Chad Wells Family Blog

We had our Mission Home meeting this morning.  Things are still not resolved, so we will have to come back in next week to have yet another meeting.
I got 2 flattening tires fixed before leaving Hagen (as well as the tire that went flat in Nebular) and had no more problems with them on the drive back to Pangia.

When I returned to Pangia there were many people waiting to talk with me.  One was a large group of about 17 young men from Pangia Station.  These are the kids of the haus sik nurses, the Council, teachers, etc.  They said that they were tired of just hanging out on the streets, causing trouble, and that they would like to come and work for me.  These kids range from grade 6 to grade 12 graduates and even 1 University graduate and range from ages 17 – 24.  I told them that we would see what we could do and that if they are available when the need comes I would use them.

We spent the day getting our errands done.  Hagen is packed full of people today!  Apparently today started the time period that the school fees are to be paid and they have to be paid in Hagen.  We struggled through the grocery store and streets, swimming through the hordes of people.  We were relieved when the errands were done and we could crash for a few minutes back at the Mission House, where we are staying.

We had the Mission Home board meeting tonight.  We are really struggling with keeping the home going.  We haven’t been able to find anyone to come run the home.  Different missionaries have been coming in and spending 6 months or so overseeing it.  However, it’s very difficult to run the mission home while still trying to do the work in your own area.  The Fairs have been doing just that for the last 6 months and are going back to their village next week.  After that we have no one in the home.  We are all trying to figure out what we can do to stop the doors from being shut for good.  The Missionary Home is exactly what the missionaries need when coming into town.  They have a cheap, yet clean, place to stay while getting their supplies and running their errands.  We still have more work to do, so we’ll meet again in the morning.

An Australian couple (who are principles at a high school and grade school a couple of hours out of Hagen) just got back from a short furlough in Australia.  They told us that the travel advisories for Mt. Hagen have gotten very negative.  All of the fighting and election problems have really been bad.  They said that, in Australia, if you buy a ticket to Mt. Hagen the embassy will call you and ask you not to come to Mt. Hagen.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the problems will be lessening anytime soon.  The election recount was finished (the official results were announced while Kirsten’s parents were here).  There is a new ruling now.  Instead of another recount they are going to have another vote!  So we are starting from scratch.  All the killing and fighting has been for naught (not that it was doing anyone any good) and will be starting all over again.

We headed out for Hagen this morning, but had so many delays that we didn’t actually get in until late afternoon.  At one of our delay spots we found out a woman from our area died early this morning.  She was giving birth in the coffee garden (the normal place to have a baby) and all went well with the baby.  The afterbirth never came, though, and she bled out and died.  The baby seems to be doing fine.  I’m sure they’ll find a family member or friend who will nurse the baby.  It’s a very sad thing.

Simon, the land surveyor, is still working on getting us the property behind where we are now.  We worked up a deal regarding payment.  We are going to give him lumber rather than actual cash.  I brought the down payment (1/2 of the total payment) to Hagen to him – 121 2×3′s.  I’m hoping that he’ll hurry up the process since he’s wanting the 2nd half of the payment (payable upon completion).  I told him when I’m leaving the country and that it has to be done before then in order for me to bring it to him.  Hopefully this deadline will cause things to progress in a very non-PNG type fashion.  It’s already taken since May and it could easily take another year or so to finish.
We got a flat tire in the Nebular area outside Hagen.  I wasn’t happy about that because Nebular is notorious for its fighting.  The clan war dates back to a time before the white man ever came to the Highlands and hasn’t diminished over time.  Missionaries have tried, and failed, multiple times to work the area.  Some young men with bush knives were calling out to their buddies after we stopped.  I did some quick thinking and talking and squelched any thoughts they might have had.  They were smiling and laughing with me by the time we finished.  I think that’s the fasted flat tire I’ve ever changed!  We were happy to be on our way.

I got back into Pangia early this afternoon.  I brought back 2 drums of fuel (one diesel and one petrol) for the sawmills.  We aren’t quite sure what the problem with Boaz was, but it already looks like he’s doing much better.  They gave him 3 sets of medicine (I think for the 3 things that they had narrowed it down to).  Sunday Pastor Sam had given us some meat from a mumu his extended family had done.  It wasn’t cooked all the way, so Kirsten put it in the fridge and then cooked it in the crock pot all day Monday to have for dinner.  Boaz could have gotten sick from what he ate on Sunday.  Also, on Monday he was playing with an old rusty tire rim.  Then he ate a cucumber with his very orange hands.  So it could have been something from that (the hospital called it Rust Poisoning).  Or, it could have just been a bad case of dysentery.  I doubt we’ll ever know, but the medicines are working and he’s doing much, much better!

