He left, they came, I'll leave, they'll stay

Scott left yesterday with the first wave. He is the pre-pre- team to survey the bridges and make sure that all 82 of us can get in. Dad and Elf surprised us this morning at 9AM. They had to come on a HUGE cargo plane because the normal passenger one does not fly on Saturday. Monday early AM I'll leave with the main body of students and Mijo and Nick will stay here. This will be the longest I have ever been away from them and the longest Scott and I have ever been away from them. It hit Nick the other day for the first time...he now hates OE but is still trying to figure out a way he can come.

This OE thing is quite the strategic nightmare. All of us and our 15 kilo's of luggage, food and cooking gear have to make it into Eipomek by 9AM. We have 2 MAF Caravans, 1 MAF Cessna, 3 JAARS Pilattus Porters and 1 JAARS helio. Some are going early to another airstrip that can handle the Caravans while the Porters which can land at Eipomek will ferry students and barang back and forth in a frenzy before the wind picks up and the airstrip shuts down. We had to all be packed and weighed by this past Wednesday so barang ( all our stuff) is already traveling to the different locations to wait for the Monday morning frenzy. For those who don't know airplanes..Caravan BIGGER and faster, 9 passengers lots of weight but limited to length of airstrip, Cessna smaller can land anywhere limited to 400 kilos and 5 passengers. Porters can carry 9 passengers or barang but not both but can land anywhere but slow. Helio..small, slow and the one I get to travel on. The earliest flight will leave @5:30 and then onward from there...it is about an hour away from Sentani, depending on the airplane you travel on. When we get there we will be digging out our facilities, making our showers by the streams, setting up our sleeping quarters, figuring out the kitchen situation, rigging our electricity and water supply.
During the 12 days...

We will be working on the airstrip, cleaning out a hydro pool, making fences, doing kids club, learning the culture and learning how to serve. All of us 8 leaders are in charge of 9 students. All of us will be in Eipomek for the first 4 days then we will divide into our teams and walk to 8 different villages, Scott's team is the farthest away (6 hours) , mine is the third farthest at 4-5 hours. There we stay with the villagers for 3 days ( this will be the roughest but maybe the most significant part of OE). In the villages we will have to figure out sleeping arrangements (huts), eating (what we can get) and facilities. We will be doing all of this with at least 10-15 people watching us ALL THE TIME. We don't know the language but hope that they will know some Indonesian.
Please pray for our safety..lots of people in the air
Health..close living conditions
Patience and Presence..I will be gracious when I don't want to be, winsome instead of sarcastic, glean from each moment and encourage all the time.
Good Sleep...a good defense
Nick and Mijo will be OK without us...
God will be glorified in all our feeble attempts to do so....Thank you.

OE/Mission trip for MK's

As a high school we are going on a mission trip or what they like to call it here OE, outdoor education. Those of you who are familiar with what OE looks like in the States...this is not the same beast. If you have gone on a mission trip to Mexico or in one of the South American countries with your youth group for a week or two..this is what our OE looks like. We are all going to a village about an hours flight away from here..Eipomek, the same village Scott went to earlier. We are going to work on projects, teach kids club, walk to another village for several days to do kids club, walk back do so more and then come home. We will be gone for 12 days. This is a HUGE undertaking. Think going to the Mbua except instead of just the 6 of us, think 80 people flying in on little airplanes all before 9 AM in the morning. Cooking for all of us on a wood stove and camping equipment and no store to go to if something is forgotten.

I am really looking forward to this..I have a great group of kids (9), Scott is coming along as well so it is something we can both experience, I get to learn another tribes way of life and enjoy roughing it for 12 more days. This time though it is a bit on the rougher then what we did in the Mbua, same rain but no fireplace and sleeping in one room with 50+ other girls plus the whole hygiene thing with river water to wash and a hole in the ground for the other. So...again I will post as much as I can this week and then I will be out till the 8th of February. Please pray...good health and good attitudes.

Who's got it going?

