Louisa turns 7

March 23. Louisa's birthday. A highly anticipated day!!

Louisa is Freddie and Allo's daughter and is one of the children I teach. As is the case with all young children, she was counting down the days and would give us all regular updates on how much longer til the BIG DAY!

I bought her a gift of a rashie and a cute top, which she seemed to love. Everyone else on the compound gave her little things too, so I think she felt very special and well celebrated. I'm not entirely sure what PNG traditions are surrounding birthdays - I'm still figuring that out - but since there are so many of us here who are from Canada or Australia, we celebrated Louisa's birthday with gifts and cake. We sang happy birthday and she seemed to love it!

A 7 cake for a 7 year old :)

Getting ready to blow the candles out

Cutting the cake. The kids couldn't wait!

Louisa was absolutely stoked with the cake 

The party guests

Opening presents - lolly teeth (to fill in the gaps of her missing ones), a headband, some craft activities and some clothes. It was cute to see the joy on Lou's face as she opened each one! 

Goodies all packed up in a gift bag. She was super stoked with her gifts :)

Ukarumpa

Last weekend I headed up to Ukarumpa with Chris, Nicole and their girls. Ukarumpa is about 3 hours away, in the direction of the Highlands. Chris and Nicole were planning to go up there to visit their friends from POC (Pacific Orientation Course) one last time before they go back to Australia. They very kindly welcomed me along, which I really appreciated! I was so excited to go because I have never been out of Lae before. 

Ukarumpa is a purpose built town/village for the SIL Bible Translators. When you arrive there, you enter through gates. There is fencing all of the way around, so basically it is a really giant compound. There are hundreds of houses, a shop, a market, a post office, two schools, a clinic, churches and lots of office buildings. The people that live there are predominantly Bible Translators or workers who support this by fulfilling admin roles and so on. There are lots of national people too who are also involved in the work. 

Ukarumpa is also quite a lot higher up (in altitude) than Lae is, so that means it is significantly cooler. It was really nice to get out of the heat for a few days and I couldn't believe it when it cooled down enough at night to put a jumper on! 

While we were there we spent a lot of time visiting. I went for a bit of an exploration of the village and we also headed into Kianantu, the town close by, to look at the Culture Centre. The centre was full of PNG handmade items - pottery, woven bags (called bilums), wooden carvings, rugs and more. It was great to see how intricate the items were. Each one would have taken a really long time to make, I'm sure! 

All in all, it was a relaxing and enjoyable few days away. I loved travelling through the passes, seeing the mountains and getting a feel for the country that is PNG. When we arrived back in Lae, we were well greeted by the heat - it felt like the sun had turned it up to welcome us home :)

 

Heading out of Lae, through the Markham Valley

The beautiful mountains we saw most of the way

Stopping to buy some roasted peanuts for the drive. The men come right up to your window to encourage you to buy their wares. No shortage of peanuts here!

Beautiful rolling hills. I love how green everything is!

A brief stop along the Kassam Pass, looking over the Valley. A spectacular sight!

Yonki Dam - which provides hydro electric power to PNG

A rather treacherous section of road! The whole side had disappeared in landslip. We saw the landslide from further down the pass and then had a chance to see it up close. Quite incredible how much impact the rain in PNG has on the roads. 

You can see how much the road has been affected.

Entering Ukarumpa

The little house we stayed in. It belongs to the Gibello's - some friends of Ian and Nadia who were working out in the village during the time we were visiting. They kindly open their house to others while they are away. 

You can actually get strawberries in Ukarumpa, which is amazing!!!! They are very difficult to come by here in Lae, and expensive as a result. I bought a few of the bowls full from the ladies in the picture so I've been enjoying those a lot. They are really nice plump berries too!

The market runs every weekday morning from 7:00-8:00am only - as everyone starts work at 8. I was really amazed at how different the produce was compared to the local market here in Lae. There were passionfruit too, which was really cool and a few different vegetables too. It was well worth getting out there early for it :)

Looking out over the field towards the market. You can see the craft stall on the concrete pad up the back. They have all sorts of beautiful bilums, necklaces, wooden carvings and more all spread out neatly on the ground. 

Visiting the Crosland family for dinner on Friday night. This bunch is bursting with energy and life!

An amazingly colourful tree trunk. Just another example of God's artistry. 

