September 15:

Last Thursday night (Sept 8th) we went to “haus bilong wasfemili bilong mipela” (our host family’s house) for dinner. We were looking forward to spending time with them again, but also very tired. All of the POC students gathered outside at about 5:30 p.m. to wait for their “wasfemilis” to arrive and lead the way to their homes. We were the only ones left waiting by 6:15 p.m. and we started to think maybe we would be going to bed early after all. The director of POC went out on his motorbike twice to look and see if he could see anyone on their way to meet us, but couldn’t find our “wasfemili” so at 7:00 p.m. we were headed into the dining room to have dinner here when the two oldest girls from our “wasfemili” arrived. So we gathered up our things, put Mikayla in the baby backpack which I carried and James carried Laurel and his backpack with our diaper bag and water bottles. Norlyne and Loraine carried our two pots of food (a big pot of rice and a big pot of stew), a pretty heavy load but it’s hard to overestimate a Papua New Guinean’s endurance or strength. It was pretty dark as we set out. We both had headlamps and we also had a mini maglite. Our headlamps have been a lifesaver! We use them virtually EVERY single night. A staff member did a skit about staying with a “wasfemili” and when she “visited the outhouse”, she held her flashlight in her mouth and “dropped” it, which we know has actually happened before.

Norlyne and Loraine offered to take us on a “shortcut” which was down a steep hill, across a stream, and up the other side, but since it was dark and we were carrying both girls plus all of our stuff we opted to take the long way around and stay on the road. Even so, it was not an “easy” hike to their house. It probably only took 15 minutes, but we both had to catch our breath and were very thirsty by the time we arrived at their house. The hard part was that the last 1/2 of the hike was all uphill and quite steep.

When we arrived we were greeted by our waspapa and the rest of the children. He invited us to come inside. It was fun and interesting to visit them in their home. We entered through a low doorway into a small area with a dirt floor where there was a fire pit and just enough room for a couple people. There were 3 steps up into their living area which was a room about 8′ wide by 12′ long. There was a short hallway and it looked like two small rooms (maybe 6′ x 6′ish) in the back of the house. It was hard to see very well because the only light in the house came from one small kerosene lantern. The flooring was made from split bamboo, the walls were made from woven strips from another tree (I forget the name of it). The roof is made from palm fronds folded in half and sewn together. (I realize that pictures would help a lot in understanding this description. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some pictures of things like this soon.)

We all sat on the floor on woven mats. About 10 minutes after we got there and were just getting settled our wasmama arrived with Julius (the 8 month old). She apologized for being late and explained that she had been working in the garden and it was a long ways away. If I understood correctly it’s about a 2 hour walk from their house to their garden.

We had a very enjoyable time at their house. We brought rice and stew with us and they prepared potatoes and greens. We all sat on the floor and ate. Mikayla really had fun – she sat down and put her legs out in front of her in a V and set her bowl right in her lap and started eating as though she ate that way everyday. Around 8 p.m. Mikayla was getting tired so she went to sleep in a “bilum” (string bag) and slept for about an hour while we talked. Then she started coughing (she’s still got a cold hanging on) and she woke up and actually threw up.

We were just about ready to leave anyway, so I took Mikayla and Laurel outside while James packed up our stuff and got ready to leave. Both girls were crying quite a bit and a neighbor lady came over to try to help quiet them down. They both just wanted me to hold them. Mikayla was finally willing to go in the baby backpack so we could leave and I carried her in that while carrying Laurel in my arms. Because the trail was so steep and I was wearing flip flops I decided it wasn’t safe for me to carry Laurel in my arms so handed her off to James even though I knew she would cry. She screamed the whole way back to POC but once we got there both girls went to bed pretty quickly and slept all through the night.

Tonight we go back to visit out “wasfemili” again, but this time we’ll be spending the night. Please pray that it goes really well. I almost don’t even have the energy to want to go this time. :-/ I’m excited about the experience and know that it will be good preparation for 5 weeks of village living later on, but with the girls and me being sick it really puts a damper on things. Worst of all Mikayla has had diarrhea 2-3 times per night for the last 3 or 4 nights. As well, 2 of those nights she threw up. It’s hard enough to take care of her here at POC where we have access to running water and can turn on the lights etc. I’m very glad for the few disposable diapers that we’ve saved and plan to use those so at least we won’t have to figure out what to do with multiple messy cloth diapers in the dark with no running water. Please pray with us that she won’t throw up or have diarrhea tonight and that everything would go smoothly.

