Archive for the '07-July-2008' Category
We were very thankful for the house that was provided for us. The house is about 16’x8’ and has woven mat for the walls and floor. It has 2 rooms – the “living room” and the bedroom. Kirsten and I slept in the bedroom. The living room has a small bed that Amber slept on and the boys slept on the floor. Kirsten cooks in the living room on our portable kerosene burner while sitting on the floor.
I preached this morning and this evening. Three people were saved tonight!!! The church was packed. Pastor Harry had a tarp put on the ground outside so more people could listen.
We had lunch in Pastor Harry’s house. Pastor Harry’s wife, Ketti, did a wonderful job as hostess, taking care of us as well as the visiting pastors (Ketti is on the right, opening a can of fish with a machette).
Two high school boys (Den and David) arrived this afternoon with the keys. They will stay with us in Unguliapu until we return on Saturday.
We walked to Palipini after services tonight. As we were walking out of the village we noticed that the village catholic priest was also walking with us, which meant that he had been in the service as well!
We had a good meeting tonight. The church was full and we also had 4 other pastors from neighboring villages.
Dad said that he had a good RI class today. He’s really been enjoying teaching through the booklet Spiritual Maturity that we had printed for all of the students in the class.
I built a cage for the boys’ Kopel. It has been living in the very small lizard habitat and was in need of a much larger space. I told the boys today that I would build them a new Kopel cage as long as they helped me, since I’m still not feeling 100%.
By the time we got the Kopel cage built and the truck all packed it was about 3:30pm. We drove a little over an hour to Unguliapu. Since it has been dry we were able to drive all the way up to the base of the village. Pastor Harry Aiya asked me to come and preach a 3 day meeting in celebration of the church’s 12th anniversary. The plan was to preach in Unguliapu but to walk back to Palipini for sleeping. It’s only about a ½ hour walk down the mountain. However, when we arrived at Pastor Harry’s house I looked at Kirsten and asked her if she had remembered the key to dad’s house in Palipini. To our chagrin neither one of us had remembered the key! So, the church members at Word Baptist Church quickly arranged and organized for us to be able to stay in a house just 50 feet from the church.
I tried to call dad but his phone was off. So, I called one of the students at the high school and he quickly ran down to the mission station there, in Pangia, to get the key so that he could bring it to us (about a 3 hour walk). By the time he got the key it was just after 5:00pm. So, even though he was willing to walk in the dark I told him that our accommodations for the night would be just fine and for him to just come in the morning. It’s amazing to have cell phone service in the bush – where there’s not even power!
It’s great to be back in the land of the living! I’m feeling so much better today. I went to my Character Class this afternoon. I like the new time slots for class. It allows me to be much more efficient with my time.
I helped Kirsten finish grading the tests this morning. It took another 4 hours. We also put together next week’s test and I gave it to the school’s copy boy so that it will be ready for next week. With a few small changes in the format we are hoping that this test won’t be so time consuming to grade!
Buck, the goat, died today. This evening mom, Kirsten, and the kids milked the mama. It was a 6 person job! Mom milked while Kirsten and Derrick held the back legs. Trevor held the horns, Connor held the food to keep her occupied and Amber kept the bowl in place.
Chad’s coming along and is starting to feel much better. He was up and about a little today. He’s hoping to be a lot better by tomorrow so he can go teach at the High School.
Dee and I had RI class this morning. We only had about 50 kids. Before, it seemed like the kids who had no teacher were being sent to our room. Last week a lot of kids claimed to be Baptists to come into our class. This week a teacher came in to verify that there were only Baptists and no imposters! We are wondering if there might have been some complaints from some of the other religious leaders. We’ll see what comes about next week. We’ll be praying that all of the kids who would like to come to our class will be allowed to.
I spent about 6 hours this afternoon and evening grading the tests for Chad’s character class. Procrastination doesn’t pay! I’m not done and will have to finish tomorrow before he leaves.
The goat is still hanging in there, but we are still wondering if he will make it. He’s very weak and won’t eat much.
Chad’s doing a bit better today. He migrated to the couch for a bit. Megan gave me some sinus pills when she left New Guinea and I tried those on him. Those helped a lot and he said a lot of the pain was decreased while they were in effect.
I took the high school Sunday school class. We sang songs (more like choir) the whole time since Chad couldn’t be there to teach. After the A.M. service the kids asked me if we could practice some more. So, for the next 1 ½ hours we worked on the songs more. A couple of them are starting to sound really good! The kids did confirm that they can understand me much better, so my Pidgin must be improving! I don’t have to struggle so much to come up with the right words, even though I usually think of a better way to say it afterwards. Slowly but surely!
Chad’s doing a little better today. He slept for most of the day. The pain really hasn’t improved but I’m sure the antibiotics will be helping that soon.
Dennis worked on the siding for the generator house today. I believe he got one wall up (with wire at the top to allow air into the room without allowing rats to come in as well).
Buck, the kid from Brad and Deborah’s goat, hasn’t been doing well the past few days. We put his papa in the pen with him and his mama (they’ve been tied up near each other for grazing during the daytime). For some reason the papa got upset and was butting Buck. Buck got caught up in his horns. We took the papa out right away, but it seems that Buck might have gotten some internal injuries. He hasn’t eaten much and hasn’t moved much either. Today we thought for sure he was near death. Amber was holding him and Buck couldn’t lift up his head and his eyes looked glassy. A few times we thought he was already dead but then we’d feel a pulse or see him breathe. Later on this evening he got up and walked around a bit. Then, a few minutes later, he was down and almost dead again. He’s still with us tonight, but we aren’t sure he will be by morning. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but he’s so weak now I don’t know if he can survive it. The kids are really sad about it, even though they know we’ll be eating him when he gets big enough (they know it in theory anyways).
