Lost in Translation - Itambu

This is the second instalment in this segment 'Lost in Translation' i'll explain to you a word you will see a lot if you come to Papua New Guinea, 'Itambu'. All over the place you will see signs which contain the word 'itambu' and from the general sense of the context of the word you can tell 'itambu' is some bad mojo.

'Itambu' in Tok Pidgin is for us the word 'forbidden' in English. In the sign above it translates to, "It is forbidden to stand close to the airplane (balus)" or less formally, "Don't stand next to the the airplane or your arms and head will be chopped off and the little dance you started in front of the rotor blades of this aircraft will look silly in retrospect." Look closely at the picture. He was definitely doing a little jig before the guy was chopped up. Look at his legs...see?

But here's something more interesting. 'Itambu' also means 'in-laws'. So your 'in-laws' are 'forbidden' in Papua New Guinea. I don't think this requires any further explanation. But for a country with such an apt linguistical (if that is a word, if not, tada, I am the inventor) way of avoiding this taboo there seems to be a little bit of revision needed by some people of this very useful word. Here is an article I photographed last year. It's not that uncommon to see articles of this kind in the national newspapers. It's quite disturbing and very sad to read about this abuse, which usually occurs to females but also sometimes young boys. Last night I heard on the radio another accusation of incest in which an uncle (20 or so years) paid his slightly younger niece for relations...AND SHE CONSENTED! It's not a problem unique to this part of the world, but it's definitely one of the problems inflicting this country.

A Fun Game to Play - Sister Showdown

Here's a fun game to play. Take two sisters, in one room, both on gmail chat and then use the old suggestive sell...

Chatting with Tahereh...me:can you give your sister a slap for me? tahereh87: hahaha

i just slapped her

:)

me: just SLAP her

really hard

8:21 PM tahereh87: hahahahaha

i JUST DID

me: YES

pinch her

tahereh87: hahah i just did

hahaha

got her this time

:P

me: pull her hair

tahereh87: hahahha

i just did

HAHAHAHA

me: she told me she's going to give you a horsey bite

watch out

get her first

tahereh87: what the HELL si wrong with you

is*

me: hahaahaha

8:24 PM she told me she's going to put a wet wash cloth under neath your pillow case tonight so when you lay your head down it will get all wet

so get her first

Chatting with Tayabeh...
Tayebeh: oiii

dude

i am sitting next to tahereh

i can see what you wrote

slap yourself

8:21 PM me: HAHAHAH

Tayebeh: OUCH YOU &(#$^$^ (edited for the benefit of our audience)

me: :p

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

punch her in the arm

Tayebeh: no im stopping her

me: punch her

;)

Tayebeh: OWWW SHE JUST DID

YOU LOSER

me: punch her

Tayebeh: OWW DUDE

me: ge ther back

Tayebeh: STOP IT

YOUR A S^&( STIRER (Please Tayebeh this is a G-rated page)

8:23 PM me: giver her a horsey bite

Tayebeh: hahahah

me: HAHAHAHAHAH

did you get her?

Tayebeh: no

Later on it gets a little more creative...
me: yeah well she had a plan

i dont get it

but it involved something like getting your parents to hand over all your belongings to her

tahereh87: hmmmm

8:31 PM sounds like something that might happen

anytime soon

:P

me: hahahaha

8:35 PM Tay's defenses are down

go and sing really loudly in her ear

tell her you have a secret

then sing YMCA in her ear really loudly

me: hahahaha

can you go down to the kitchen and mix some sultanas in some flour, salt and water

and tay will come for a taste test

and then say YUCK

when you trick her

Meanwhile back at the bat cave...
me: she said she was going to steal Zhinus' things and then put them in your room and then frame you

so that your family will feel sorry for Zhinus and ask you to leave

Tayebeh: omg we arnt 12 dude

8:33 PM me: she said she was going to eat all your Dad's chocolate and then leave a note saying it was you but that you werent sorry that you did it

8:34 PM then your Dad would make a nap-sack full of food and tell you to leave home

8:36 PM me: Tahereh said she's making chocolate chip cookies and if you want some come down to the kitchen

Tayebeh: hahaha so she can put a wet napkin in my pillow?

thats not gonna work

But really i love these two little monkeys!

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty (sěr'ən-dĭp'ĭ-tē)
The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

Etymology (i.e. the origins of the word)
'Serendip' is an old Persian name for the country now known as Sri Lanka. The word comes from an ancient Persian fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip' in which the main characters make fortunate discoveries by accident.
The word was brought into the English venacular by author Horace Walpole; in a letter he wrote, he coined the term 'serendipity'...

"this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word."

Some interesting serendiptious moments in history:
* Christopher Colombus looking for a new route to India found the Americas.
* An apple fell on Sir Isaac Newtown's head leading him to ponder about the nature of gravity.
* The slinky was invented when a US navy engineer accidentally knocked a torsion spring off his work table.
* Penicillin was dicovered by Alexander Fleming when he absent mindedly left out a glass culture dish
* Edwin Jenner discovered vaccination when he observed that milk maids did not catch smallpox after being exposed to cowpox.

The word 'zemblanity' was created by William Boyd as an antonym to serendipity meaning "making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design." But it didn't quite take off quite so much as the word serendipity. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue does it? Also no one likes a whinger Boydy!

Why do birds suddenly appear everytime you are near?

Oh right, you're a magician! Yeah I forgot about that.

A cool experiment

You'll have to excuse me. It's been like a mad house here trying to keep up with the influx of correspondence since the beginning of this blog. Hold tight I will try and respond to all of your comments on my page. In the meantime here's an interesting experiment you can do with rather peculiar results.

It's important to follow this experiment very closely or otherwise you won't be able to observe the chemical reactions that take place. You will need a packet of Mentos and a 2 litre bottle of Diet Coke. It works much better with Diet Coke.

You don't need preparation but you should get a friend to help record the moment on camera. Simply take about 5 Mentos and thread through them a piece of string. You could use a pipe cleaner if this works better for you. Next, and this is the important part, you need to work very quckly. Take the lid off the diet coke. It might work even better if you pour out or drink a bit of the Diet Coke. Then, in one quick motion, put the string of mentos in the bottle and put your eye up to the lid and look inside to see a very interesting chemical reaction.

This is a great experiment to do with kids or also older people as well. Send me your pictures and videos if you're able to conduct this experiment correctly. Enjoy your science experiment you boffins!