Safe and Sound

(sorry for the length and lack of neatness, connections are very slow, so I'll only try one big post)
We have arrived! We flew into Madang at 4:30pm, and now we have two nights at a beautiful resort, trying to recover from the fact that we moved ahead 17 hours. Meaning, that if I post this today, you will be reading it yesterday (unless you are outside North America). At the airport in Vancouver we got a little scare when we were told that we needed a visa to even touchdown in Australia, they were able to file an electronic visa for us within 15 minutes, praise God for technology. We had a 4 and half hour layover in Hong Kong during which we were able to sleep for 2 hours. In Cairns, Australia we cleared customs and we walked outside, we have been to Australia! At the time the more exciting thing was the chance to have a shower, best shower ever!
We were picked up by our camp director on Tues. morning. We soon realized why she drove a 4X4 toyota pick-up with raised suspension, it was pretty bumpy ride, straight up to our new home.

What is Reality?
Heidi and I have been thinking and preparing to come to Papua New Guinea for over a year. We have talked about what it will be like, researched different aspects of our journey and listened to others who have been here before. The strangest feeling is when it actually happens. When we landed in Port Moresby, PNG after leaving Cairns and we inhaled our first breath of PNG air, it was odd. It’s hard to describe the feeling, you want to pinch yourself or run into a wall to make sure it’s real. “Over there” has now become “here”.


An Average Day
I thought I should take some time to write and tell you about life here in PNG, what it's like, and what we've been up to. I wanted to tell you a little about daily life...
Since being at POC (Pacific Orientation Course), I've joined the group of walkers that walks down and then up the driveway to make 1 km. The way back up is quite steep and challenging. The walk starts at 6:00 am, and we get to the bottom of the walk just in time to catch the incredible sunrise. There is something nice and refreshing about walking early in the morning. Gets me ready for the rest of the day, and gives me a chance to wake up and also to think before the day starts. There are also people in the group who walk in the afternoon at 4 pm so I've joined that group a couple of times too.
After the morning walk, I am sweating buckets (it's hot and humid here ALL THE TIME, not just during the day) so I head off to the showers. Here, it is not so simple as to turn on the faucet and enjoy a shower. Here we have bucket showers, so you fill up a bucket with water the temperature you would like, lower the shower bucket in your shower stall, and fill it up. Then heave the shower bucket back up with a rope till it's the appropriate height. You turn the shower head at the bottom of the bucket until water starts to come out, rinse off, shut the water off and lather up, then turn the water back on and rinse off again. You have to turn the water on and off throughout the shower to make sure you don't end up all nicely lathered up, and then run out of shower water!
I have to say that I think this is one of the most beautiful places on earth that I have seen so far. It is very tropical and "jungly", if that's a word. There are palm trees, coconut trees, and banana trees everywhere. There are these very tall trees that are covered with vines that have blue flowers, and other tall trees that have a red flower on the top. The colors are amazing. We are up at 1200 feet above sea level, and have a great view of the ocean, as well as the town of Madang. There are ALWAYS some sort of birds singing. There's one that starts first in the morning, and he has the funniest song, it makes Paul & I both laugh. There's also one that we have noticed singing in the evening. He has a funny call too - Paul says it sounds like the start of a song, but he never finishes it! It's always just the same 2 notes!
We had our orientation to the kitchen here yesterday. We will be starting to help out in the kitchen and dining room tomorrow. There is a big wood stove in the kitchen called Wilma. There are also water pipes running through Wilma, and this is where water is heated for the kitchen and the dishwasher. It's quite an amazing system. They also bake in an oven heated by the wood stove. Throughout our time here the ladies will be learning how to bake bread and make yogurt, among other things. I'll become quite domestic here!
You've already heard about the fitness walks. I guess they really want to get us in shape here because they also have us in a swimming program. We had our first session today. We swim in the ocean, around a rope set up that is 100 meters long. The goal is to swim 1 mile, which is 1600 meters, or 8 laps around the rope. There were several people today who made the mile already, on our first day. Paul and I swam 1200 m today, which we felt was pretty good for our first day, and we also walked down to swimming instead of taking the truck down, which was an hour walk down the driveway. Needless to say, we will sleep well tonight.
Speaking of sleep - I go to bed about 8:30 here! By about 7:00 I start yawning and feeling tired. Paul usually has to "strongly encourage" me to stay awake until 8:30, otherwise I'll be up at 3 am, rearing to go. We sleep under a mosquito net, which can be a pain, when crawling into bed, and then you have to tuck in the net under the mattress. But it keeps us safer from malaria, so it's worth the bother, I suppose.
There are a wide variety of people here for POC, from Australia, the US, and one other couple from Canada. There are 25 adults and 6 children, most of whom are toddlers, which makes things a lot of fun. There is always a very cute kid to make you smile. I know I shouldn't have favorites, but I admit I do. His name is Isaac, and he's a little blond 18 month old with big brown eyes. He is the happiest little boy I've seen. He walks or runs everywhere. He talks all the time, loudly, but he is the only one who knows what he's saying. He loves to be pushed on the swing in the yard. I have hit it off with a girl named Carrie Jones (Isaac's mom). She is a beautiful redhead, and an MK who grew up in Colombia. She will also be working at the medical clinic in Ukarumpa with me, doing a disertation for her doctorate in community health/epidemiology. She's one smart lady. She is an answer to prayer, as I prayed for a friend here, and God provided.
Things we've been learning and talking about so far have been fine, but there is a lot coming that makes me nervous and overwhelmed. I'm sure when the time comes, we will be prepared, but at this point, there are lots of unknowns. We will be doing "haus kuk" (house cook) weekends, where we make a "kitchen" out of some sticks and a tarp, and have to cook over an open fire for the weekend. I think that starts next week. We will also be meeting our "wasfamily" (family that watches over you) in the next few weeks too. We will do short visits with them at first, and eventually we will be staying with a family in their village for 5 weeks. This is a very overwhelming thought, but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Another big hurdle will be learning Pidgin. On Monday, we start in our "tok pisin" groups, where there are about 5 students, and a tok pisin teacher, a PNG staff person who will help us to learn the language. I'm hoping I'll catch on quickly. The food so far has been excellent. The schedule has been reasonable, with free time in the evening and a siesta after lunch every day. But I can also feel myself missing family especially, and having space just to ourselves as a couple. The rooms are separated by very thin walls here, and you can hear what's going on all around.
Missing you all,
Heidi (for Paul too)