Chad ended up going on an emergency Hagen run today instead of to the sawmill as planned.  Pastor Sam talked to Chad early this morning because Boaz, his little 5 year old boy, is very sick.  He came down with it last night and by this morning his diarrhea was bloody.  Chad ended up driving Pastor Sam, Vero, and their two youngest to Hagen so they could go to the hospital there.  They stopped at Ialibu first, since they have a better haus sik than Pangia and is only halfway to Hagen, but Ialibu wanted nothing to do with treating him. They said that they had no more medicine and wouldn’t receive any more until the first of the month. Because of other circumstances Chad is going to have to stay in Hagen overnight.  He’s planning on leaving tomorrow morning to come back.

The kids and I worked in the garden all morning.  I’ve been starting seeds indoors and am finally able to transplant some of them.  I transplanted some beans, watermelon, and onion.  Yesterday Junie helped us gather a bunch of dry grasses to spread over the ground.  Then we burned all the grass.  Today I worked it all into the soil and added chicken manure.   The ground is not very good here, in the swamp, so nothing will grow without ashes and chicken manure.  I am hoping that these transplants don’t die.  So far I haven’t been able to keep anything from seeds alive, so hopefully this is the answer.

The power has been off and on today.  So all is back to normal!  We are just so happy that we have power (however unreliable it might be) that we don’t seem to care that it is only on a portion of the time!

I headed off to the sawmill today with Derrick, but we ended up having to turn around and come back because none of the men brought their axes or bush knives!  We’ll have to try again tomorrow because it would have all taken too long to get anything started today.  So, I worked at the house instead.

The small sawmill ran all day.  I was wanting to give one of the tree owners his portion of wood (since we have finished cutting his logs) but found out that he is on his death bed.  I was able to witness to him a few days ago, while acquiring the trees, so we will be praying that he accepts Jesus before it is too late!

The power was still off today.  We received word that there was a problem with the power plant.  We were told to get plenty of fuel for the generator because it would be off for a very long time (long term meaning that it might not be back on for several months!)  We were disappointed to hear that and we started to try to figure out the least amount of time we can run the generator each day for the fridge and laundry, etc.  We were very happy when the power came on about 8pm tonight!  Everyone was expecting to be out of power for a very long time, so when it came on we could hear shouting and cheering all over Pangia!  I have to admit that it was coming from our house, too!

I preached all the services today in church.  The power went off yesterday and still hasn’t come back on.  Services are early enough on Sunday afternoon, though, that we don’t have to worry about lighting a lamp.  Church went really well and everyone seemed especially attentive.
Since we now have our passports again we are scheduling our return to the States.  It looks like we will be heading back on March 23rd.  Trevor’s birthday is the 24th, so we told Trevor he is going to have the longest birthday of anyone we know!  We’ll arrive in Hong Kong the evening of the 23rd.  He’ll wake up in Hong Kong on his birthday and we’ll fly out from there around noon.  We’ll fly for a very, very long time and arrive that same day, in San Francisco, around 9am.  We’ll get into Idaho around 2pm and he’ll still have the afternoon and evening to celebrate!  I’m thinking his birthday will be about 40 hours long!  Trevor really likes that idea!

We told the church members here, in Pangia, that we have a departure date.  They were very sad to hear it.  They knew we were planning on leaving around then, but to have an actual date planned was difficult for them.  There were some tears shed.  We know that saying goodbye is going to be a very difficult thing to do!

Pastor Sam was really needing something to put his dishes in, so I built him a nice dish cabinet today.  He helped me with it and was smiling the entire time!  Vero, his wife, was very excited when she saw what we had created!  They don’t actually have any furniture in their house.  They sit on the floor, cook on the floor, sleep on the floor…. you get the picture!  So this is a huge thing for them.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy building furniture, so it was a good thing for me, too!

I think that the subfloor on dad’s house will only need one more day of work before it’s finished.  I’m looking forward to being able to put up some walls!  The sawmill was working all day again today and the wood is still piling up!

We were excited to hear that our passports are finally in Hagen!  Bro. Fair received them in the mail and is holding them for us.  We haven’t had our passports in our hands for a very long time and I don’t think we’ll be wanting to let them out of our sight again! It has been a very long road, but we are glad it’s finally done.

We got word that Wes and Tammy had their baby today.  His name is Spencer Andrew.  We are a proud aunt and uncle once again!

We started working on the subfloor of dad’s house again this morning.  It’s wonderful to see the wood piling up and to actually start working on the house again!  Pastor Sam and Jerry (one of the Bible School boys) worked the small sawmill all day and got quite a bit done.

I used the paint we got in Hagen and was able to put the first coat on the workshop.  We’ll also paint the chicken house and generator house.  We’ll just have to wait until we go to Hagen again to get more paint!