Chad and the boys came back today. When I heard the truck I went outside and saw Pastor Sam driving and Trevor and Derrick in the truck with him. I was wondering why when I realized that Trevor was crying in the back seat. When I got to the truck I saw that Chad was lying down in the back seat with him. I opened the door and Trevor said that daddy was really sick and was talking funny and not making any sense. Dennis got there right after and tried to figure out what was going on. Chad wasn’t responding to anything we said. Dennis, Pastor Sam, Benny, and James hauled Chad out of the truck and tried to walk him to the house but Chad passed out a few steps out of the truck. They laid him down and we brought out a blanket, to hold over him to block the sun, and some water. It took a bit but he was finally coherent enough to talk. The last thing he remembered was counting 2x4s in the jungle. He told Pastor Sam that he needed to go home NOW! Somehow he made the long walk (including walking the logs over the rivers and creeks) to the truck. We thank God for that because the walk is too hard to be able to be dragged or helped along. This is a picture taken a week or so ago that shows a small part of the trail.
We were able to finally get him into the house and onto the couch. He drank some water and fell asleep. He’s got a horrendous sinus infection, but I can’t imagine that the infection, alone, would cause delirium & fainting. He’s on antibiotics now, though, so if there’s anything else going on it should take care of that as well. Dee went to the haus sik this afternoon to get more (the bottle Chad was using didn’t have enough in it for the 10 days he’ll need to be on it) and some pain medicine. Pastor Sam came by this evening to pray with Chad.
At breakfast this morning Dennis explained a few things regarding the Wiru (pronounced we-do) tribe that I thought were very interesting so I thought I would pass them along. Because the Wiru tribe (the tribe we are a part of) has a violent history they have their villages set up a little different than many of the other tribes around. They put their houses in a “house line”. That means the huts are all lined up in two rows with a “road” between the two lines. The road is just an open dirt area. This house line is set up on a ridge, or hill, for safety against attack. Other areas have more of a village type area with houses scattered around wherever is preferred
He said that on Tuesday he went past village court (which is held outside). Two older men were starting to fight as tensions rose. Only a close relative can pull the 2 fighting men apart. If anyone else (Dennis, for instance) tried to intervene then the whole mob would turn against that person. So you have to leave things alone, even if it’s hard. That’s why we couldn’t intervene when we saw the men abusing the women in Hagen. It would have been dangerous for us to do so.
I finished 3 kau kau mounds today and Dee planted kau kau in the first one. More will be planted tomorrow. The chicken house is right above Connor’s head. Our house is directly to the left. The workshop is to the right. A portion of the cook house is to the far left.
Chad roasted some coffee before he left but didn’t have time to grind it (we roast it in a pan on the stove). So, today I got out the little hand grinder and ground the coffee. It’s coffee season right now, so it’s easy to get the beans. I think it is just finishing, however, so we’ll see how long we are able to get them. It has a nice flavor, a slightly fruity taste. Chad said that’s because they leave the cherry on the bean longer because it makes it easier to remove. The cherry taste gets into the bean. Some of the high school boys took a bag of coffee with them a few days ago because they wanted to shell the beans for Chad (there’s a thick, papery shell that covers the bean and it gives the coffee a burnt flavor if you don’t remove it before roasting) and they brought the bag back today, all shelled, when they came to use the encyclopedias.
Chad sent a note with Porai (one of the Pondi boys) asking for some medicine because he had a painful sinus infection. I sent the antibiotics and pain pills back with him. I hope they work quickly. I’m sure it’s no fun to be in the jungle, sleeping on the ground, when you don’t feel good!
Chad left this morning with Derrick and Trevor for the jungle sawmill work. They’ll be back either Friday night or Saturday, depending on how much they get done. Both Derrick and Trevor were very excited to be able to go with him!
I got some garden work done today. Each section of garden is about 6 feet wide and 40 -50 feet long. There are barrets (small ditches) in between each section for water drainage. I weeded one of the strawberry sections (we have 2) and got the ground ready in a second. This area we planted seeds in a few weeks ago, however the seeds were too old and nothing came up. We planted some newer seeds today and hope they will come up.
Dennis had the High School RI class today. He said that it went well. He and Dee also went to Keremini tonight. When they got there they saw all the people congregated at the end of the house line. Apparently a couple had gone to their garden and saw 3 kids digging up some of their kau kau and cutting some sugar cane. This has been going on for awhile so they were quite angry. The woman was ready to cut each of the boys as punishment (and had her bush knife in hand to do so) but it was decided that their parents would be taken to court instead. Phew!
Keremini’s house line consists of the families of 7 brothers. The oldest brother was the head of the house line. He has died and now the 2nd brother is the head. Everyone is related in that house line (although the 7 brothers did marry women from other areas). So, I would think that this fact would make this problem with the garden a little more complicated.
I had the Character Class today. It went well. The class schedule was all messed up because someone forgot to ring a bell, so I didn’t have my normal time slots. The “higher-ups” said that they would not let that happen again. They also changed the time slots for my class so that they are one right after another. Now, I won’t have to wait for an hour between the two classes.
I was planning on leaving after class for the bush so that I could get some done tonight and get an early start in the morning, but I didn’t end up getting back to the house until about 5:00pm. I decided to stay the night and leave in the morning. Kirsten wasn’t unhappy with my decision!