New Look and Odd T-shirts

At home, usually this time of the year, I rearrange the furniture to prepare for the fall. Move the sofa closer to the fireplace etc. Here, I am rearranging the blog site. Not quite the same but close enough.
Scott does not have malaria, he had a nasty virus that cleaned him out. He is back at work today but as a result we had a very quiet weekend. It rained on Sunday, one of those nice strong almost can't hear each other talk rains. The air and the grasses are now washed clean.
I took several girls to our new mall this Saturday. When I say new mall, you would be surprised how amazing this place is just down the hill from the school. It is really nice and though it isn't quite finished they have opened up the stores that are ready to go. There is a clothing store there which sells pretty much anything you may need and really funny T-shirts. The one I picked up said and I quote " Life does not begins at forty" ALSO "Blessed are they that hunger and thirsty" AND Again, "Don't hate me because I am beautiful, hate me because your boyfriend thinks I am" and last but not least, the most subtle one there, "Lets get Drunk".
As I continue my pursuit of wisdom from T-shirts I will pass them on to you.

Only here !

It is a strange thing but when you get sick here in Papua everyone wants to take your blood. We were invited to to someone house for dinner last night and it was wonderful (Pizza) but prior to being there Scott was not feeling so well. He was not eating much of dinner so explaining to our host that he was not feeling well they promptly said " We will take a slide and check it out". Taking a slide means that they not only have stuff to poke your finger with, but they have a slide to put it on and then they run it down to the 'drug store' to see if you have malaria. It seems that the High school girls are really good at poking the finger just right and taking the blood just right. I have seen this on more then one occasion. You really can't just have the flu here, you have malaria first then after the slide is negative we can talk about other lesser things you may have picked up. The jury is still out on Scott, his blood count was up but that could simply mean he is just on the cusp of getting malaria or that he has another infection. Either way, he is down for the count.

Health wise, we are all dealing with something. But Scott may be the first one to be counted as a real missionary. It is a rite of passage it seems.

Feeling the burn!

I told Mijo to put on sunscreen when we went to the beach on Saturday...She didn't and now she is relizing how wise her mother really is ... I put on sunscreen but I missed a crucial spot on my back, I am also reaping similar consequences. It is quite amazing how badly one can get burned in the tropics on a sunny day on the beach. Last Sunday I was dealing with blisters, this Sunday a sunburn on my back. Maybe this week will be a pain free week here in Papua.

Scott and I are taking Indonesian lesson on Monday and Wednesday nights. This has been really good for us but I don't know how much we are really learning yet. Scott has been using more and more words and though his accent isn't quite there, he is jumping in anyway.

Oh..Scott and I have cell phones or as they are called here, hand phones. We are learning the mysterious world of texting...it is amzng wht u cn sy wthout spllng it all out. Now I can txt him to brng hme sme stff frm multi jaya ( our local grocery store).

Some of you need to email me and let me in on what is going on with you, this seems like a very one-sided conversation.

Mount Doom

Remember that beautiful mountain I went on and on about not to many posts back. That whole I love this mountain it has framed my childhood.....well, I take it all back. After this Saturday, it is now Mount Doom. It may regain its splendor after all my blisters heal and the adventure of Saturday is farther back in my mind.
We were going to walk up to the water falls which are located on this mountain a short walk behind our school and home. Scott, Nick, Mijo and I were well prepared with water, sunscreen, bug repellent and machete. OK, Nick needed the machete to practise his jungle skills. I also remembered bandages. As we were preparing I was wondering what shoes to wear since I had not pack my hiking shoes. I had a few to choose from and chose a pair I did not mind getting wet or ruined. The pair I chose on a whim were not exactly the best for what was ahead.

We traversed the barb wired fence, wandered through the small village at the bottom of the hill, walked across the river and then began our climb on the mountain. About 30 minutes into the walk I became nauseated and light headed. I was not out of breath or tired but I was feeling very much like I was going to faint and/or throw up. We sat down, Mijo pulled her jungle survival book out of the back pack she had quietly put in and decided that I did not have heat stroke so it was not yet an emergency. We sat, we walked a bit, we sat. Scott in the meanwhile the patient but very non-affected man was wanting to keep going up..do something other then wait for an overheated, fainting, throwing-up wife. So half way up I suggested he and Nick go up and Mijo and I would wait and get better.

