Bread

I have tried 3 recipes now and the last one I tried is pretty much the easiest and the best and all the other accolades I can think of. I came home, threw the dough together, let it raise, punched it down, put it in the oven, smelled the heavenly smell and was beginning to congratulate myself that finally yes, finally I was a bread maker. I had made 1 loaf and 6 hamburger buns. My family was amazed that I had mastered this tricky art of baking. I told them not to count their buns until the whole process was complete. Everything was going so well....
As I was taking the loaf out of the pan, the last move before the final gloating and horrors of horrors, it stuck, broke apart and lay in a messy heap on the counter. SO close to victory only to have it snatched away by a delicate oversight on my part. I had lubricated the pan but only minimally...oh my kingdom for some slathering.
I will try again, the bread will not defeat me, these failures have only made me stronger. I will succeed and I will be called....a bread maker!

Injury, Surfing, the Moi and Thanksgiving

So much activity in a weekend. Injury: On Saturday we ( Mijo, Nick and I) went with the dorm kids to Kali Biru, a river of blue 2 hours away. Beautiful, serene and apparently a bit dangerous. Mijo was slipping into the water off the little wharf when she stepped on something really sharp...she has quite the deep cut on the bottom of her foot and is at the moment limping around with the help of a crutch. Before this accident we all had been jumping into, floating down, and swimming against the current of this amazing river. A local man was also using the river to clean his 7 foot python which he has stripped of skin and was preparing to cook. Wally told me that it is really good eating. Surfing: Scott in the meanwhile had gone with friends to go surfing. I don't really know if this was the first time he had gone surfing but it sounded like it wasn't exactly the quickest activity to learn. Maybe a bit like snowboarding, the first time out just a lot of pain and frustration. The Moi: Traveling with us to the river was a family who are with New Tribes. They work with the Moi people here in Papua. This tribe is isolated and small. As he began to tell us some of the details of this tribe like; 8-10 year old girls are married off to their 20-30 something husbands to be raised. How often the girls run away and how often they are beaten to learn to stay. How aggressive and verbal this tribe and how little respect they have for personal boundaries and possessions. How the tribe just walks into your house and stands around just staring at you and taking things if they want. How little each on is responsible for their own children but how everyone in the tribe feeds, corrects any child who is closest to them. How interested they are to hear about the Creator whom they recognize but don't really know. Papua may be one of the last places on earth where the indigenous people still live as they have since they arrived here. There is a huge struggle to help them learn to navigate the raging river called the rest of the world. Unlike Kali Biru, it isn't that beautiful, not so serene and very dangerous. Most seem to jump in or get pushed in without the skills to navigate, let alone retain their cultural dignity. Tragically, most injuries that happen don't just cripple but destroy.
Thanksgiving: MAF is a multicultural group of people so to celebrate Thanksgiving we picked a neutral date. What is similar though is that it involves eating well and being thankful. This we can do any time and we did yesterday with all 70 of us. We ate well, we were all thankful.

Going Hunting

I realize that in the US it is hunting season. I have no idea of what I speak, not being a hunter myself, but I do live with one. It is hunting season every night at our house. I know Scott misses Winzig (our German-short hair pointer, hunting dog) who is being loved by a wonderful family but, when all is said and done, winzig is missed. We have a cat..his name has changed so lately it has been Smeigel from Lord of the Rings. When we put the collar on the cat he reacted the same way Smeigel did with the elvin rope. If you have not watched those movies, you have no idea what I am talking about and it really has nothing to do with this story.

Anyway...Scott and Smeigel really have a great relationship. There are echos of Winzig in their dealings with each other. Scott rescued this cat from certain death by staying up on an all night vigil. The cat walks to the door when Scott comes in crying similar to Winzig's enthusiastic reception. The cat prefers anything Scott especially when they go hunting. Scott holds the cat and walks with him in hand around the perimeter of our porch looking for cicaks( small lizards). Scott says that the cat is on point when this happens. He sticks his neck out, his tail is swishing back and forth, and he growls and mews. You do realize I am talking about the cat( smile). I think Scott misses his dog and this is as close as he is going to get.
When Smeigle catches a cicak, Mijo yells for the cicak to be let go, Nick looks to see the fight and I hope the cat won't drag the bloody carcass into the living room.

