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| So, I guess this is my update.... Last Monday was the halfway point of this trip. It's kind of incredible, you know, surviving in a very different country halfway across the world from my friends and family. Anyway, because I'd been here 2 months, my visa ran out. PNG has this stupid thing where you have to leave the country before applying for another visa, so I went to Brisbane, Australia for a bit. I was there from late Monday night to very early Friday morning. I did lots of things that I can't to in PNG, like drink water and milk and eat things that I didn't have to make, like bagels and stuff. Here you have to make everything. One of the greatest things that happened to me there was that I bought a calling card and called Rachel and my family and got to talk to a lot of my friends. It was way awesome!! I also had air conditioning in my room, which was great. And no big bugs. That's the other thing. Here there are spiders that are as big as my fist, and some as large as my entire hand. Its nuts. But they don't have that sort of thing in Brisbane. I'll tell you what they did have... A Starbucks. Yep, I bought some cheap books and took them to the best coffee shop in the world and read and drank. It was fantastic, to feed my addiction for the first time in two months and all. So, Friday morning, when all the air-conditioned, gourmet coffee, bugless bliss was gone, I hopped back on the plane to Port Moresby. While there, I had a 4 hour layover, which really wasn't too terrible, except for the fact that some weird guy came up to me and started ranting about how bad it was that Catholic priests couldn't get married, but as it turns out, he studied for 4 years to be come one. Whatever, I think he was a bit longlong(crazy) if you ask me... I got back to Alotau about 5PM on Friday. Leslie picked me up and took me home, where I threw a few pairs of clothes into my backpack and headed off to the ladies retreat. Let me tell you- it was the exact opposite of Brisbane. They cooked over a fire, there were mosquitoes and spiders everywhere, no electric, water, or toilet. You pee in a hole in the ground. When you come up to that hole, you here flies swarming. It was so nasty that I went and dug my own hole... Probably TMI, but oh well. We bathed every morning in the river. All the ladies laughed at me. I guess I look funny when I'm trying to get washed but keep my clothes dry or something. It was hot and I was tired. But, on Sat afternoon, we hiked up to a waterfall. And when I say hiked, I mean that we were clambering over slimy boulders and forging rivers and walking through a hacked trail in the middle of the rainforest. Did I mention that all waterfalls are on mountains? It was definatly a tough hike, but I made it! It was totally worth it when I got there. There was a cold pool of water at the bottom to swim in and a bunch of the girls were climbing up the side of the falls and jumping in from 25+ feet in the air. It felt great. On Sunday, we all walked down to the beach to have church there. It was beautiful. Then we came back home and I showered and slept. It was great. Tuesday, Leslie and Loopie left for Port Moresby and Cairns. Loopie will be home next Tuesday, and Leslie will be home on the following Saturday. They left me home with the kids, which wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that Baylee got sick. Fortunately, the Fords are still in town and Jeri was able to come to the doctors office with me and Baylee. She's doing much better now that she's on medicine, but we are all tired anyway because she has some horrible sleeping patterns. Oh well, only a few more days! Meanwhile, we are keeping busy. I drove out to Gama on Wednesday. Gama is that place where I had to take off my shoes and walk, because it was so muddy and rut ridden. But yep, I drove it all by myself. Coconut trees are the worst danger because they're so close to the road, and when I slide, the truck comes terrifyingly close to hitting them. But, I did it and it was fun. Also, like 8 people came to the gate needing something, so that kept me busy, and with Baylee sick, things were nutso. But, now its getting better. Only 3 people needed things today so far, and its 10AM haha. My family called me yesterday. It was great, but super weird to be hearing their voices here, with me being halfway across the world and all. Ok, well I should probably get back to Baylee now... Peace out! Emily | | |
| Hello Everyone! I know that it's been quite a while since my last big update, but things here have been utterly insane. The Canoe Festival is this weekend and some of the ladies from church have a booth. The money they make at the booth will go towards the Ladies retreat, which is next weekend. To get ready for this Canoe booth, Loopie and Siggy and I have been SHOPPING. Monday Loopie and I sat down and actually figured out how much it costs to make a batch of snickerdoodles, so we know how much we have to sell each cookie for. We did that for like 12 recipes and picked the cheapest and the easiest. Saturday, the entire youth group is coming over, as well as some of the ladies, to help us assemble all this food and bake it. My job for Saturday is going to be the taxi driver. I'm to shuttle the goods back and forth as they are baked and packaged. See mom, I'm really doing ok at this whole driving thing. The only times that I have troubles are when cockroaches crawl over my feet when I'm driving. That's a mite