About a half hour later, feeling much better I suggested to Mijo that we would walk up and meet the boys coming down. SO off we went up the river bed towards the water fall. We rested, looked around, avoided the bomber like bees and meandered up to where we thought the boys would be coming down. We never met them...
Meanwhile the boys have come down to the spot where they had left us ready to pick us up and return home. Finding us not at the designated spot decided that I had felt bad enough to return home and proceeded back down the mountain and returned home.
We returned to our spot thinking that maybe the boys had gone into the jungle and would be coming down to meet us through a different path so we sat and waited. Scott and I had decided before we left that at 2:30 no matter where we were on the mountain we would head back home and it was 2:30. Mijo asked me if I was worried, yes..I said, lets pray. SO we prayed and decided that we needed to go back up the mountain towards the waterfall because maybe the boys were hurt and that is why they were not coming back down. I had met a Papuan woman and she had gestured to me that the boys had indeed gone up.
Scott got on his motor cycle and began looking for us on the road leading up to the waterfall thinking that maybe we got lost on the way down or that I had become too sick and was waiting on the side of the road. He did this twice riding back and forth asking in his very broken Indonesian..Orang Putih? white person?
Walking back up the river bed thinking the absolute worse case scenario I worked hard at not panicking. Mijo walking on the other side of the river was working really hard at not showing her worries. When we reached the same spot on the river a group of Indonesian men gestured that the short and tall people had gone back down. Walking back down...I will not tell you what I was thinking..at this moment in time it is rather embarrasing. We walked all the way down to the road and at this time I had 6 blisters, wet feet, bad headache and a plan on how to get a search party together to find these lost souls. Scott met us on the road..." Well", he said, " That was fun!"

Somehow in the narrow creek bed, we missed each other. 4 hours we spent...4 hours!!! Knowing that we were all alive and well and not harmed in any way except for the blisters...we had a great evening. Moral of this saga..COMMUNICATE INTENTIONS !!! Don't just say to the wife, we're going up to check it out and not give her your intetions of return. Don't always assume the worst...they may just have gone home to wait for you.

Jayapura

This is the view from the hills behind Jayapura looking towards Papua New Guinea. It is the outline of the mountain in the distance. It is another hour ride from Jayapura to the border but as easy as it may be to drive there it is not that easy to be there. Friends of our made the trip this week to get their visa situation cleared since you have to go out of the country to get back in the country.

Back to Jayapura, the beach you see is called BaseG and we spent many a weekend there in my youth. I do believe the majority of my freckles I have if not from the swimming pool I got here. This view though is from many a house on the hill behind the city of Jayapura, the panorama is spectacular. There are also old houses that were built when the Dutch controlled these islands and they still grace the sides of these hills.

Not many expats live in the city anymore compared to Sentani, a 45 minute drive to the east. But compared to my view from HIS, this one wins hands down. The city is nestled in a bowl just around the corner from this view. It has one of the deepest natural harbors in the world and it is busy. I can't say the city is pretty...but if you lived on this hill you might get over it.

Nuts and Bolts, Misc., Etc.

I thought just for the fun of it that I would let you know what a 'normal' day looks like on this hill. From Monday through Friday, we wake up 6ish, and start walking to school about 7:15. 8 Periods later, 45 minutes each with a lunch that is the same length we are done at 3PM. After school Mijo and Nick may go to the computer lab to play games or do email, play with other kids in the playground, practise with the after school band, come home and do homework or wander and do any or all of the above. I stay in my room till about 3:30 or 3:45 depending on if students want to talk and today I will be helping an Indonesian student learn how to pronounce words he is learning in French class. When I go home I try and figure out what to do for supper which we (Scott and I) usually serve at 5-5:15. The kids clean up while I go on my evening walk. I walk the hill here and at this time particularly because the bats are out, the sun is setting, the smoke from the town is rising, the color is soft and the air is cooler.
Scott can be doing anything and everything while we are at school. At the moment he is welding down at the MAF base, but he also helps out with the elementary PE, goes to the store or runs errands, figuring out how to do some of the things he has been asked to do. His routine is that he does not have one.
Yoda ( our cat) spends his day running like a maniac without concern or routine. He had a serious brush with illness last week but Scott is his animal wisdom stayed up 2 nights to keep him hydrated.

The evening can be very quiet in our home but if I played any of the sports here, floor hockey, basketball, badminton, indoor soccer we could be chasing a ball every night. The hill is busy, our house is pretty mellow with homework, email time and book reading. PTL we all like to read. We watch DVD's and make fun of the subtitles that never seem to be quite the same as the conversation in the movie. We are in bed between 9-9:30. It is Ramadan at the moment so there seems to be quite a few men practising the prayers calls at night over the loud speaker. With no disrespect to their month of fasting which is huge in and of itself, but maybe they could not have the mic turned on when they are learning at. Just a thought but then what do I know.

In the evening is also when I go bread shopping. There are several women who come to my door with sweet bread, rolls, tortillas, sweet rolls, flowers, and last night warm banana bread. I think I am paying more then I should...but I enjoy the bread and appreciate the effort it takes to come to my door with what I do not make myself.

