Our first day of POC was a relaxing day as not everyone enrolled has arrived yet. We took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.
Our son was eaten by mosquitos in our own home, the evening before we left to come here, so while he looks like POC isn't agreeing with him, it is. He was eaten alive back at home.
Calvin is loving the ping pong table we have here. Sydney, well, we haven't seen her much as she's running around exploring and making friends. She acts as if she was born here. We see her at meals and when she wants to show a new friend her room. (Which we also have pictures of)
The internet speed here is rather slow, so I thought I might put the time into uploading the pixas now and hope that holds you out over the 6 weeks we'll be here, and then I'll post more pixas later.
I tried to include the scenery as well as the kids since the grandfolks say we need more pictures of the kids. Sad to say, most of these have Calvin's face swollen up.
The campground is on top of a mountain ridge, so we overlook the ocean on two sides and directly overlook a dense jungle. We are down only about 1000 feet above sea level here (I'm guessing) so the air is warmer but easier to breath. This place feels a lot more like being in a jungle than our home in Ukarumpa does.
We're very thankful for being in Ukarumpa before coming here. Things here are more primitive. We saw 4 cane toads last night on the walk to the bathroom (big huge toads). I think our thoughts today, had this been our first exposure to the country would be: "Is this our life now? What have we done!?" But we know there is a more cozy place when we're done here.
On the flip side, this place is gorgeous. The ride up, was a wonderful 4.5 hour drive, beautiful. People warned us about the road coming up the hill, but it was very reminiscent of the roads from my childhood. My wife was extremely confident that I'd be able to drive it, and while I was told 4 wheel drive was necessary, it wasn't.
What seems like a scary crazy road for most folks, seemed actually nicer than some stuff I'd driven as a teenager.
As you can tell by the pictures, it is very scenic here. We're getting a really nice ocean breeze up here, so things aren't as hot as they could be, it is in fact, quite comfortable. A little warm, a little sunny, but comfortable enough to sleep through the night.
The beds, oye, this will be our biggest struggle. Two inches of weak foam on top of plywood. Every side of me hurt this morning, but oddly I feel rested at the same time.
Well that's enough information for now. We're here, we're safe, it isn't as bad as we had anticipated as far as the living conditions, and we can definitely get along well here.
There are families from many nations here, and people with many skills. I was elected last night to help people get their email up and running, and laptops were coming out of the woodwork. I'll do the same tonight, jsut to make sure everyone can write back to their loved ones.
We feel sympathy for the folks who flew in last night. We can see the tired look on their faces and know the feeling, but thankfully for us it was a long time ago.
If you've ever had the feeling of.... coming into your own... of finding something that you're good at, that's what yesterday felt like. Before starting the journey our translator friend Mr. Enoch prayed in Tok Pisin for our safety, as I began to drive I felt all the thoughts going through my head:
"avoid pigs, avoid potholes, don't hit anything, drive slow enough to see, remember to slow at bridges, they have the right of way, beware of blind corners... "
and so on... but as I settled into it, I realized that God had given both my wife and myself certain experiences to prepare us for life, and that each of us had experiences that prepared us for being here. For me, it was where I grew up, how I learned to drive. For Kendal it seems to be her natural ability to get situated quickly in a new place. She has this place figured out and is telling me where things go and what I need to do by what time.
So far.... SO FAR..... this has been a zero stress adventure. Most people were saying the getting here is the hardest part. We packed in plenty of time, that things were not stressful. We gave ourselves plenty of time to drive, to settle in. So things have been completely unstressful for us thus far.
Continue to pray for health and safety. If you can throw in a "reduce the swelling" prayer for Calvin I'm sure he'll appreciate it. He didn't really enjoy the ride over, BUT, he didn't sick up. That's a first.
Thanks God for getting us here, thanks for preparing us, thanks for providing Enoch our tour guide, and thanks for the people here preparing to educate us.
SCRATCH the pictures, takes too long to upload, waited two days for the few minutes I have now