Brittany or this wonderful Grandma in the Mbua. I got such a kick out of this picture. I don't think there could be more of an extreme in women. Both having a hard life for completely different reason. One, because of her choices the other because of her birth. I saw this woman everywhere and I think for the 2 weeks we were there Brittany followed every day on the same T-shirt.

When I first saw the T-shirt I was so irritated that even in the Mbua, that woman continues to pollute my reality. I can't even be in the middle of nowhere without Hollywood and all its junk invading. Then it made me think...who has it better? This lady looks much older then her years but living interior as a woman isn't the easiest existence. She doesn't have much choice though, Ms. Spears on the other hand has all the choices in the world and seems to have made all the wrong ones. Who do you think has it going? Maybe neither but in some odd way these women are connected by a random choice of T-shirt noticed by a person who is familiar with both. I feel for them. One can get out, the other will always stay in.

This honorable Nduga woman who has worked hard her whole life has lost much and gained little. Her entire way of living has not changed either even though she wears on her small body and example of all that has. The rhythm of her days still consists of getting to the garden, eating the sweet potatoes, going to church, sleeping in her smokey hut with her family and pigs. Humble and hard working...I think maybe when all is said and done..she will be at the front of that Holy line. To be honest though, I would not want to live either.

Random thoughts

We had a thunder storm for about 7 hours last night..no kidding. There was no wind so the storm rested on Mt. Cyclops and thundered all night long until it wore itself out. Ever tried sleeping with lightning flashes going off every few minutes? Nick wasn't feeling well and the cat was freaking out so I didn't get the deepest sleep. Fortunately the Muslims forgot to send off their prayer call this morning so at least I could sleep till 7AM.

I was thinking this morning about God speaking in a still small voice rather then in the loud thunder. I wish His voice was louder...like the thunder..I seem to listen much better when all I hear is what is the loudest. We were watching a movie last night and I had to manipulate the volume the whole movie long in accordance to how loud the thunder rumbled. Maybe ...that is why God speaks in a still small voice. We have to turn the volume down on all that is screaming for our attention...so we can deliberately listen rather then being thundered at. I was thinking the other day how nice it would be just to get a simple text message from God then I realized...I always get a text message from Him, I just have to remember to look in the inbox/Bible.

I have lots on my plate in the next month. I am hoping to go on OE which is what the whole High school does for 2 weeks. We are going to a village out in the boonies to live and work and survive. This is a HUGE undertaking though maybe not fun in the sense of the word...it is an adventure. Lots to do we just need to all stay well.

Random thoughts on this Tuesday in January..random thoughts.

When do you go back?

Yesterday we went back to Kali Beru..remember the place that Mijo cut her foot? Anyway, Scott had never gone so with some friends off we went. Let me back track a moment. The weather has been strange lately. It is normal for here but since this is our first January here not so normal. It is the windy season and we are talking gust up to 30-40mph all day and all night long. We were thinking of going to the beach instead but because of the wind the beach is not the best bet. SO off we went. The weather was cloudy but it seemed to be breaking up...seemed being the operative word here. The trip takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes of windy twisty road that my kids get sick on every time. About 30 minutes into the ride it started to rain. SO...when do you go back and when do you press on? Since the idea was to go swimming..we were going to get wet anyway..we kept going. There was quite a large group that went and when we all got there, the older folks sat under the pondok (hut) and the kids had a great time. We did not have to worry about sunscreen, the water was much higher so the jump wasn't that scary, the river ran a bit faster so the ride down was a bit more challenging..all in all not bad.
On the way home we decided to take a detour to look at some Japanese graves. It seems that during the WWII, when the Japanese fled from the Allies about 3000 (may not know the number exactly for all you war buffs) of these soldiers were left to fend for themselves in the jungles. The Papuan were told to kill every Japanese soldier they could find and in return they were going to get paid from the Americans. These people have a long memory..it seems that the Americans never paid for the many Japanese that were killed. When we were asking where these graves were..they kept asking if we were Americans. Fortunately..the family we were with are Germans so reparations for the Japanese deaths will have to made by other Americans who wander way back in this place to see the graves. By the way..expectations versus reality. A graveside usually is marked, here it was a section of ditch and road. The men knew exactly which side of the ditch and were willing to dig it up for us to see...we thanked them for the information and drove away.
If we had gone back because of the rain..what stories we would have missed.