On weekends...nothing routine. We hope to go to the beach but not by ourselves yet. Last weekend we went to Jayapura, the largest city and capitol of Papua. I was riding around trying to remember what was familiar. The veiw...It is pretty amazing and will post the pictures next time, internet willing. Till next time...

Birthdays in Birthplaces

I am one of the older teachers here at HIS, the teachers who came out with us are a good 10 to 20 years younger. The problem with age as I see it, it really is a matter of perspective, and now I am sounding like I am old. I have no idea how to deal with my age and as Mijo said this morning, " Mom, I forgot it was your birthday and you should be happy about that because it really doesn't mean anything to get older". I asked her how she would feel if I forgot and she proceeded to tell me it means a lot when you are a kid.

Scott found me my first Papuan purse and those who know me and my propensity for buying purses will know he did well. My birthdays when I was younger were always celebrated in the dorm because it was right after school started. Why that strikes a note in my memory I have no idea, but here I am back in my birthplace turning 44 but it really does not matter because it doesn't mean anything to get older once you are older as my daughter so reminded me this morning.

So my motto at 44 is to be fearless and this will take somewhat of a miracle as it seems I am much more fearful then fearless. God in His Mercy is doing a work in that area in my life because it seems that most the fears that have haunted me were born here in my birthplace. What a present for those fears to be layed to rest here in this birthplace as well.

Sand and Students

On Thursday morning in the driving rain, 70+ students and teachers headed out for The Beach Trip. Packed all our stuff and just headed out. We left at 8AM and arrived at the beach, our own beach at about 10:30 AM. What a beach, what an adventure in so many ways. If you have never camped at a beach as I have never, one is not prepared for the insidious nature of sand. BUT I digress a bit, the Senior boys had gone ahead to prepare the land. Cutting out of the jungle places to sleep, go to the bathroom and cook. Obviously not all at the same place. When we arrived, we set up our camp which means, putting up your mosquito net under the tarp with your bed stuff. After all that is accomplished, you adventure out to see whats up. Huge tarp over the cooking area and a hole in the ground with a nice orange tarp to do your business ( This place became crucial when later on we all developed cramps from some bad juju and needed to use the facility on more then one occasion). On seeing the facility, I was temped not to eat or drink for the remainder of the week so as not to have to use the facility.

The weather was still over cast but hey...its warm no matter what the weather is doing so snorkeling and swimming, conversation and walking was the activity at hand. To be honest, I was ready to go home at the end of the day but..that is because I am a big weenie when it comes to dis-comfort. Sand...do you understand how irritating sand is when you have to eat it, sleep with it, walk in it, sit in it, dress with it..I am sure you get the picture. The pictures of beautiful sand beaches in the tropics don't tell the whole story. Again I digress...

Our school director was our speaker and he did a wonderful job bringing us back to the basics of our faith. The first night...have I told you about the sand. Morning finally came after a night of rain, I don't think anything I owned was dry. This day was my designated snorkeling day and it was magnificent. It is just amazing!!! What I discovered about myself other then my propensity for weenieness is that I get motion sickness when I am in the water. Not while I am above the water or even in car on a bouncing car on winding roads... I get seasick when I am in the sea. SO ... I can be out there for about 30 minutes before I get sick, I recoup for about and hour then go out again. I did several cycles of this and then spent the rest of the time having wonderful conversation with students and staff. When there is no schedule conversations can wander at will and relationships can be built. This was the best of the time there...building relationships.

Something was eaten that day that made everyone sick. This was not the fun part of the trip at all. Having the runs is bad enough when you are home and have a bathroom in the next room , it is downright wrong to be on a beach with a hole in the ground. Needless to say, even with stories of snakes in the area and the jungle as your walls, you do what you have to do.

And it was the second night. Since the sun sets at 5:30...the stars are out early and since there is no light, they are out of this world !! The moon was full so the tides were high...I didn't even mention that the boat trip out shook my whole idea of sailing around the world. The waves were about 4-6 feet and with a outrigger we were bouncing over the waves. I screamed, it lets out tension, the students laughed at me but hey, I am a weenie. Our driver kept looking at me to see if I would stop. Again, screaming lets out tension and it is not good to keep it all bottled up. Back to the sleeping part, the sounds of the surf is quite soothing, its the hard ground, sand and damp clothes that makes sleeping a bit more difficult. I was never so glad to hear the cacophony of birds in the morning. We packed up in the rain, and left in the sun. I had been so good about sunscreen all three days until the last trip home. It would have been fine if our driver had not run out of gas in the middle of the cove. I have never enjoyed a shower, clean DRY clothes, sheets and my wonderful family.

But for news here... we have a kitty cat, Yoda. Scott has taken it upon himself to learn how to make yogurt and the Mijo and Nick are maybe a bit thankful they could not come with me these past three days.