[hi, my name is Esther and I am doing well] :)
The last two weeks seem to hold two completely separate and dissimilar lives for me. The last bits of packing, the 'last things' in Tulsa, last hour at the airport with the people we love and were saying goodbye to ... and then the deep breath, the walk through security ... and the new beginning. Even as I look through photos, choosing a few to include in this post, some seem so far away that it's difficult to imagine being near enough to them to take the picture. (Difficult. Not impossible, as evidenced by the lump in my throat as I remember being there!)
Our send-off the Sunday before we left, and the prayers that we still feel holding us
Enjoying one last snack together at the airport playplace, courtesy (of course) of Aunt Tiffy :)
The drive home to Kudjip from the airport in Mount Hagen - on their knees in the Land Cruiser with arms dangling out of the window!
We were lovingly welcomed to our new house when we arrived - a day later than expected because of a missed connection, and without 5 of our 12 pieces of luggage, but home all the same
The view two days later from our village house. We spent a week in Ambang for language and cultural immersion, living next door to a missionary family with New Tribes who are currently translating the Bible into Tok Ples (the local dialect; all dialects are referred to as Tok Ples by those who speak them - "the talk that is used in this place").
Wagon rides with new buddies :)
Some of the teenaged girls from the village helping me with my Pidgin vocab and sentence structure :) (Having a group this large was actually far from helpful - previous days when I got to sit with just Nomi and Susan, the two girls on each end of the row, were definitely when I learned the most!)
And now, we are well and truly HOME. I can't begin to describe the sigh of relief that accompanies that statement!! Or at least, the sigh of relief that can really happen when we are completely finished unpacking :)
Our week in the village really was helpful, since the other American couple was able to give us a lot of cultural insight and our language learning will be harder here at Kudjip where English is spoken by almost everyone. Things were slowed down a couple days in, though, when Anna started running probably the highest fever she has ever had. Think waking up in a delirium, hallucinations, talking gibberish ... thankfully we had Tylenol to give her (although our thermometer didn't make it out of the trunks before we left Kudjip), but she was pretty out of it for almost three days. That wasn't this mama's favourite...! She is back to her playful self now, though, and we are so thankful the fever just ran its course without any complications.
And now that we are back at Kudjip, our orientation to life on the mission station has begun. We have a trip into town on Monday to stock up on food for the next several weeks (no weekly grocery trips here!), a separate trip to take care of business (open bank accounts and get driving licenses etc), meetings with the finance people to make sure we can access and appropriately manage our funds here, an orientation at the nearby Bible college ... Oh, and Mark's hospital orientation too :) So between getting the house unpacked, keeping everybody fed and clothed, gestating baby #3 (who is determined to kick, roll or claw its way out through my skin, ha), getting to know our new friends and neighbours, and just figuring out life here, I should have my work cut out for me for the next week or two!
Mark's first hospital shift is the 27th, so I'm very thankful to have him around the house for a bit longer as we get settled in. We have pretty reliable internet access, although we're noticing that it gets used up pretty quickly, so we should be able to at least get online and check messages daily. We are loving hearing from you, so please keep it coming!
0 comments:
Post a Comment