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."