Journeys

I’m not sure about the wisdom of blogging when I am jet-lagged, but just wanted to let you know that half of team Tough is back in Wales safely and the other half is doing really well too.

It was hard to leave Duncan, the turquoise house on the hill and Ukarumpa friends. I already feel excited about going back in a few months, but a few things have to happen first!

The journey back did not start well. Air Niugini decided I didn’t have the right paperwork, even though we had checked and double-checked beforehand, and didn’t give me the green light to go until 5 minutes before boarding…but then it was wonderful and I felt as if my path was strewn with angels! The beginning was particularly frustrating because we had tried so hard to make sure everything was sorted beforehand, but amazingly I was very calm. Anyone who knows what I am like in an airport (I would be there 5 hours before a flight if it was up to me…)will appreciate the miracle of that and I am delighted to have made it home relatively unscathed!

It feels surreal, but wonderful to be back on beautiful Anglesey and it is almost as if the last six and half months haven’t happened…but I know that they did and that now I have two homes. The fact that they are eight thousand miles apart means that I already know what it means to feel joy to be in one and yet still miss the other.

Waiting

There is a lot of waiting going on here at the moment! Duncan has been patiently waiting to be allowed to fly jobs (still under supervision) and last week he got his wish. In one day he took off and landed 22 times as they delivered people and ballot boxes to different villages so that a local election could happen.

Organising an election here presents some unique logistical challenges!

Despite the bows and arrows, everyone's very friendly (but don't blow the roof off with the rotorwash!)

The landscapes are amazing, but the bare earth makes for perfect 'brown-out' (dust cloud on landing) conditions

At the end of the day, he walked through door very tired, but very happy too. On the homefront, we are coping with waiting for the arrival of baby Tough by beginning to prepare the nursery. The room is currently a rather yucky pink, so Duncan has begun a project to sand off the old paint and then re-paint the room in pale yellow (we don't know whether the baby is a girl or a boy..).

I promise he is smiling underneath the mask!

 

As you can see from the pictures below, our garden has been waiting too - it is winter here, but things are budding and flowering anyway.

 



 

I will be doing a great deal of waiting in airports and aeroplanes in the coming days and feel so excited when I think about forthcoming reunions with friends, family, cats and places. Then will come the wait to be together again before Duncan joins me in the U.K. Most of all we are waiting to meet our much longed for baby and continue to wait before God as He teaches us to trust him more and more in all of the different 'waits'.

Showered

When my friend Kate told me that she would like to throw me a baby shower I wasn't sure. Anyone who remembers how I felt about hen days will be laughing right now, but that turned out to be a great day and so was this. God has always blessed me with friends who accept my eccentricities (such as not liking silly games...) and get on with loving me anyway. Kate is no exception and I am so grateful! The pictures speak for themselves really, so I will post them and let you decide what sort of afternoon we had...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

I do have one word. It is JOY.

 

 

(The photographs were taken by lovely friend and fellow-Brit, Laura Warrington - thank you so much, Laura!)

 

 

 

How are you?

This week marked our last Tok Pisin lesson. It was only a six week course but the teachers have tried hard to give us some useful phrases for daily interaction. One thing it has made us think about is the questions we ask and the answers we expect...Back in Wales, we have been used to asking people, 'How are you?' when we see them, but depending on the context, not expecting much more than a 'Fine thanks, and you?' When you think about it shouting, 'How are you?' across a road to someone, without really even slowing your pace, is a bit pointless, but I suppose we are not really asking the question - it is just a way of saying hello. In Tok Pisin you can say, 'Yu stap orait?' and lots of people do, both expats and Papua New Guineans. I have been merrily saying it to people for weeks and feeling glad that there is something I can say that shows I am interested. After that it is harder...but here's the thing - our teacher told us that it isn't really a culturally appropriate question to ask straight out, but it has got into the way people communicate here because it is something that westerners say. When you  think about it, it is an incredibly personal question and you want the person asking it not to be thrown into confusion if you say, 'No, actually. Pretty awful.' It all depends on the relationship and relationship is all important here - you can't just launch in with a personal question - you have to build up to that and you have to be willing to take time, even if that is not in your day plan. So what do you say? 'Moning' or 'Apinun' or 'Gutnait' are safe options (although the latter still feels like a farewell to us) for greeting people you don't really know. But what about the people you know a little? Our teacher told us to say what we are doing and where we are going. So if I meet someone at market I could say, 'Morning, I am at the market buying food and then I am going back home.' My immediate reaction to that was to think that it is more polite not to start talking about yourself, and why say something so obvious? But she said it is much less threatening and allows them to just say, 'That's nice,' or tell you what they are doing and you may or may not go on from there. So why is it that there is something inside me that thinks it is potentially a bit nosy to ask someone where they are going, but is totally acceptable to ask them how they are? It doesn't make any sense. It probably doesn't need to, but it is different and I want to adapt so that I don't make blunders or look like I am just relying on those around to adapt to me and be gracious.
On Friday, my yard meri (the lady who keeps the garden looking gorgeous) arrived for her morning with us and immediately addressed me with, 'Yu stap orait?' I can't remember what I said, but I felt confused. I think I must have nodded and then we got into trying to discuss the garden. I did not ask her and to be honest, I am still not sure if that was the right thing to do or not. Even  though she wouldn't say that to her neighbour, did she say it to me because she thought that is what I would like and expect, so that when I didn't say it back she was offended anyway? Have we created our own little culture of communication that is more mine than hers, even though I am in her country? Ok. Perhaps I am overthinking this, but it is tricky isn't it? I will just have to keep trying (and making mistakes), as well as acknowledging the grace with which we are so often unknowingly treated by those we are supposed to have come here to serve.
When I return to Wales in a few weeks I wonder if I will think more carefully about the point in the conversation that I ask, 'How are you?' Perhaps if I want a real answer I must build up to it there too and not just blurt it out, so that it actually sounds like a real question that wants a real answer.

