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).