distracting. But its only happened twice, so I guess I can handle it. So lets see, I guess my week has gone like this: Monday we drove out about half an hour to the East Cape to try to find a venue for the retreat and then we went shopping. Loopie and I also started to worry about Saturday. We did a lot of math for the recipes. We also went SHOPPING so that we could eat through the week. Monday was also pretty amazing because I got my THIRD birthday package, which I think is pretty fantastic. (BTW, the guy in the post office totally knows my name and my daily activities now...WEIRD!) Rachel and Anna sent me a lot of great stuff. Like Twix, Cappuccino mix and the Dixie Chicks haha. Those packages just go to prove that I have the best family and best friends that a girl could ever ask for. Thanks to all of you. Tuesday Loopie and I walked the hill and ran a bunch of errands, such as paying for my plane tickets for next week, trying unsuccessfully to find muffin liners, and so on. In the afternoon, baby Marcus came over so that I could give his mom a break. Despite his being sick, he was quite content. In the afternoon, Siggy and I went on a major SHOPPING spree. As in, we bought 10 bags of sugar, 20 KGs of Flour, 20 KGs of Rice, 5 dozen eggs, 4 chickens and so on. Everyone stared at us a bit. I just told them that Siggy likes to eat a lot. Tuesday we also had all the younger girls from "Top Town" over to watch Anne of Green Gables. Besides that movie totally making me miss Rachel, it made me cry when Matthew died. I thought that I'd gotten over that part, but apparently it still gets me. Wednesday is usually the day that Siggy and I do our visits, but she and Susan and I went SHOPPING again instead. By the way, Siggy does full time church work for the Williams, and Susan works here too, but she does more housework and taking care of Baylee. Susan only comes 2 days a week. Anyway, we went shopping for the veggies for the ladies retreat. We are going to make stew and freeze it so we don't have to do as much work while we're actually at the ladies retreat. Jeri and Craig took Siggy and I out to lunch. It was quite nice. Susan taught me how to make banana chips, so watch out. Those babies are GOOD! Thursday, today, just to be a little different, we went to the market again. SHOPping... oh man did we drop. Susan usually goes to the market and buys like 100 kina (that the church donates) worth of fruit and distributes it at the hospital, but today she was busy, so Siggy and I went by ourselves. It was rough doing all the shopping, but when we got to the hospital and dropped it off, it was really rewarding. The hospitals here are very different from the ones in America. They don't serve food, clean you, or do anything besides give basic medical attention. Your family has to bring you food, and if you don't have family around, then you're basically screwed. One lady, Robin, who used to worship here in Alotau came back to have a hysterectomy, so since Loopie and I visited her a lot, all the nurses in the maternity ward thanked me by name today. Its really funny- the post man and the maternity ward nurses all know my name. I guess I stand out a bit because I'm white. I thought about covering myself with cocoa powder there for a while to blend in, but I sweat too much for that. I'd look like a tunnel of fudge cake by the end of the day- half baked and soft in the middle. So guess what I'm doing tomorrow? GOING SNORKELING again. Maybe I won't freak out this time, but I guess we'll see. The Williams and the Fords are going this time, so we'll have lots of fun. We are going to a different place that they say actually has better snorkeling than the last place, so I'll be fine. Pray for me just the same... And then Saturday, we'll have everyone and anyone over, and hopefully I'll actually get to see the canoe festival at some point. I don't hardly know what it is, except that the wind will change and I think they have canoe races. And booths. Sunday I'll pack for my week long trip to Brisbane, and Monday I'll leave bright and early in the morning. I'll get back Friday afternoon and head straight to the ladies retreat. Saturday I'm leading singing in the afternoon. The week after that, Loopie and Leslie are heading to Cairns, AU, for some medical testing and for a break. I sure won't be having a break- I'll be here with Tate, Thomas, and the Stinker, Baylee. She grabbed my cappuccino yesterday and is now addicted. Uh oh! I think I've got a game plan though- I'm going to let her break all the rules and take her swimming every day. She should sleep well every night that way! Alrighty, I think this thing is long enough! Sorry that I don't have any good pictures, I'm sure I will after this weekend! Peace out. Emily | | |
| I'm leaving in 4 days! Hooray! If anyone wants to send me an e-mail, the address is:
diamondintheruf11@juno.com
If anyone wants to send me mail, the address is:
PO Box 837,
Alotau, Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea
Mail must be sent Internationally unless you want it to take 6mo. to a year to get to me. (I won't be there for six months or a year!)
These last few days I need prayer for peace with some relationships that I'm having problems with. It would really stink to leave town mad at someone, and I really don't want to do it. I also would ask for peace for my family. They already miss me and I'm not even gone yet! | | |
| Only 23 days until I leave for papua new guinea!! | | |
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