Firsts

How many firsts can there be?  Oh so many!

We have been here for just under 3 weeks.  Last Saturday we were invited to go to the beach with 2 other MAF families.  After a 45 minute drive, only about 20 miles but the roads are oh so terrible, we arrived at the dock where we arranged for a boat to take us across the bay to the beach.  After getting all 13 of us along with all of our swimming and picnicking paraphernalia into the boat, it started raining!  We got soaked in the 30 minute boat ride.  Not that it was a first time we got soaked on a boat, but it was a first for us to go swimming in the rain.  Once we got there and got unloaded we sent our boat back and the rain stopped!  The color of the water was a beautiful soft green color of which I have only seen in pictures or from afar while on Maui. First time I had swum in water of such a color!  It was a glorious day of swimming, snorkeling, picnicking, & swinging into the ocean.  I saw my first “Lion Fish”.  I wish I had an underwater camera to show you all that I saw.  The purple and heather colored coral, bright blue star fish, fluorescent blue and black sea snakes.  It was amazing!  Even better than Maui!  Miles got sunburnt pretty badly on top of having worked out on the tarmac without a hat the day before.  He wasn’t in pain till the evening. 

Once we got back into the long boat to head back to the dock it started raining again. 

I had my first driving lessons on the left side of the road.   Not only did I turn on my wipers every time I wanted to signal, I had to learn to sift with my left hand. 

I had my first Indonesian lesson.  It was pretty bad.  My tutor, the secretary to the principal, asks me to repeat phrases she has taught me every time I see her.  It has become a matter of pride to make sure that I can say them.  She is so sad like her teaching is not good enough when I can’t remember.  I have so many new names and

faces to remember over 70 students in my classes

                              The boat leaves us in our tropical paradise!

                    Huts to stay out of the rain

                 

                          Before it rained again on the way home

plus all their families, some of whom live on the MAF base with us.  There are over 10 families living here let alone those staying at the school.  Many MAF folk come from other bases regularly so we are meeting a lot of staff.  The children of other mission organizations are included.   Not the first time I have had to remember so many names, but add it to the new environment, new culture, new language, and my brain is in overload!  Evenings are spent in the only air-conditioned room in the house, our bedroom.  We are usually asleep before 8PM.  All the changes are making us very tired!

We get up @ 5am (not a first) and on M,W,F, go swimming at the local pool.  On T, TH, I walk around our complex.  One MAF wife has decided to join me.  It is the coolest part of the day, around 75 degrees.  Miles heads to the hangar around 7:25, (less than 5 minute walk to the hangar) then I take care of the house ten have to be @ school by 11:00.  I teach a Bible class to 6th graders (first)  then have lunch with my colleagues.  After lunch I teach 1-5^th grade art and 3^rd grade ESL.  I am glad that my schedule is light for now as I get accustomed to life over here. 

I sometimes ride the bus home (16 passenger van) That is a first time I have ridden home with some of my students.

The first time I saw a papaya here I thought it was a squash.  They are giants over here!  So sweet and tasty!  The Longan is sweet like a lychee, has a thin leathery shell that peels like an egg, and is almost half seed.  I like them but Miles doesn’t care for them.

The Geckos or Cheechaks as they are called here are everywhere!  Each morning when I wake up I have to wipe at least 1 poop off my counter from them.  I sanitize then try not to think about where else they have been.  They are pretty quick so getting a picture has been difficult.  We have a bunch of baby ones along with the big ones.  The babies are pretty cute at under an inch long including the tail. 

                                     Small Papaya (The ones over here are monstrous!)

                                     Picture taken @ Joyce Conklings’ house.  We had  

                                    dinner with her and some teachers during the first

                                   week here.  Miles is holding a sirsak which is a very

                                   slimy fruit inside but the juice is tasty!  I guess it

                                   has natural cancer healing powers.  Miles is trying to pull

                                   out the strings of fruit so that we can taste it. First)

longan. 

