Madang, Papua New Guinea, email me at [email protected] and I can write about it sometime in the coming weeks.
See y’all here next week, take care and be kind to one another.