what I liked

I started a list of things I liked about the trip after getting into a bit of a funk in Port Moresby.  They are in random order, just jotted down as they came to me.

1.  Spending time with Shannon and seeing her excel at communicating with everyone.
2.  Meeting K and his family (person our family has been praying for in Mibu)
3.  Painting teens' nails in Madang
4.  Ladies' Night in Madang...more in my comfort zone than the VBS
5.  Trying beetle nut...the taste was awful, but it gave us another connection there
6.  Learning to weave bilums (or at least kind of learning)...gave us a chance to interact with a few Mibu women one on one
7.  Hiking in Mibu...even when I was spent after the hike, I gained a lot from it.
8.  Having Joey prepare breakfast for us.
9.  the hammock on our backporch in Madang
10.  Malalo beach
11.  Sweet, friendly families in Madang
12.  helicopter ride
13.  conversation with Dennis about the idea of being single in the culture of today's church, with Geoff joining in
14.  holding the green frog in Madang
15.  brown toad jumping on my lap while I cleaned up after VBS
16.  Making VBS snacks that the kids liked
17.  face painting
18.  Hearing the PNG reports in Madang, especially when Gary filled us in on some things as he spoke
19.  the lion/beaver/otter/golden retriever assessment
20.  playing perquackey with Lori, Kevin, Gary, and Kris in Pt Moresby
21.  Geoff staying with us during the great Madang Delay of 2012
22.  extra room on the flight back from Australia to US
23.  seeing Rusty (tree kangaroo) in Tibu
24.  no one getting sick
25.  Australian customs agents being funny with Dennis and Kevin
26.  Leaving food and other items for the Husas
27.  Doing laundry in Madang
28.  getting the spinner delivered after it was missing
29.  Lori getting to see her little piggy right away
30.  praying with Dennis before the ladies' night
31.  fog in Mibu
32.  rain in Mibu
33.  Gary Smith including our team in announcements and his team's presentation
34.  personal screens for long trip over
35.  Schwepps mango and orange drink
36.  walking in the dark to the Tartaglia house by myself
37.  omelet made for me in Pt Moresby
38.  Joey buying loads of coconuts
39.  PB and chocolate oreos
40.  lizard landing on my hand while at a restaurant
41.  the Lapilo guest house
42.  Eating in Chili's restaurant on way over.
43.  Reading note from Anna about making new friends.
44.  bug bam bracelets
45.  baby chicks
46.  seeing Kris lead the music
47.  watching Abby carry her "baby" on her back
48.  Using Mandarin when we ate at a Chinese restaurant in Madang


There are many parts I liked but didn't include on the list (like our hard-working team!), and there may be more that I add to the list as I continue to think about the trip. 

another day in paradise...

 

For those of you sticking in there with us, thank you!  It has been a delight to share some of this trip with you.  Perhaps the rest of the team will pipe in here and there to correct my faulty memory in places or to add their own unique voice for some of the happenings. 

After this post, I do have a bit more to write...perhaps something about our stay in Australia, although it was not technically part of the team's trip, and also a list of what I liked about PNG/the trip.


My posts thus far have not covered the stay in Port Moresby.  Mainly I wanted to explain our Madang stay, since that is the part of the trip where all of us were in the same place (basically) at the same time.  Once the conference was finished, Shiloh, Joey, and Dennis headed home via Australia, and as far as I know, experienced no problems.  Once we left (or tried to leave is perhaps a bit more accurate) Madang, the remainder of the team realized that we were in the midst of a typical PNG event: flight delays.  Only our flight delay caused us to miss our connecting flight to Brisbane, Australia.  After a couple of weeks of hard work and just about a week of humidity and warm temps, we had all been looking forward to a relaxing evening together with no responsibilities, exploring the streets and rivers of Brisbane (you might want to revisit the post on expectations).  It was not to be. 

Geoff stayed with us for most of the day in Madang as we tried to work through the flight issue.  He was fantastic, and once again, made me grateful to know him.  Kevin did a great job communicating with our travel insurance company (by then, he and one of the reps had become fast friends). 

