Busama really is the best!

As you would have seen from the previous post, I absolutely loved my time in Busama. It was refreshing, relaxing and I had an opportunity to switch off a little. There was time for walks, swimming, playing with the kids and even snorkelling! A great weekend all round. I'm so thankful that God gives us time to relax and enjoy His creation. God knows that we need rest and His timing for this rest is always perfect.

Rather than waffle on too much here, I will let the photos do the talking. After all, a picture says a thousand words!

Amazing shells!

I love this little plant - the variation in colour is quite amazing and the pop of red really caught my eye

The smallest coconut palms I ever did see - I could easily reach up to the coconuts, which has never happened before!

This gorgeous little girl followed us up and down the beach for at least an hour! She is such a cutie :)

  

Even the coconuts bow down to the King!

This family saw us collecting shells, so they joined in and gave us quite a few of their treasured finds

The reef where I snorkelled. This photo doesn't capture how big the waves actually were!!

A local village house...

With some lovely locals who chatted to us for a while. Solange (back left) is one of the relatives of Uncle Guring and said that she's met a lot of people from all around the world. In her opinion, Germans are very friendly, Americans are very arrogant, Canadians don't talk much and Australians are racist. Oh boy....!!!

Off fishing :) This photo seems to have come up quite blurry unfortunately. Later that day, after we had been snorkelling, these boys climbed a tree, gathered some coconuts and opened them so we could drink the coconut water. After swallowing a rather large amount of salt water, it was so wonderful to drink some refreshing coconut water! 

Look forwards - you see sand, sea and sky. Look backwards - you see lush, green jungle! The coolest combo!

So beautiful...

... and then we came across this little lake

Some colourful sand, which reminded me of a sand timer/decoration Mum and Dad had when we were kids

The brightest sea star I have ever seen

Waltraud Kugler, Samantha's aunty who is visiting from Germany, came along for the weekend. Samantha is one of my students

We all spent a great afternoon in the water body surfing and diving underneath the huge waves. The photos don't do justice to how big the waves really were!

These photos, although a little blurry, capture the ability the locals have to carry huge weights on their head! I am constantly in awe of this

At night we let off two Chinese lanterns. A beautiful sight to see

Heading off, by the light of the moon

Where is Torsten's head?! 

Busama - first impressions

It's been a while since I last posted on my blog. Life has been flying by and lots has been happening! I will endeavour to update you all on some of the happenings here in PNG over the next week or so :) There's a lot to share!

A couple weekends ago I had an opportunity to go to Busama, which is a little coastal village about 45 minutes away from Lae by boat. The Kugler family were going (I teach one of their children) and they invited me to come along with Karlyn & Jono Wildeboer. It all happened in a blur! From the time I received the invite to the time I was sitting in Busama it was less than 24 hours :) Quite exciting really!! It was the first time I had been out of Lae in a long time. It was so nice to see another part of PNG and experience a different side of life. It also meant that I was out of phone range for a few days, so that forced relaxation :)

Busama is absolutely beautiful - a testament to the creative God we have! There are endless reminders of His presence in that place - beautiful sunrises and sunsets, crashing waves, sunny days, swaying palm trees, bright corals, stunning flowers and a chorus of jungle bugs. A chance to sit back, soak it all in and reflect on our awesome God and His handiwork was so refreshing for my soul. What a blessing it is to have a God who knows our every need, more intimately than we ourselves do.

There's lots of photos for you to enjoy to give you an impression of my experience. You can almost imagine that you're there with me!

Travelling by banana boat was fun! This boat didn't manage to get us all the way across the bay though - the engine was faulty so we jumped into another boat in the middle of the open water. Thankfully no one fell in, although was quite a bit of wobbling!

Jono loving the ride

Coming past the markets close to the Biwat settlement

All squished in - happy as can be to be off adventuring!

The coolest little sailboat!!!

See you in a few days Lae! 

The sea, the clouds and a mountain range. How wonderful are your works, oh Lord!

Karlyn, me and Uncle Guring - our driver, our caregiver and our Papa Graun (owner of the area/land that we were staying on)

The kids came prepared by wearing their bathers - straight out of the boat and onto the beach to dig, swim and play. Pretty good life, hey!

Can you see how the local ladies carry their bags? I'm learning slowly...! If I had hair like the locals it'd be easier as the curls act as grip for the bag handle :)

Can't get much better than this!

Body surfing!!! Yeeee-ha!

This photo was taken by one of my students who had a play with my camera for a while. I love how the photo is in three sections - sand, sea, sky - three things that immediately make me feel that I'm on holidays. There's nothing more soothing than being able to sit and stare at the water!

  

  

I love the sky in this photo. It's hard to tell, but the clouds were running in an almost straight line just above the land in the distance. It was wonderful to watch the clouds twist and move across the sky

One of the houses in the village...

 

...and then we saw a rainbow!! This is definitely one of my favourite photos from my little weekend away

Karlyn chilling in the hammock

The sunset was beautiful. So very hard to capture how stunning it was, but you can get a small glimpse here. Notice the colours reflected in the water?

We saw the moon rise too! It was full moon, which made it extra beautiful

Our PNG feast for dinner - prepared by Uncle Guring and his family, many of the vegetable and fruit sourced from their own garden. It was absolutely delicious and so much more so because I didn't have to cook - and we all know that a day that I don't need to cook is a good one for me :) Ha!!!