For the best girls! J Clara and Carly

Doing laundry here is a treat!  Thankfully I have a pembantu (House helper).  Her name is Melince’ (Meleenchay) The machine is fully automatic as long as I remember to automatically turn the switch to fill and turn on the water, turn the switch to agitate and set the timer, turn the switch to drain, pull out the soggy clothes and put in the spinner tub right next to it, turn the dial to spin, place back in the wash tub to rinse, fill, drain, and spin again, then hang out on the line.  I am grateful to my Grandmother Murray for her teaching me when I was young how to hang clothes on the line.  Most everything has to be ironed after this.  Melince does the lion share of the laundry!  She also sweeps and mops, does the dishes, if I don’t which I usually do, and generally wipes stuff down.  Everything gets so dusty and dirty here.  She is married and has a 3 year old daughter.  They are our responsibility should she end up in the hospital.  We will need to care for her there and take food to her family.  Surprise!  We just adopted a whole family!  We are glad to help.  She is such a hard worker.

Our first Saturday here we had a tree fall down.  It was rotten to the core it seems due to the orchid that was growing on it.  It had a wasp nest in it.  We are trying to figure out how to save the orchid as I guess the purple blooms are breathtaking when in full bloom.  Several MAF ladies have taken pieces to start for themselves. 

I have picked pineapples for the first time in my life.  It seems that our pineapples are every ones’ pineapples.  They are disappearing faster than we can pick them.  Not taken by MAF folk.  They say that everyone knows they are ours and the compound is secure, but they disappear none the less.  One lady came to the door to sell pineapples.  Hmmm? 

So much for our first 3 weeks in Sentani! 

Thanks for reading our “first” blog.  Thanks for your support!  May God richly bless you.

Psalm 119:140

Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them

How many firsts can there be?  Oh so many!

We have been here for just under 3 weeks.  Last Saturday we were invited to go to the beach with 2 other MAF families.  After a 45 minute drive, only about 20 miles but the roads are oh so terrible, we arrived at the dock where we arranged for a boat to take us across the bay to the beach.  After getting all 13 of us along with all of our swimming and picnicking paraphernalia into the boat, it started raining!  We got soaked in the 30 minute boat ride.  Not that it was a first time we got soaked on a boat, but it was a first for us to go swimming in the rain.  Once we got there and got unloaded we sent our boat back and the rain stopped!  The color of the water was a beautiful soft green color of which I have only seen in pictures or from afar while on Maui. First time I had swum in water of such a color!  It was a glorious day of swimming, snorkeling, picnicking, & swinging into the ocean.  I saw my first “Lion Fish”.  I wish I had an underwater camera to show you all that I saw.  The purple and heather colored coral, bright blue star fish, fluorescent blue and black sea snakes.  It was amazing!  Even better than Maui!  Miles got sunburnt pretty badly on top of having worked out on the tarmac without a hat the day before.  He wasn’t in pain till the evening. 

Once we got back into the long boat to head back to the dock it started raining again. 

I had my first driving lessons on the left side of the road.   Not only did I turn on my wipers every time I wanted to signal, I had to learn to sift with my left hand. 

I had my first Indonesian lesson.  It was pretty bad.  My tutor, the secretary to the principal, asks me to repeat phrases she has taught me every time I see her.  It has become a matter of pride to make sure that I can say them.  She is so sad like her teaching is not good enough when I can’t remember.  I have so many new names and

faces to remember over 70 students in my classes

                              The boat leaves us in our tropical paradise!

                    Huts to stay out of the rain

                 

                          Before it rained again on the way home

plus all their families, some of whom live on the MAF base with us.  There are over 10 families living here let alone those staying at the school.  Many MAF folk come from other bases regularly so we are meeting a lot of staff.  The children of other mission organizations are included.   Not the first time I have had to remember so many names, but add it to the new environment, new culture, new language, and my brain is in overload!  Evenings are spent in the only air-conditioned room in the house, our bedroom.  We are usually asleep before 8PM.  All the changes are making us very tired!

We get up @ 5am (not a first) and on M,W,F, go swimming at the local pool.  On T, TH, I walk around our complex.  One MAF wife has decided to join me.  It is the coolest part of the day, around 75 degrees.  Miles heads to the hangar around 7:25, (less than 5 minute walk to the hangar) then I take care of the house ten have to be @ school by 11:00.  I teach a Bible class to 6th graders (first)  then have lunch with my colleagues.  After lunch I teach 1-5^th grade art and 3^rd grade ESL.  I am glad that my schedule is light for now as I get accustomed to life over here. 

I sometimes ride the bus home (16 passenger van) That is a first time I have ridden home with some of my students.

