Farewell to PNG
Trip Start
May 27, 2007
1
13
16
Trip End
Jul 29, 2007
Alotau, Papua New Guinea
Friday, July 20, 2007
from PNG! Time has flown by so quickly that it completely amazes me.
We leave tomorrow afternoon and will stay in Port Moresby, PNG tomorrow night. We will fly to Brisbane on Sunday morning and from there will take a train to Sydney! I don't think I will be able to send out another update until I get home, but maybe. We will fly out from Brisbane to LA on Sunday morning the 29th and I'll have to call my mom about what time I am supposed to get home...because I cannot remember!
The week was titled "disorientation week" and I think that it might have lived up to its name. Saturday we were pretty much just lazy...I sewed some "lap-laps," or wrap-around skirts, for all of us girls. We tie-dyed a shirt for Daniel and watched "National Treasure" before bed.
(Like I said...pretty much lazy!) Sunday was a little more interesting.
We all went to town church to finish up some class stuff and afterwards the kids sang a song for us. Rachel and Bethany have been working with the teenage girls and they had a sleep over here on Sunday night. I think it went really well and all the girls seem to have enjoyed it a lot. Monday morning came very early because we had to fix breakfast for all the girls and then get some of them to school! They have had a break for the past 3 weeks and some of the schools started back up this week. The interns went out after the girls had all gone home and did some shopping. When we got back I made some peanut butter cookies and we all played "Risk." It was so much fun! We had a meeting with Marcus about the trip to Trobriand Islands and what we should write in our report. Marcus and Diane wanted to go out on a "date" so we all cooked dinner for the girls, put them to bed and cleaned their house. After all that was done we watched "Man from Snowy River" which is one awesome movie!
Tuesday was a LONG day! We got up, got some food and water packed and
were over at the Reese's house at 8am! Wesley had agreed to take us to the top waterfall! There has only been one other group of white people to ever go up there and most of the people that live here have never walked up there! We hiked for seven hours to get up there and back, but it was a lot of fun! I have one impressive bruise on my kneecap, but other than that we all came out unscathed! When we got to the top of the ridge we went to the place that had been a WWII look out for US troops to spot Japanese ships coming into the bay. There is nothing there now because it has been moved to a memorial on the side of the road going out towards the airport. On the way back Wesley got lost...so we got to cut our own path out...it was pretty cool!
When we got back from our hike, we had to go to a going away thing at the Gama church. The food was really good and they sang a bunch of songs for us. It had not really hit me, until then, that we would probably never see them on this side of eternity. They are all such wonderful people and I am really going to miss them all! By the time we got back to the house we were nasty and worn out...only to find out that the water pipe in the front yard had broken...so there was no water! We took our laundry to the Reese's and ourselves over to the Ford's house. Anne is living in the Ford's house while they are on furlough so she let us use their shower.
Wednesday was another long, but good, day! Leslie had offered to take us out to an island to play on the beach and fish if we wanted to...so we took him up on that offer! We left around 10 and it was a 2.5 hour boat ride to Doini Island. It was really choppy, but I had a lot of fun!
Rachel, Bethany and Daniel got a little seasick, but not bad. When we arrived you could not have asked for a more beautiful place! I had moved up front when we slowed down for Leslie to cast out a few lines and it was an amazing sight! The water was the most amazing shade of turquoise and the beach was a dazzling white lined by a wall of evergreens and palm trees. It looked like a postcard! The water was prefect and our house that we stayed in was right on the other side of a thin line of trees from the beach! After unloading the boat and eating lunch Leslie, Tate and Thomas went fishing; Bethany took a nap and the rest of us went out to enjoy the amazing beach! I had put on sunscreen...but I got burned to a crisp...sorry mom and dad! The only downside to our island paradise was the sand gnats! Those things ate Daniel and me alive! Neither of us have had problems with mosquitoes, but good grief!
Leslie and the boys got back with some awesome fish and that was dinner! It was sooooo good! After washing dishes we went to the beach and made a fire. It was so amazing out there! Thursday morning Leslie, Tate, Thomas and Luke went out fishing and caught a sail fish, two barracudas and some other fish. The rest of us were pretty lazy and didn't really get up and do anything until 10. The mighty fishermen got back and we started construction on our sad fortress. I think that is a better name for it than castle because it had a wall and village and farmland and all kinds of impressive stuff! It was huge! After we finished building it, we ate some lunch and headed home. The sea was much calmer out in the open sea, but where we went slow for Leslie to fish was SO choppy! We had a great time and Loopie had tacos for us when we got back! YAY!
Friday, yes today...we have already had Friday, was pretty good day too. We did a lot of running around that had to get done and I got in a good nap before we went to learn how to make "mona." Wesley taught us how and it was really easy! We had a going away dinner from the town church tonight and we took the mona. Everyone said we did a really good job! As our gifts we got some "real" gifts and a lot of emotional, for lack of a better word, gifts. Some of them got up and sang for us; one of the girls wrote a song for us; one of the small groups gave us some wall hangings and it was just really nice to be able to tell everyone goodbye. Some of them are coming here in the morning before we leave, but many of them we will not see again. They are all such beautiful people and I will miss them greatly!
I hope you are all having a great week and may God bless you! Please keep us in your prayers as we travel for the next week. Thank you again for all your prayers!
God bless!
Comments
Contact in Brisbane
Bekah, I've been following your adventures through a Google Alert. If you'd like to while you're in Brisbane, phone us at River of Life City Church, Slacks Creek, and we'll see if we can meet you for a chat. David and I are ex-PNG, now pastors, and my brother-in-law and his wife spent three years in Alotau in the 80s, very involved in the church there. I just sent this comment to you, but it ended up with your third entry - sorry, you'll have to delete it. This is my next effort !!
God bless you,
Elizabeth