Tonight we’ll be going to their house again. We’ll be walking there on our own and are planning on leaving around 5 pm. We’re taking uncooked rice and tin meat with us that we’ll be cooking with them. Note: we won’t be “helping” them prepare the food, we’ll be “learning” how they prepare it – it was explained that there is very little we can actually help a Papua New Guinean do (if we ask to help it sounds like we think they don’t know how to do it), but they are happy to teach us how they do things. We are sure we’ll enjoy the company and are hoping that God will bless us and our children and keep us healthy throughout our time there.

September 10:
Well, we’re in the middle of our second “haus kuk” (temporary outdoor kitchen) weekend. It’s Saturday night and I need to go to bed soon. Just finished taking care of everything that had to be done tonight. James is quite sick so he’s been in bed since about 3 p.m. this afternoon. Sometime just after 2 p.m. he told me he was going to lie down for a nap. He had planned to start the fire at 2:45 so we could cook our dish for the potluck, but when he didn’t get up I figured I could start it and let him rest. I was busy cooking and watching the girls so didn’t get a chance to wake James up until just before 4 p.m. That’s when I found out he was sick. He said he ached all over and had a fever. I took his temp and it was 100.8.

So I went back out to the “haus kuk” and made sure our rice and peanut sauce were ready for the potluck and then went to find Mikayla who had gone to play in the sand box. I found that she had also found some water somewhere and she was totally soaked and had sand ALL over her whole body. I gave her a quick bath to rinse the sand off and then went to the potluck. Friends helped with getting Mikayla fed and then watched both girls while I cleaned up, did dishes, and got all of the stuff from our “haus kuk” packed up and brought in for the night. There are nails on the walls in our room where we can hang bags of food to discourage mice/rats/geckos/etc from getting into them.

Tonight was the “POC’s got Talent” night and we had prepared to sing a parody of “A Whole New World” (A Mission World). James had even put together a slide show that was timed with our music but unfortunately we had to skip it. We were also planning to have Mikayla and Laurel play a piano duet – there’s a keyboard here that has a “demo” feature with The Entertainer by Scott Joplin so we were going to let them sit at the keyboard while that played. Oh well…it would have been fun but as it was, there was no way I was up for taking the girls out alone so we just had an early night (translate: a LONG “going to bed” phase).

After bathtime, Mikayla and Laurel hung out in bed with me and we read stories and they played with each other and both laughed a lot, Mikayla drank her bottle, Laurel chewed on empty bottles (we think she’s going to get her first tooth soon), and eventually they both went to bed.

Then I put a load of diapers in the washing machine to soak overnight. The washing machine here is a twin tub machine which means that you put the load in one side to wash, you have to turn the water faucet on to fill up the tub, then you set it to wash, then you manually set it to drain, then you switch the load over to the other side to spin, then switch it back, turn the faucet on to fill again, manually set it to “wash” so that it will move things around and hopefully get the soap out, then set it to drain, then move the load back to the other side again to spin one last time before taking it out to hang on the line. It’s MUCH better than having to wash everything by hand, but it is definitely not the same as an “automatic washing machine” back home. It takes about 1 hour to do a load of laundry and get it out on the line and that’s if you’re really paying attention and making sure you’re back to do the next step on time. The first time I did a load it took me 3 hours because I kept forgetting…I’m so used to being able to “throw a load in the washer” and not having to think about it again.

After getting the load in the wash I walked over to the kitchen to fill a bottle for Mikayla in case she wakes up in the middle of the night (I don’t want to have to walk over there at 3 a.m.). Then I was able to take a quick shower – in cold water. The only way we can have warm showers is if the water is heated by a fire. So at 6 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. the fire is lit, but if you don’t shower within about 1 hour of when the fire is lit, chances are there won’t be any warm water. Not that it’s that big of a deal to take a cold shower here…I mean, it’s hot enough that I’d almost rather take a cold shower anyway.

Okay, high time I went to bed now. We don’t have internet access on “haus kuk” weekends (part of preparing us for village living with no internet/email access) so I can’t send this until at least Monday.