The first time I saw a papaya here I thought it was a squash.  They are giants over here!  So sweet and tasty!  The Longan is sweet like a lychee, has a thin leathery shell that peels like an egg, and is almost half seed.  I like them but Miles doesn’t care for them.

The Geckos or Cheechaks as they are called here are everywhere!  Each morning when I wake up I have to wipe at least 1 poop off my counter from them.  I sanitize then try not to think about where else they have been.  They are pretty quick so getting a picture has been difficult.  We have a bunch of baby ones along with the big ones.  The babies are pretty cute at under an inch long including the tail. 

                                     Small Papaya (The ones over here are monstrous!)

                                     Picture taken @ Joyce Conklings’ house.  We had  

                                    dinner with her and some teachers during the first

                                   week here.  Miles is holding a sirsak which is a very

                                   slimy fruit inside but the juice is tasty!  I guess it

                                   has natural cancer healing powers.  Miles is trying to pull

                                   out the strings of fruit so that we can taste it. First)

longan. 

For the best girls! J Clara and Carly

Doing laundry here is a treat!  Thankfully I have a pembantu (House helper).  Her name is Melince’ (Meleenchay) The machine is fully automatic as long as I remember to automatically turn the switch to fill and turn on the water, turn the switch to agitate and set the timer, turn the switch to drain, pull out the soggy clothes and put in the spinner tub right next to it, turn the dial to spin, place back in the wash tub to rinse, fill, drain, and spin again, then hang out on the line.  I am grateful to my Grandmother Murray for her teaching me when I was young how to hang clothes on the line.  Most everything has to be ironed after this.  Melince does the lion share of the laundry!  She also sweeps and mops, does the dishes, if I don’t which I usually do, and generally wipes stuff down.  Everything gets so dusty and dirty here.  She is married and has a 3 year old daughter.  They are our responsibility should she end up in the hospital.  We will need to care for her there and take food to her family.  Surprise!  We just adopted a whole family!  We are glad to help.  She is such a hard worker.

Our first Saturday here we had a tree fall down.  It was rotten to the core it seems due to the orchid that was growing on it.  It had a wasp nest in it.  We are trying to figure out how to save the orchid as I guess the purple blooms are breathtaking when in full bloom.  Several MAF ladies have taken pieces to start for themselves. 

I have picked pineapples for the first time in my life.  It seems that our pineapples are every ones’ pineapples.  They are disappearing faster than we can pick them.  Not taken by MAF folk.  They say that everyone knows they are ours and the compound is secure, but they disappear none the less.  One lady came to the door to sell pineapples.  Hmmm? 

So much for our first 3 weeks in Sentani! 

Thanks for reading our “first” blog.  Thanks for your support!  May God richly bless you.

Psalm 119:140

Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.

We Finally arrived!