Our house number. All of the houses in Ukarumpa are identified by a letter and a number. It can be tricky to find the house you intend to go to, at times!

On the way back - this is the section of the road that was in the earlier picture. This photo doesn't give you the perspective of how huge the drop off was! 

Another section of road that had completely collapsed. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the right hand side of the road is only about a metre wide, and it was straight down from there. Crazy hey!

More beautiful mountains along the way. I don't think I would ever tire of  their beauty.

Freddie and Allo Get Married

A few weeks after I arrived in Lae, I was privileged to attend Freddie and Allo's wedding. It was extra special to me, because Freddie, Allo and their 4 girls live here at 11 Mile with us, as compound caretakers.I got to know them pretty well in 2014 so I'm so very thankful that I could be here to celebrate their wedding with them. Also, quite significantly, this is the first EVER wedding that has been performed here in the church in Lae. This church has been here for about 20 years, but there has never been a wedding before! Amazing, hey! Other church members are married, but they were married in Port Moresby or other places around PNG. 

You might be wondering why Freddie and Allo have 4 children but aren't married? It's a good question and one that I will try to explain. There are many layers to the culture, though, and I don't have a complete understanding of these, so I'll do my best. The way it goes here is that a boy and girl meet, the girl gets pregnant and then you are 'married'. The fact that you have a baby together means that you will be together. The more moral people stay together for the rest of their lives, while some others simply stay together for a time until they've had enough or there is no desire anymore to be with that person. Fairly similar to what we would often seen in Australia, I would say. 

The pastors here have been actively preaching on the sanctity of marriage and what God's plan for marriage truly is. Pastor Ian has been working with Freddie and Allo (since they are right here with us) and teaching them about God's way and how this differs from man's way. Freddie and Allo decided that they wanted to begin again and start their married life God's way. They expressed their desire to the church to be married before God and His people and a date was set, 13th March 2016. 

The actual wedding is done differently here. We would have a wedding on a Friday or Saturday at the church, with great celebrations afterwards! Months of preparation go into this and there is so much to organise. Here, weddings happen at church, on a Sunday. Afterwards there is a bungkai, where all the church members bring food to share, speeches are given and there is time for fellowship. The bridal couple do buy new (often more fancy) clothing, prepare some extra special food (in this case, some chicken - it's a lot more expensive here) and invite special family and friends along, who wouldn't normally come to church on a regular Sunday. The church members decorated the church with beautiful flowers and it was clear that this day was different to the others. It was a great celebration of Freddie and Allo's desire to serve the Lord and the joy that could be seen that day was no less than any other wedding I have been to! 

We had a regular church service - where the sermon focused on how to live in the Lord as a married couple, staying strong in Him - which was followed by the wedding vows. Afterwards, Freddie and Allo's youngest daughter, Nicole, was baptised. It was a very special day.

The photos are slightly out of order sorry....

Putting bilas (decorations) all over the wedding car. Everyone at the compound pitched in on Saturday afternoon to make the car looks are festive as possible! It was fun doing it all together

The bridal couple arriving at church

The vehicle from the front - note, the flowers :)

Getting ready to walk into the church. They walked in together, with the congregation standing. The orchids in Allo's hair look beautiful, don't they!

Louisa, Allosiena and Francine, all wearing special (and new) clothes for the wedding

Photos are a bit out of order..... Nicole getting baptised

Cutting the wedding cake - capably made by Nicole Steenhof 

Regina, Asaph, the bridal couple and me (in my PNG dress....!) 

Back to the wedding - time for the vows

Would you please join hands? I love that they both look so happy!

Declaring her promises, before God and the congregation

It was such a wonderful day. I wish Freddie and Allo God's greatest blessings for the rest of their lives together. May you stay close to God and walk in step with Him. 

Bungkai

To welcome me to PNG the beautiful people I live on the compound with hosted a bungkai. A bungkai is basically a pot luck dinner. Bung means meeting and kai means food. So literally bungkai is 'meeting food.' A fabulous word for a potluck dinner because that's what you're doing - coming together (meeting) to eat food! Everyone at the compound came along and brought a dish along - except me, as I was considered a guest at this event :) 

Everyone includes - the Wildeboer family: Ian & Nadia, Jono, Karlyn, Caleb, Ben and Ava; the Steenhof family: Chris & Nicole, Elisabeth and Adele and the Wallis family: Freddie & Alo, Louisa, Francine, Alosiena and baby Nicole. It was a really fun bungkai of chatting and relaxing together - while sweating crazily :) Fans are always on full force here!!