Christmas Mbua style

I haven't told you yet about our Christmas. Elfrieda is just amazing in knowing what to take in to make a celebration of Christmas in the middle of nowhere. There were gifts under the three...but I am getting way ahead of myself.

We needed a Christmas tree so we asked one of the Nduga men if he could get us one that looked a bit like the usual Christmas tree...He said it would take a day or two but no problem. At home in Lynden no matter what day we decide to get the Christmas tree it rains and in the Mbua it was no different. But instead of running back to the truck to get out of the rain, this wonderful man walked back to his home ( 4 hours away) and cut the top of a tree down way back in the jungle and walked back that 4 hours in the rain so that we could have a Christmas tree. I was so appreciative but thought maybe we could have done without. That is a lot of work for a Christmas tree. Either way, we had enough decorations to not only make the tree look great but the rest of the living room.

Christmas Eve day we had a pig feast and Nick and Scott looked on with interest as the pigs were killed by the bow and arrows. The men hold the pig by its legs and the other shoot the arrow ...quite close to the squealing pig. Mijo ran to the house, I plugged my ears and shut my eyes and wished that we did not have to observe or participate in the killing of our meal. Needless to say the pits were dug, the stones were heated, the veges and pig were buried in the pit and we had a service. I spoke on 'Emmanuel, God with us' and then we ate. I remember distinctly that in my youth it tasted a lot better. Maybe it was the dirt in the greens, the pig fat floating in the carcass of the pig, the amazing chewiness of the pig meat itself or it could have been that it started raining and we were sitting in the mud...but the experience was wonderful but the meal..well...
Christmas day we woke early, again Elfrieda had brought stuff for stockings and presents and a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and pudding..it was so wonderful. We another service again and this time, Dad spoke. I am not a great hoopla maker, Elfrieda is amazing and thanks to her the kids felt all the wonder and celebration that comes with the season and for that I am so grateful to her. On Boxing day we had another service but this involved all the churches in the area. I have many pictures but again...blast the Internet and its inability to upload pictures.

Walrus and the Dolphin

OK...the analogy does not quite work because we are talking about on land...BUT whenever I walked anywhere with Scott this is how I felt...I was the walrus slugging away he was the dolphin dancing up the mountain. He walks over the ranges and the only thing he complains about is that he got cold at 10, 000 feet with only a small blanket and a fire, sweet potatoes got old and there was a lot of mud. NOTHING about how hard the walk was, if his muscles were sore which they were not or even if he EVER got out of breath. I walk up the airstrip and I need to wait a minute to catch my breath. He runs up the airstrip and back down to me to see if I am OK. So nonchalant about the whole thing. No wonder the Nduga's claim him...he is like them when is comes to trekking. Me they claim ...but it is because I was born among them. I can imagine they laugh a lot when they see my red face as I struggle up the mountain side on a walk they do every day with a million pounds of potatoes on their back. Oh well...Love the man, jealous of his strength.

Thank you Marnie and LEW for your comments. IT so encourages me to write when I know I am read. You asked me how the kids did. I was so impressed with how they occupied their time, how many hugs they embraced and the food they attempted to eat. The food issues were a bit more difficult for Mijo as were the cockroaches. I'm with her, but Nick liked to catch them and throw them in the fire. There were some nasty little lizard as well...slimy and green and sneaky..these I was also not too fond of. Because of the rain Mijo finished her 400 page story she was writing, and Nick read a lot of books. They were really great and even though they had to sit in 6 church services that were about 2 hours long...they sat and looked like they understood. Two of the services they did...I spoke.
So from the Walrus...stay tuned.