Back to POC Safe and Sound

We have arrived back safely from our 3 day hike!!! We had a fabulous time, and met some amazing people in the 2 villages where we stayed overnight, and also in other villages, where we stopped briefly to rest. We were treated so well, and had a great time of singing and fellowship in one of the villages. It is beautiful that wherever you go in the world, you meet fellow believers of Jesus.

We are now busy getting training in parenting! We are taking care of a little boy named Jonathan, about 17 months old, while his parents are away on their 3 day hike. We had a VERY early morning today – Jonathan was up at 4:30 am, and didn’t want to go back to bed. We are having a lot of fun with Jonathan, and he is a great little boy.

We will post some pictures soon, we’re just sneaking in some time on the internet now while J. is sleeping.

We are also very busy now getting ready for village living. We have spent the last 2 days buying supplies and groceries to take along for the 5 weeks we’ll be away. Please pray for us during this very busy time, as we prepare for a new, challenging, and exciting experience.

3 day hike postponed

We were supposed to leave this morning (Monday) for our 3 day hike. Then at 8:00, an hour before we were to leave, we were called to the office, and informed that we would not be going on the hike, because 16 convicts had escaped from the local penitentiary on Saturday night and it is not safe to be hiking around the bush at this point. We had all been excited and ready to head out, all our packs were ready to go, so we were all more than a little disappointed, but also understood the very good reasons for not going.

After some discussion between the staff, it has now been decided that we will hike in a different area, starting tomorrow. Some of the workmen, the director, Paul and another orientee have gone out to survey the new hike, and let the people in the villages along the way know that we would love to visit with them and sleep on their verandas on the nights we’ll be hiking. So we are hoping this new plan will work out, and that we’ll be heading out on our hike tomorrow. Please pray for safety, health, and a chance to connect with the Papua New Guineans that we’ll meet along the way.

Update again: We leave this morning!!! (Tuesday, Sept. 27)

My high-tech oven

Did you know you can bake in an old kerosene drum? Yes, it’s true. Paul made me a drum oven from a kerosene drum and sheet metal. It works beautifully, and I have made pizza, bread, and banana cake in my drum oven already. The trick is to keep the fire going nicely under the oven while you bake without too much smoke blowing in your face. (Heidi watched our wasmama

manage her fire and quickly perfected the art!)

The people you meet on a wokabout

Today we went on a training hike, preparing for the 3 day hike we’ll be doing on Monday. We rested at a village along the way, and Paul enjoyed conversation with our guide, and his brother. Looking into the faces of these old men, you see wisdom and knowledge – a treasure for the next generation to discover. And they love to laugh! They have great senses of humor and are always eager to make jokes…

Making a bilum

Here in PNG nobody carries backpacks or purses – everyone carries all their things in string bags called a bilum. My wasmama is teaching me how to make, and Magdalene helped, of course.

Independence Day

Independence Day

Today Papua New Guinea is celebrating its 30^th year of independence. PNG was given peaceful independence from Australia in 1975. The city of Madang was packed with people celebrating. On Sunday all the churches of Madang joined together in the park and had a 4 hr service, with singing, several choirs performing, and a great sermon. The country’s motto for the 30^th anniversary is “Put PNG First”, but the preacher encouraged all those in attendance to change the motto to “Put God first for PNG”. We were encouraged, but are still getting used to this event oriented culture, where it doesn’t matter how long the service goes, rather than our time-oriented culture, where everyone is looking at their watches if the service goes longer than an hour!

First overnight with our wasfamili

On Thursday evening, we headed out to our wasfamili’s house loaded with overnight gear, and ready for a night in a village house. We enjoyed the supper meal of kaukau (sweet potato), tinned corned beef (surprisingly good!), rice, and kindam (crawfish that our waspapa caught himself, with a bamboo spear). We had banana bread for dessert, with sweet tea. We sat with them and “storied” for a few hours after supper, the common thing that people do in the evening, when they don’t have the distraction of television! Storying – a part of PNG culture that I am growing to love more and more. It happens when a group of people sit around together (usually on the floor) and just tell stories. It can be stories of things that happened in the time of their ancestors, events that occurred here during World War II, or maybe about the “crazy whiteskins” and the silly things they do!!! The stories are always so interesting to listen to, and the Papua New Guineans love telling them. We are at the point where we are able to understand more and more, but at times it can be frustrating to not be able to tell our own stories as well as we’d like to. We are encouraged though, that we are getting more and more comfortable with the language, and so don’t get corrected in our tok pisin quite as often J

One of the highlights of the time was watching the kids play with the bubbles we brought for them – they were a real hit! We were so happy, because usually Magdalene and Jeffrey are so shy, and don’t talk much, but the bubbles worked some magic, and they came out of their shells. It felt like a small victory when Jeffrey started talking non-stop all evening, and Magdalene sat in my lap! We went to bed about 10:00 and slept in old US Army hammocks (we kept them on the ground) with mosquito nets on top so we didn’t get eaten alive. We got up around 6:00, and after a breakfast of coconut cookies, Paul went off to the garden with Miani and Jeffrey and learned how to plant banana, taro, etc. I stayed home with Judy and Magdalene and got my first lesson in making a bilum, which is a string bag that all the ladies in PNG know how to make. All in all, we had a great time with our wasfamili, and our looking forward to our next visit with them. We are learning more and more about the pasin of PNG (culture, way of life) as we spend more time with the people, and we are growing to love the land and the people more and more.

Tropical Delight

This Tuesday, we all had the pleasure of going to our directors’ beach house, at Rempi (about 45 minutes away). We had a day of relaxation, renewal, and refreshment. We snorkeled, swam, read, ate, and had a beautiful day. This one will not soon be forgotten…

saturday hike

Weekends are not so scheduled here, so one Saturday afternoon, 5 of us decided to head out for a hiking adventure…with no guide! We didn’t get lost, and had a great afternoon tromping through the jungles of Papua New Guinea for a couple hours.