I’ll start with my recent travel and work backwards. I started with GFA as a missionary way back in the last century (I love saying that), 1996 to be exact. One of the first churches I visited was in central Kansas. The missions leader was a dynamic man who absolutely exuded a love for missions and missionaries (and radios on the side). He had 3 daughters, 2 of them in college when I first visited. Over the years I have frequently stayed with this family, even after the Dad tragically died in an accident, and the oldest of the 3 girls died of cancer. All these years we kept talking about the 2 remaining sisters coming for a visit. Well, they finally did just last week. Because I’ve never done any tourism in PNG, I thought it would be fun for the 3 of us to see some sights together. So I flew down to the capital city and met them as they came out of the international terminal. I had found a tour guide who took us around. It was genuinely a delightful day. Here are some of our sights:
Parliament house WWII cemetery 2-wire bird of paradise
Prior to their arrival I had 2 days in the capital city. But the day I arrived there were threatened protests in the area (thankfully they were called off) over a temporary shut-down of Facebook because of threatened mass violence. I’m fairly certain that platform is far more significant and influential in this country. I can’t even begin to tell you the stories I’ve heard. One lady at clinic 2 weeks ago wanted to know if urine had healing properties, because that had been posted on Facebook. This lady has heart failure and takes diuretics to help her heart failure, and apparently had been offered money for… well, you know. Thankfully she had the good sense to think that this was not right, and so she asked me. I told her that there are NO health benefits to human waste. Wow. So anyway….. because of the threats I stayed quietly indoors for those 2 days. It was a blessing.
Their arrival was about 5am on Friday, and we did all of our tourism that morning, then caught the 2pm shuttle to the airport. We got checked in for the 1-hour flight to Goroka. We even took off in time. Then circled Goroka for a while and went back to Moresby. To be fair, we never saw Goroka for the thick clouds and storms. When we landed, the airline is obligated to take care of anyone who had checked out of a hotel (me) or arrived on an international flight (the 2 ladies). But there was general confusion by the staff. Mind you, this airlines has a couple of cancelled flights each day. But by appearances this was the first time any of them had dealt with the situation. We finally were taken to a distant (30 min) hotel that was “vintage” but clean. We asked for supper to be sent up to our rooms, because those 2 ladies had been traveling for 2 days and were beyond exhausted. Supper arrived promptly at 10pm. We had to be in the lobby at 5am to catch the van to the airport. Only to arrive and be cheerfully told that there was no replacement flight, and the only flight to Goroka would be about 11am. Not exactly good news. But because we were so early to arrive, they were able to fit about 8 of us (of a plane of 40) onto that Goroka flight. When we went through x-ray I was told that I had prohibited items that would have to be put in my checked luggage (which was long gone into the baggage room). The prohibited item, now considered a weapon in PNG? A few cans of tuna. So I went back out and checked my tuna into the only container they could find: a manila envelope. When I picked up the luggage in Goroka around noon, the tuna was scattered on the luggage belt, but kindly collected by a luggage handler who told me that a manila envelope probably isn’t a good package for cans of tuna. Noted.
We spent the rest of Saturday in Goroka, and joined in a church service with New Tribes Mission, then we were picked up and driven the 1.5 hours home. We had lunch at the Lodge here, and easily made it to the Sunday afternoon service here. During the week I went to work each morning, then we did various projects or visited the SIL center or went to market. They were a great help in organizing Sunday school materials. One project I asked them to do was to throw a party for my Nepali co-workers on Saturday. It was such a wonderful evening! On Monday I went with them back to Goroka and waited with them until their plane actually took off (same airline). It was only about an hour late, which is pretty good. Their connections to visit Singapore went really well on their way out. Whew!
a sushi game I didn’t play.
ONE LAST NOTE; I am not sure how much longer I will be writing this blog. At the beginning of the year my family collectively decided it is time for me to take up the Lord’s calling for me to be a help to my parents in SC. I have known for some years that the Lord wanted me to do this, I just wasn’t sure when. So I will be leaving Papua New Guinea the first week of June after spending 24 years here. I am looking for part time work maybe 2 days a week as long as that works for my folks. They are doing well, it’s just that daily life is getting harder to muddle through. If you have an opinion about this blog, would you mind sending me an email? [email protected]. Thanks!