After lunch, we flew to Port Moresby and stayed in the Gateway Hotel overnight before leaving for Brisbane the next day.  We still had a nice evening together as a team, but I had a hard time bouncing back that night.  Along with the hike, I would say that the stay in Port Moresby was my most
challenging time on the trip. 

 

 

However, unlike the hike, I didn't leave with many life applications or takeaways from the stay in Port Moresby, except perhaps some very specific ones related to the Gateway Hotel: do not sit on any of the lounge chairs (unless you weigh about 90 pounds, then you can sit, just be careful), the swimming pool is magnificient at 6:30 in the morning, the food is good but pricey, and watch your step going in and out the front door.  And, of course, as their slogan notes, PNG can be "totally unexpected." 

our PNG family (the team and the Husas)

Thank you for an indescribable trip. 

 

 

 

 

Joey

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to know everyone on the team better.  Before we left, I felt like I knew one other member very well, a few medium well (just wanted to say that since some of this post is about food), and a couple not very well at all. 

Joey is someone I got to know better, not necessarily due to long, philosophical talks, but through lots of short interactions and his actions.  He came on this trip with the stated intention to serve, and that is exactly what he did.  There are many ways he did that, but this picture captures one of them, albeit in an odd way. 

Joey seemed to think his schedule in Madang was more flexible than the rest of ours.  I tend to think that it was more flexible because he made it so.  Regardless, Joey designated himself our breakfast chef, and breakfasts were amazing!!!  We had protein-laden scrambled eggs with cheese every morning, hand delivered to wherever we happened to be when they finished cooking.  At least one morning, I happened to be in the hammock on the back porch, and let me tell you, cheesy eggs with fresh pineapple in a hammock overlooking water is pretty much the best breakfast you can have.  Wow. 

One thing you need to know about our kitchen is that our toaster did not work, so we used the broiler instead (and by "we," of course, I mean "Joey").  However, he would get so busy scrambling eggs, delivering breakfasts, and pouring beverages that occasionally (and by occasionally, I mean at least once every morning), the toast would get a little, shall we say, overdone.  And by a little overdone, I mean BLACK. 

He, along with everyone else in the house, took it in stride.  People either did some scraping or waited for the next piece in hopes that it would be a little less done.  It has become part of the lore connected with our team, along with the Australian customs agents joking with Dennis and Kevin, all of us moseying somewhere, and Shiloh... (oh, just remembered, I wasn't allowed to share that part...what happens in PNG sometimes has to stay in PNG).

teens

I liked the nursery kids and the VBS kids and the wide range of interactions with all of them, but I really liked the teens.  I like hearing what they have to say and how they understand the world.  Plus, they are just plain fun.

Jais Aben

 

After the last morning of VBS had been wrapped up, we went with the teens to a resort called Jais Aben.  All of them had been there multiple times before, so they were able to tell us what to expect.  The main draw for most of them was a tire swing into the water, but then it was reported that the tree had become too wet to climb safely.  However, one of the girls had already managed to climb the tree, bypass the swing, and just totally launch herself off the top of one of the limbs.  It was fun just to watch her.  We were not able to rent equipment, which is usually the case there, but most of the kids had brought snorkeling gear, so they made use of that and went exploring.  The best discovery was a blue starfish.  We got to enjoy a trip on a boat that four missionary families share, and Kevin and Lori went tubing. 

snacks

One part I was most excited about with VBS is coming up with snack ideas that went along with the amusement park theme.  The first day we had popcorn, the second day these chocolate-covered bananas on a stick (because everything is sold on a stick at carnivals, right?), and on the third day, we had homemade pretzels. 

games

Gary, Lori, and I each organized one of the game days, and one of us served as an assistant while the other took on the nursery.  Although she may deny it, I think that Lori may have missed her calling as a PE teacher (check out that perfect form in the picture...she's just missing a whistle!)  Two teen boys helped us each day, which was very needed.  Gary mastered balloon bending techniques so that he could produce fancy crowns and animals within moments on our carnival day.