Weet-bix, Powdered Milk and Pig Meat, Days 9-11

This is a Blue Weevil. They come in shades of blue and green - such cool bugs! Janelle, Jeff and David used to play with these harmless insects.

Day 9 of 21: Thursday 7/16/09

 We ate “Weet-Bix” cereal with powdered milk for breakfast –yum-yum.  Dave did some preparation on his evening message in the morning.  Since Dave was the cook I ended up the dishwasher, for the most part, so down to the river with a bunch of dishes.  It is cool and quiet at the river so it is not a bad job.  The only bad part was the slippery, muddy path down to the river, which is about 100 feet below the airstrip / house level. 

After the dishes I tried to get the computer going again, and finally it booted up. But, something is wrong with it, and it won’t read any of the drives.  I can’t plug anything into USB port - the main reason I brought it. Well, I guess it wasn’t smart to bring an eight-year-old laptop to PNG!

I’m frustrated there is still no plane coming to bring things needed to try and start the mower. There’s still no radio contact – only mid-day during medical sked time when the sun is charging the solar panel.

I went over to tractor shed to check things out and organize any tools still around, etc. I fear the tractor is going to take major work – not major problems, but in bad need of maintenance.  I already know that I can’t repair it this time. There’s no time to order and receive parts before we have to leave, and parts plus freight costs would be outside of our budget.  It was one of my goals – but it won’t happen this time.

Children coming to church. The church's water tank needed some major repairs on leaks and on the gutter and downspout

Mid-morning, I went up the hill to the church and sat there trying to figure out how I could repair a leaky gutter that carries water to the downspout and then to the village water tank.  It was good to be sitting around with the Gobasi people again!  Well, I will have to finish the gutter tomorrow.  Didn’t seem to accomplish much today, and with the heat I don’t have much energy here in lowlands.  Humid, hot PNG!  I’m probably still adjusting!

Our food while there was pretty bleak

We ate instant mashed potatoes with cut up canned mushrooms for supper. That was better than the rice and canned mackerel for lunch.  Tonight I got a message ready for morning session tomorrow.

Day 10 of 21: Friday 7/17

 I’ve never seen such apathy. The people are truly dragging their feet to get to church.  It just seems there is a great spiritual battle going on.  I need prayer to elicit God’s help; I think there is such a focus on the material that it is drowning out the spiritual – in a major way.  The Gobasi live in one of the most neglected areas in the province/country.  They are a relatively small group and miss out on many of the government benefits seen in the rest of the province.  

Babu coming to church with his daughter

Overall health is not good here. There are many, many sick people – some seriously sick children – all adding to the malaise.  I had to talk with the doctor on the radio sked today, again, for Tiakabu, a long time Christian and deacon in the church.  He is a good, humble man.  The doctor figures he has a UTI.  The antibiotics the mission hospital gave me were not useful for the condition, but I had brought some Cipro with me, and he said that could be used.  PTL. He is really suffering. 

Tiakabu was suffering from a severe UTI

Finally got word that the plane is coming on Tuesday – which is almost too late!  I spent a good bit of time working on the lawnmower today and sure hope I can get it running.  For supper we had Taro (from the village people) and biscuits.  Then read books until we fell asleep. 

Day 11 of 21: Saturday 7/18

Well, I’ve gotten behind in the synopsis of events here in PNG, so I am thinking back to Saturday.  I really can’t remember what we did!  But I’ll bet I worked on the lawnmower again, and I’ll bet I spent time preparing for the Sunday morning service!

Pastor Sefasui brought us the pig meal.

I do believe it was Saturday that Sefasui came in the evening and brought a little pig meat for us to eat.  HOW NICE.  We got meat, skin and broth.  I gave David the pieces w/o the skin attached – I figured that was the least I could do for him.  It was quite nice to have some meat. It wasn’t much but more than I expected. Thank you Lord!