Well,  I now realize how uninformative I have been over the past year.  I have no excuses except being a busy teacher.  I will attempt to catch you up first with our plans for this summer.  Our daughter is having her 5th child so Dion is planning to go and be the "Pembantu" as we say here.  House help in English.  There are too many others taking off for summer furloughs so Miles has to stay here and hold the fort down in the hangar.  Besides, we can't afford to pay for both of us to come home.  Next summer we will be together for our furlough.  We will  be back in time for our oldest grandson's graduation from high school.  Whew!  can we be that old already?  Naw! :)  We just got an early start, as did our daughter. 

Video below shows the inside of our house. 

 

 Life in Wamena suits us well.  It reminds us very much of summer in Pacific Northwest.  It is warm and lovely during the day, clouds build up, then it rains at night.  Right now we are having an east wind that rivals the Columbia River Gorge winds.  This wind drys things out and we actually haven't had any rain for a week now.  We have friends who are running out of water.  Thankfully we live on the base and are hooked up to a deep well as a back up to our rainwater collection system which supplies most of our needs.

At Lyon park by the bay in Singapore

Dion spent most of December, the Christmas holiday, and into January with an unknown illness.  Several remedies were tried but still the symptoms persisted. After much internet research and checking with the Doc in Sentani, a gall cleanse was decided.  It worked!  She has been doing fine ever since. 

Our visit to Singapore last November for a cancer check up for Miles revealed that he has a very small amount of a very slow growing cancer.  The Doc was surprised we found it.  He said that Miles is a very good candidate for watching and waiting.  We will send a blood sample in every 3 or so months to keep an eye on it.  What a relief!  We were expecting surgery but had a few days of R&R instead! :)  Singapore is a lovely city.  The mass transit system will get  you just about anywhere in the city.  The highlight was a park by the bay that decorated trees with lights.  At night it is a beautiful walk then 2X each evening, they play classical music and the lights dance to the rhythm and mood of the music.  It was spectacular! :)

We did some shopping and picked up a few things that we just can't get here like decent chocolate chips, nuts, jerky, pepperoni, fritos, and pace Picante sauce.  Things we can live without, but when available they are a nice treat! :)

We got work done on our computers, ate a passable Mexican restaurant, did a lot of walking, and generally relaxed.

Miles playing with a sculpture

Miles at the entrance of Lyon park Singapore

Gasco with some neighbor kids

 Gasco, Our friend from Sentani that Miles has been tutoring moved to Wamena in October.  He stayed with us until he found an apartment.  We enjoy having him around.  He says we are like his parents and we feel close to him like a son as well.  All the "Expat" and native kids love him.  (expatriates, people living outside their home country)

  Before that, We were just busy getting settled into our new life here in Wamena!  The cost of living is higher than in Sentani as everything needs to be flown in. For those who haven't heard, Wamena is the largest city in the world accessible only by air.  Dion is learning about Dutch culture as the majority of students at the school here are Dutch. 

I will update again really soon to catch up on our summer furlough highlights.