Last night it was a full moon, I think I could of read a book outside. Needless to say it took a while to get the cat back into the house, it was good hunting even without the help of his Owner.

Breath in...Blow out

I had this wonderful picture that I wanted to post BUT the Internet is not only frustrating it is finicky. We have not been able to get on line while we are in our house AND we have to come all the way up to the school to get any news. It isn't that far..but it is inconvenient. BREATH IN AND BLOW OUT is a phrase I learned from a good friend at LC ( Hi, Dawn. How are you BTW and how is Winzig?). I have remembered this phrase a lot this week not only for myself but for the smaller Price people who live with us. This is a busy week, with the 10th grade New Testament class we are leading the K-6th grade in a 45 minute chapel every day. It is their spiritual emphasis week and although we are having a wonderful time and the students are doing amazing work...it is a lot. I am also responsible to get all the testing arranged for the High school. SAT< PSAT < class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">important to do right. Needless to say, BREATH IN...BLOW OUT! On Sunday I am leading worship with the 8th grade girls in our expat Sunday morning worship service...all this is great, all at the same time a bit on the overwhelming side. Good news though, it is Wednesday.

First Major Whatever

We have had earlier times when we just wanted to go home for whatever reason but this Saturday I think it was a family feeling. We are prepared for this emotional upheaval, but who wants it!!! It isn't that we don't like being here, we miss home and then when we are collectively in a bad mood, it does not help. We knew Lynden was getting its first winter storm and we remembered how cozy the fire is and how much we loved our dog, and how easy supper was made when we went to Safeway. OK...that does not sound like reason enough to not like it here, but when it is a collective thing it sounded much worse :).
We have been asked several times if we are staying longer then just this year. It is really hard to answer because we know the need for teachers here but then we also know what we will lose job-wise if we don't return after a year. There is a tension underlying every decision and every wonderful day. Scott and I have decided that we are staying a year as we promised and until we know otherwise that is all we can say at this time. What we want, well, this weekend would not have been a good time to ask. What we really want is to be where God gets the most glory. One thing I have learned though, it isn't about need, there are needs everywhere. It isn't about comfort, we can be comfortable most anywhere. It is about serving...Where and when and how long, as I said at the start...God's in the details and we will know. You can pray with us about this, come January we will need to let people know.

Malaria !!!

Has visited out house and the parasites now live in Nick, our youngest. We went to have him checked out for flu like symptoms...you guessed it, they took a blood slide and he wins the dubious prize of first infected. REALLY...he is doing fine and because he has malaria and not some unseen and unknown disease he can be treated. He is home resting, reading, watching DVD's and missing our xbox. He has been the most bit and the one we have watched over the most...Oh well, the kind of malaria he has ( there are two here in Papua) is the more serious one but when caught early very treatable. It is also not the recurring one so maybe this will be it for him. Or not...

Healthwise...collectively we have lost about 50 pounds. This may be good for some of us and no matter what you are thinking, I am not that bad of a cook. Food is a bit more simple here, and most likely more healthy. We also sweat a lot and move around a bit more as well.

Rumblings...

4.6 earthquake here in good ole Papua. This is the second one in less than a week and I am wondering if we are warming up for something or cooling down from something. When this rumbling occurred around 10 ish PM , I woke up quickly and we went running to see if the kids were OK. Rattled but good. We talked about what was happening and prayed for God's protection. One of those strange things you can't prepare yourself, and if you do..how exactly can you be prepared? I am making sure my glasses are close to my bed, I would hate to run outside and miss the whole thing because I can't see. I WISH I had the eye surgery I was thinking so seriously about getting before I came. BUT other then that, we talk about the what if and where to.



Remember two posts ago I was hoping that what we had bought for our picnic would not affect us in any way... there are some internal rumblings occurring as well. No need to go into any details just that we are staying close to home for a few days.