Where do we start?! At the beginning of course!  God went before us the whole way.  First we didn’t get much sleep Friday the 30th as we were packing.  Around 3:45 I was done and thinking, “I’ll wake Miles up in 15 minutes”.  That was the last I knew until 4:30 when our taxi arrived early and called.  We had ordered a 5AM pick up.  We “rapidly” dressed and arrived on time at the airport.  (A God Thing - AGT) Our flight to Honolulu was uneventful and only about 30 minutes but after arrival we found out that, Philippine airlines baggage handlers were on strike.			Good By Paradise
We were supposed to travel with several of the men we met from Haggai Institute but many of them were re-routed as connecting flights were cancelled.  Ours however was only delayed by 3 ours and we had plenty of time to make our connecting flight. (AGT).  Our 10 ½ hour flight into Manila was a bit bumpy due to the extreme weather they had been having.  It was pouring buckets and chilly but the air conditioning at the terminal was still on. I was freezing.  I told Miles to remind me of this when I was roasting (boiling) in a few more hours.  We paid $5 American for a cup of hot tea and a miniature (by American standards) cup of cappuccino.  One friend from Haggai Institute was with us and he knew how to get us out of the customs area quickly.  A “TSA” agent walked us right past everything.  We would have stayed in the long line if not for him. (AGT) We flew to Jakarta in around 3 hours arriving at 2AM Monday Oct. 3rd.  The Ticket office was closed until 3AM.  Our Jakarta friend from Haggai came to  the rescue again.  He hooked us up with a porter, talked to the “TSA” agents for us and made sure that we were feeling safe before he left.			Haggai Institute guys.
Our porter stayed with us until the ticket  office opened, lugged our 6 bags first into the “TSA” X-ray, then back onto our cart, then to a machine that was required to “band” each piece of luggage, then lugged them to the ticket agent where they were weighed. We then had to check our carryon as we were only allowed a  “personal” item on Garuda Airlines.  We had to  take the carry-ons  back to the banding machine then to the  ticket agent were we were told to go and pay for our “Over Weight” charge at a different window.  Our porter was confident that we were ok after that so he headed back to the gates to get another customer and we were totally alone.  We went back to the ticket window where we had to pay the airport fee.				Makena beach, great snorkeling
Why the ticket agent couldn’t take the overweight fee but could take the airport  fee we don’t know and as Foreigners we didn’t want to rock the boat.  We finally got our boarding passes after all of that. (AGT) At this point we have been up for over 30 hours and I had awakened very early Friday AM.  When we took off Miles had fallen asleep during the safety presentation and doesn’t remember taking off.  We flew for another 3 hours and landed in Masuk.  We had to de-board the plane for 45 minutes and almost missed the call to board again. (AGT) Another 3 Hours, @ 1:30 PM later we finally arrived in Sentani.  We were met  by the Program manager Doug Allrich and his wife Karin.   They helped us get our bags to our house and left us to freshen up.  A  welcome gathering was planned for the afternoon where we met most of the Sentani MAF team.				Welcome to our home
This team is great as they put us on what they call “Meal Sked” which basically means our first few days’ meals are taken care of so we have time to figure out the stores, currency, and buy groceries before we have to cook for ourselves.  We ate dinner with the Juneau family and enjoyed homemade tacos with homemade tortillas.  YUM! :) (AGT) Wednesday we had tours of the school and hangar then got the “Welcome” speech with all the expectations, “Shredded Wheat”, not very tasty but good for you.  (I actually like the taste of shredded wheat!) J  Dinner was with Joyce at her house and she invited several teachers and the elementary principal with his wife and daughter.  We had a great evening.	2 phase washer, 1 side washes, and the other side spins. I have to manually move them from one side to the other
Thursday I went to the school and got curriculum, keys, and an orientation.  Miles had alone time here.   It rained pretty good most of the day.  The rainy season is just starting here.  At least the rain is warm and it sort of cools things off.  We had dinner with the Raneys, Steve and Cindy; he is the Grounds and Opps. manager.  OUR HOME: We have a pineapple grove along our back fence.  It is at least 30 feet of Pineapples that will grow year round.  Right now there are 20 or more set that are in different stages of growth and ripeness.  Our yard is quite nice and we will need to hire a yard man to help us keep it up.	Dryer AKA clothes line
The windows have no glass, just rat wire (Yes, I said rat!) covered with mesh to keep out the mosquitoes.  There are also security bars to prevent unwanted visitors of the homosapien variety.  Since there is no glass the temperature outside is the temperature inside and air conditioning is difficult.  Our bedroom windows have plastic over them to help keep the cool air in from the one air conditioner in the house.  Right now we call it the cave since we seem to spend most of our time in there.  We are so grateful for this extra luxury.   All of our electronics are in there, safe from the humidity that surrounds us everywhere else. The Geckos or Chichaks as they are called here are everywhere.  I watched one disappear into the hand towel in the bathroom.  I don’t mind them in the house so much, but I will mind if I squish one while drying my hands or face. L All the lights are old fluorescent tube type.  They make a humming sound when turned on.  We are 2 blocks from the generators that power the entire city of Sentani.  This is actually a white noise that at first I didn’t distinguish from the ocean sound that we had been hearing for the last few weeks.		Miles at end of pineapple row
All this said is not to sound ungrateful for this home but to try to give you a mental picture of our new surroundings. We are so excited and happy to be here.  We begin our work on Monday.  I will start out teaching 6th grade Bible, 1-5th grade art, and help out in the resource room with ESL needs and whatever else comes my way!  Friday nights are big here.  We will experience it tomorrow.  There is a game, currently Volley Ball, and the entire mission community turns out to watch, support the youth, meet up, and socialize.  Each week one grade level at the high school gets to prepare a dinner plate that is sold for a small profit that goes into their class fund to be spent usually on the class senior trip.