September 11:
It’s once again bedtime. Today went much better than I had hoped. James was still sick, but late in the afternoon started feeling quite a bit better to where he could be out of bed a bit and was able to eat.

People have been very gracious in helping out in many ways. I didn’t have to cook any meals today. I just contributed ingredients towards meals others were fixing and the girls and I ate with others. Such a blessing!

There was a group of about 15 people going to church in town today and Mandy (who has become a good friend and helps with the girls a LOT) offered to take Mikayla. It was so helpful to know that Mikayla was having fun going for a ride, seeing people, and hanging out while I took care of Laurel and brought things to James and tried to help him as much as possible.

Mandy (and many others) said that Mikayla had a blast at church and that she was very well behaved. To be honest I was surprised to hear she did so well because when we took her to church last week I ended up spending 3/4 of the time outside with her and Laurel.

In the afternoon Mikayla, Laurel, and I joined the group going down to the beach at a resort called Jais Aben (you can see some pictures here: www.jaisabenresort.com).

As far as James’ sickness…we’re hoping it was just a 24 hour flu bug. Another family here had that Thursday/Friday of last week. The nurse thinks that’s what it is but she said that if it cycles back in a few days it’s probably malaria. It’s interesting always having malaria in the back of your mind…but anytime there’s flu like symptoms it could be malaria and the only sure distinction is that malaria always comes back whereas the flu is gone once it’s finished its course.

Sept 3

Our “wasfemili” (host family) came to visit on Thursday night. We enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them a bit. We’ll be spending time with them about once a week for the next few weeks. And at one point we’ll spend a night at their house.

Our “waspapa” (host papa) and “wasmama” (host mama) have 5 kids:
Norlyne (girl) age 12
Loraine (girl) age 10
Douglas (boy) age 6
Demien (boy) age 4
Julius (boy) age 8 months

Each team here at POC was assigned a “wasfemili”. A team consists of 2-3 people. James and I are a team (duh?). Anyway, Thursday night all of the “wasfemilis” came to meet us and have dinner with us. We didn’t have to make our own food this time. The kitchen prepared food for us (stew – potatoes, carrots, and meat served over rice, sweet tea and banana cake for dessert). Next time our “wasfemili” comes to visit here (which I believe will be in about a month) we’ll have to prepare the food ourselves and serve them in our “haus kuk” (temporary outdoor kitchen).

We cleared all of the desks and chairs out of the classroom and took mats from our rooms over to put on the floor where we would host our “wasfemili”. Our mat was about 5′ x 3′. There were 10-12 groups. So imagine 10-12 mats spread out on a classroom floor with the plan to host anywhere from 2-10 people per mat. The room was definitely full once everyone arrived.

The “wasfemilis” were told to arrive “as the sun was going down”. I would say sunset is between 6 and 7 and it’s very dark by 7:30. Most people arrived around 7 p.m. Mikayla and Laurel are used to going to bed at 7 p.m. but we wanted our “wasfemili” to get to meet them. Our “wasfemili” arrived just before 7 p.m. Laurel was sleeping in a “bilum” (string bag) which we were able to hang just a few feet away from our mat in the classroom. Mikayla was tired, but enjoyed meeting our “wasfemili” and hung out with all of us until about 7:45 p.m. when she was just way too tired and I took her back to our room to go to sleep.

Mikayla really enjoyed our “wasfemili” and took to them right away. She was sitting on our wasmama’s lap within minutes of all of us sitting down around the mat. Laurel woke up about 10 minutes after they got there and Nolene wanted to hold her as soon as I got her out of the “bilum”.

At about 7:30 the kitchen brought our pot of rice and our pot of stew out. They set it in between me and our “wasmama”. Both of us were holding babies, but in PNG culture it is customary for the women to serve food to the men and children. The kitchen lady (Sue) who brought out our food offered to take Laurel for me and our wasmama handed her baby to our waspapa. Once the food was served it was time for me to take Mikayla and put her to bed. As soon as she was in bed, Sue brought Laurel to me so I was able to put her to bed too and then go back to our “wasfemili” while someone else kept an ear open to hear if either of the girls woke up. They both slept great all night.