Getting bigger!

Hi everyone.

Just a quick baby update this week...we saw the doctor yesterday and he is really pleased with how things are going. We heard a strong heartbeat and the baby kicks regularly. We are so happy to have made it to the third trimester. Thank you for all your prayers!

Stunning Scenery

These are some pictures I took on a recent trip to the South East of the PNG mainland. There were so many amazing sights I didn't really know what to photograph, so I photographed pretty much all of them, multiple times. That has made deciding what to upload here really difficult; I hope you enjoy the selection.

That particular part of PNG has some individual landscapes:

Nestling in the foothills of this remote corner of PNG...

...is quite a sizeable cathedral!

One of these entrances opens up into a valley with a village in it, the other leads to a dead end.

 

Two houses perched on a hillside.

 

 

A World War 2 bomber, still recognisable.

 

Oil Palm plantation

 

 

 

No blog would be complete without an aviation picture:

 

Transferring some passengers and cargo to the Kodiak, so we could take enough fuel to get back home.



News

Hopefully you have not forgotten who we are....greetings and apologies for the long silence! But we do have plenty of news to share. The main headlines are:

1. We have decided to come home to have baby Tough! I can't tell you how excited I am - JOHN LEWIS BABY DEPARTMENT here I come!!! Obviously, we are also very keen to see the family and in the end we just could not imagine being anywhere else. (Home, that is. Not John Lewis).

2. Duncan has finally been given his Papua New Guinean pilot's licence. After many long months of waiting, he can now officially begin his training. To say he is delighted would be an understatement. Now the hard work really begins! Yesterday the helicopter took people to the village for a New Testament dedication celebration and today (Saturday)  they are doing a medical evacuation. If you are the praying sort, please pray for Duncan's training and the energy to do it well and safely. Thank you!

3. We have moved into our own house here at Ukarumpa! It's BRIGHT turquoise and we have banana trees. VERY exciting. It is normal practice to buy a house here, as there is only limited rentable accommodation and it costs a tiny fraction of what it does to own a home in the UK, so it's a good move all round.

It has been a very busy time with Duncan flying all over the country and me finishing up the school year. We have had all the things that you would expect to go with the end of term: balls (or banquet as it is called here), plenty of music concerts, sports' day, examinations, reports, goodbye parties and this week there is Awards' Night on Monday and Senior Graduation on Tuesday! After school ends there will be a mass exodus of people 'going finish' (that's what we call it when you are going home for good) and going on furlough (when you leave for a year and then return), as well as people coming back and newbies.  Cue lots of goodbyes, comings and goings, joy and a few tears. It is all part of life here, but you can almost feel the community bracing itself for the emotion of it all. At the school there is a farewell assembly which is affectionately known as the 'wailing wall'. It is organised by the students and is a time to cry with all those who are leaving. That's what they do - have a good cry for a few hours, or days...It's not very British. But it's very PNG and I think it's so healthy - let it all out, grieve and say goodbye well.

We also had a bank holiday recently. In PNG you get the day off to celebrate the Queen's birthday! Hurrah for the Queen! A VERY kind friend sent us a hamper and we thought there would be no better way to consume it, than with other Brits on Her Majesty's big day. We enjoyed real tea and other goodies from the hamper, as well as lots of home baking from us all here. Someone brought some Union Jack bunting and we wore red,white and blue. It's funny how you get all patriotic when you are not at home. Everyone was so excited about the hamper - it is very unusual for something like that to clear customs. We were so shocked that I actually emailed the company's customer relations department to commend them!


Yum, Yum. I made a Victoria sponge, banana cake and a chocolate cake, as well as a tray of cucumber sandwiches made with my own bread. Watch out Nigella...



Our turquoise house decorated with bunting and tea on the verandah. We had 30 guests in all and it was a very happy afternoon. All thanks to our friend Jack and the Queen!

As we look ahead, there are still many goodbyes, hellos, goodbyes and hellos again to go through, as well as more big transitions...but life is full and we are loving it!