My new 'family' spread out in Ian & Nadia's house

Caleb giving the food a thumbs up!

Louisa, clearly loving her meal

Ben, with his marvellous lego house

The left overs from a delicious meal - rice, traditional PNG greens, roast veges, soup and chicken. Delicious!

Arriving in PNG

After much travelling and a lot of anticipation, the day of actually going to PNG arrived. Quite an unbelievable feeling. It was hard to believe it was actually happening - as it had only been a 'later on' thing up until then. It was also Son's first day of starting uni again - so day of firsts.

We got up early and headed to the airport at about 7:15am. Son dropped me off and after goodbyes and a few tears again, I went off to check in for the flight. I was a little bit early but the line for the Air Nuigini flight had already started so I just joined it - with all of my luggage. That was a bit of a worry for me.... how would I (one girl) manage with 4 suitcases and my hand luggage..... I had prayed about it - that either I would be able to manage or there would be someone available to help me. God clearly knew my worries and had it all figured out already. There were lots of very willing people along the way who offered to help, which I was so thankful for. Such a blessing.

After waiting in the line for a bit, it was my turn to check it. The air hostess at the desk was nice and explained about the fees that I would be charged because of my excess baggage. I did expect this, but unfortunately I couldn't pay her... I had to pay the cashier at the end of the desk. He was far less helpful and intent only on getting the maximum amount of money from me. Not a lot can be done about that though! I was not interested in arguing with a Papuan over money!

The waiting continued - but I passed the time by ordering breakfast and making a few last phone calls before heading off to the boarding gate. We started boarding about 45 minutes before departure, which was pretty early! If I'd sat down any longer, I would have probably missed my flight as boarding happened really quickly! Not something I was expecting, that's for sure.

When I arrived in Port Moresby, I went through the customs section - without any troubles at all. Then, as I was waiting for my baggage, a man - who appeared to be security - came up to me and asked me LOTS of questions about what I was doing in PNG, how long I intended to be there, where I was going, who had asked me to come, how much luggage I had etc and he also wanted to see ALL of my paperwork - which I didn't have handy.... I showed him my visa and he was very insistent that he see my work 'contract'. At this point I started to feel a little bit worried, especially as he was looking towards the little office behind him. Thankfully, another guy - who was dressed more officially - came up and told him to leave me alone. That made me think that he really wasn't security at all, but possibly someone who just had to be near the baggage area to help out if needed. He certainly didn't need to be asking questions!

I wheeled my two trolleys to the scanning point - and once again a few people came to help, which was so wonderful. Then one of the scanning personnel walked me to the next check in counter, helping push one of my trolleys. I'm so thankful for all of the people along the way who offered help and made the journey so much easier. This man led me to the international check in and told the ladies to check me in for domestic as he didn't want me to have to push two trolleys across the to domestic check in counter, which was at least 500m away. So nice!

This gave me time to have a coffee and relax a bit before my next flight. We boarded super early again and were actually in the air half an hour before the official departure time!!! Flying into Lae was a cool experience. The mountain ranges are so beautiful from the air and it was then that the journey started to feel very real. In Lae I gathered up my bags, headed outside and was greeted by the Wildeboer family who had come to pick me up. Putting my bags into the car was such a relief! The long journey and luggage battles were over and my new reality was finally happening! Getting back to 11 mile was really cool too. So much has changed - but it was so familiar too. Seeing Chris, Nicole & the girls and Freddie, Alo & their girls was wonderful! My new home. Now to settle in and get into routine :)

Trolley number 1

Trolley number 2. There was a really nice PNG lady standing behind me in the line, who offered to help me push my trolleys. Her English was perfect and she could see that I was having a bit of a tough time winding up and down the line with my two trolleys. She was my first helper - the first answer to my prayers. 

Last meal on Australian soil

Hot already - I had overdressed but not much can be done when the bags are checked in!

Catcha later #BNE, thanks for being #somuchfun

It's happening!

Landing in POM 

The departure lounge 

My beautiful welcome door :) Made especially by Karlyn and Caleb. There are now hanging on my fridge :)