James and I showed our “wasfemili” pictures from our family calendars. They really enjoyed seeing the pictures of our family and we talked about all sorts of things from family relationships (how do you say cousin, uncle, brother-in-law etc.), to baseball, to hiking, and on and on and on. We were communicating almost exclusively in Tok Pisin so I had been nervous that we wouldn’t be able to talk about much, but we actually talked about a lot of things and they were here for about 3 hours. Our “wasfemili” was the last to leave which was surprising to both of us.

At one point our “wasmama” asked if Grandpa and Grandma Farnell have a caregiver or any children who take care of them. I was trying to explain in Tok Pisin that Aunt Marilyn lives close to them, but I actually told them “Their daughter’s toilet is not very far away”. LOL. Oh well, they didn’t mind and with James’ help I was able to clarify what I was actually trying to say.

All in all it was a lot of fun and it was very good practice for us to use Tok Pisin so much.

We got our first card from somebody we met in WA about 1 year ago at a mission conference but hadn’t heard from since.  We have been sending them our newsletters.  They sent us Isaiah 41:10 (“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”), which my Aunt Kathy sent my mom a while ago, and she reminded us of it in the airport, and then in a recent email!  Then I read through Isaiah 41 and verse 10 stuck out to me, so I wrote it on the classroom chalkboard hoping it could encourage others.  Then we got that card just a few days later.  God is AMAZING!!

The bugs aren’t bad.  Mosquitoes are mostly only out around dusk and night-time, and when we wear bug spray, it’s fine.  Just a little bit does a very good job.  There are some BIG moths (one bigger than one of my hands, another about the size of one of my hands).  BIG grasshopper too.  And some beetles.  One flew at me and was really loud.  Kind of scary.  There are some nasty looking/big wasps (or something) here. They haven’t bothered us at all, but it’s kind of scary.  I remember them from last time I was in PNG.

We were asked if we had to pay to download attachments.  We have to pay for everything we download/upload.  It’s about 17 toea per MB (either upload/download).  There are 100 toea in 1 kina, and 2.2 kina = 1 US dollar.  So, it’s about 8 cents per MB.  NOT bad at all!

Please also pray for rain.  We’re running low on drinking water (which comes from rain).  They’ve mentioned a number of times we’re low and today they said they have to move water around the compound in creative ways, suggesting that certain reserve tanks are out/very low.

We shopped in town today for the next 4-5 weekends.  We took cash and bought a lot of the start up things we needed which made our costs higher than just maintaining our food supplies.  We finished off at the local outdoor market where they have fruit, veggies, peanuts, eggs, etc.  We finished up with 5 toea.  LOL!  It was an adventure!

So, this shopping was because we have to cook outside, over a fire or camp stove, with no refrigeration for the next 4-5 weekends.  It’s preparation for our 5 weeks in a village w/o refrigeration.  Pretty crazy, but the kitchen manager/cook has been VERY helpful and encouraging and we have a lot of recipes for the village.  We also “learned” how to light a fire and cook over it.  I say “learned” because we both already know how, but then the cook brought out dishes for each fire (there were about 10-12) and we had a sampler lunch where we could try all sorts of dishes from spaghetti and spaghetti sauce to chicken curry to banana bites (a dessert made from ripe banana, flour, and baking powder and deep fried) to spicy tin meat (tin meat is one of the main sources of protein here: it’s meat that comes in a tin can and has all kinds from pork to corned beef, etc) to fried greens.  The fried greens are popular among Papua New Guineans and very tasty: usually they are flavored with a beef/chicken stock cube which run about $0.18 in town: VERY affordable (especially in comparison to US prices for beef stock: we didn’t buy it there because it was so expensive) and VERY helpful in flavoring all sorts of things.

Our “wasfemili” (host family) is coming to POC (Pacific Orientation Course: we just call the campus we’re on POC) tonight for the first time.  We will be spending a lot of time with them over they next number of weeks.  Tonight we meet them and the kitchen provides dinner for us and them.  Later, we’ll visit their house/village for dinner.  Another time we’ll have them to our “haus kuk” (temporary outdoor kitchen that we constructed) and serve them a meal cooked by us.  We’ll also spend a night in their village.  We’ll be with another family for the 5 weeks, but it will be great to get to know this family too.  They will help us learn Tok Pisin (the trade/market language of Papua New Guinea (PNG) which we’re learning at POC) and about the culture.  It will be fun, hard, an adventure, and more!