Eagle in a Fruit Tree

It is really called Idul Fitri and it is the end of the Ramandan fast. Scott remembers the holiday by calling it eagle in a fruit tree. It is 6AM here at the mosques have been broadcasting prayers since last night at 7PM. At around 2AM, young boys or young men I could not quite figure out began practising their own abilities at calling out their prayers. Because the prayers are not usually in a key that most boys can chant/sing there was a whole lot of shrieking going on. They are still at it this morning and because there are so many mosques in one area, it has become the battle of the prayer calls.

Ear plugs can only shut out so much ... needless to say this eagle in the fruit tree holiday may be spent taking naps.

Why this picture you may ask. It really was meant for the last blog but the Internet wasn't working. Efar is a military post and this gentlemen was eager to pose with Scott for this picture. From this vantage point you can see Lake Sentani and to the right of the picture Sentani airport.

As unusual as it may be for an eagle to be in a fruit tree, how about a rap concert with MK kids!

If you can picture this in your minds eye. A 10th grade girl dresses up for a concert in a gingham red polka dot dress as if she is Dorothy from Kansas. The concert she is going to attend isn't Bill Gaither but two men from Texas who rap to the Glory of God. Having never heard rap she is standing shoulder to shoulder with other very sheltered MK's raising their hands, trying to keep the rhythm and generally having a GREAT time. The men had come out to do concerts in the area, rap has reached to the youth of Papua and as much as I might not appreciate the medium, the words reflected the word of God for the glory of God. I know my age may reflect my taste, but I so enjoyed the simplicity of truth that the gospel represented to all the people at this concert even though it was said in rap but maybe because it was...

happy eagle in a fruit tree day, may the loudness of the all night prayer calls never disturb your sleep and the next time you are invited to a Rap concert given by men who love Jesus, go... who knows, you may even see the glory of God in the simplicity of all its truth.

Monday morning musings...

We had a picnic yesterday after church...we went up to Efar, the place where MacArthur established his headquarters while he was preparing to go back to the Philippines. I did have a picture to show you but the scene behind us in the new picture of us shows a bit of all that you can see. I will try and upload more when I can. It is a spectacular view and on this Sunday we also had a thunder storm to experience.

The students had their Sadie Hawkins this weekend. The girls do ask the boys out but then they dress up in costumes. It is pretty amazing how creative they can be with no costume stores to visit. Saturday morning we went to Abe to do some shopping. I was so excited ( small pleasures) to see tomatoes in the store only to find when I took off the wrapping that all of the six I bought were rotten.

We were attempting to make hamburgers and french fries for supper, not that I am tired of rice but...The rolls I had made from scratch were dense and small and the corn on the cob was , well not quite sweet and I already told you about the tomatoes. We made do and Mijo declared that it was the best meal yet. Earlier that day as we were buying food to go to the picnic we had bought something from a merchant on the side of the road. It was a noodle, tofu wrapped meat thing with mystery meat balls. I was good to go until everyone at the picnic refused to tell me what exactly was rolled in those meatballs. I lost my appetite, Scott who was hungry ate it up ( and he wont eat hot dogs in the States!) and Mijo and Nick...both ate, both finished. I'm waiting for the inevitable stomach ache...but so far so good.

Those of you who know Scott and are familiar with is disciplined eating habits. We were walking out the door and he is eating a chocolate bar...WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TOO !!!!!!

Oh..I am learning how to make bread..learning being the operative word as I explained the dense, small hamburger rolls. Scott and I will attempt this feat on our own this week. I had help with the making of the dough not the baking. While I am on the subject of Scott. He is working at MAF doing some welding. This sounds good but he is welding in the hot tropical sun with coveralls on that do not breath for free. His attitude for service and hard work still defines him even when he isn't getting a paycheck. Being here has been good for us as a family.

T-shirt bumper stickers

Yesterday, I know nothing. Today, I know that.

It is a slow news day here in Papua. My classes are working on projects and I am caught up with all my grading. My sermon is done for this Sunday and I've finished reading the 2 books I took out of the library. The weather is hot, the students are tired, the cat attacked Scott's nose last night and bit it, Mijo is working hard on her book and Base lessons,and Nick is reading the Left Behind series for kids. I can't upload any pictures for you to enjoy and I am almost caught up with the few emails I have received. Maybe though, I know more then yesterday :) .