Back to the Norm

My first week in Papua New Guinea was not what I, or anyone else, had expected, and while I appreciate the experience, I am happy that things are back to normal...well as normal as it gets here. The village is still having some problems relating to Lalow's death(finally figured out the spelling). Another "house line"(term used for village) believes some of the people in our village did sorcery on him which caused his death, so they have marked some of the men in our village for death. One of the men marked for death happens to be Sonne's(auntie at Bill and Lori's home) husband, so she has been very upset and on edge the past few days. Because Bill is trusted here by all of the people, he has been playing middle man between the house lines so they can come to some sort of understanding. They had a meeting last night and the other village came with knives, luckily all was kept calm.

Sunday morning was spent heading back to the churches we visited my first day here. Ruthie was too tired to join us so it was just Bill, Lori, the 4 kids, and myself. The people at the first church we stopped at were happy to see me again and I am much more comfortable this week than I had been the week prior. I'm used to all the hugging and don't feel so awkward interacting with the people which makes the day much more enjoyable. I spend most of the time there taking pictures, mostly of the scenery and the children. Some of the kids are still giving me dirty looks which I find amusing now but most of them are still all smiles around me. There is one little boy who literally cries everytime I walk near him. I try to play around with him but he just runs and hides behind his dad when I am nearby, this makes all of the adults laugh and I can't help but laugh too. I ask to get a picture with a couple of the children before I leave and before I know it everyone is surrounding me wanting a picture. The men, who you wouldn't expect to care, were the ones wanting in the most and wanting to stand by me for the picture(this is now my profile pic on facebook if you hadn't noticed).

The second church we were visiting for the day was not having service due to a death and so we were heading to their house cry instead. Oh geeze not another one, is all I can think. The little old man that died had been at the service when we were there last week, and had actually just gotten that Sunday we were there, only 6 days before his death. So I spent that time entertaining the boys while Lori and Bill spoke with the people. Afterwards we headed home and dropped Lori and the kids off. Bill and I, along with 8 other people, and a coffin, then headed up the mountain to drop the coffin off at the house cry we had just left. I asked him if I could go with him because, even though I had just been there, I enjoy being out of the house and no matter how many times we go to the top of that mountain the view will always be breath taking. After we haul the coffin to the top, we start our trek back down. As were leaving there are a bunch of kids hanging out around the ambulance, which is normal cause I always seem to have a flock of kids following me around..I like to think of them as my paparazzi. So anyway we start down the mountain and the kids are chasing us, grabbing on to the back and hanging on as were driving. Now the mountain is S shaped and has seven 90 degree turns. So we get around the first turn and he stops to yell at the kids to get off. So we're driving and go around the second and are approaching the third when we see the same little kids in front of us. They had run down a straight path over the mountain and beat us since we had such an indirect path down. So they chase us again and jump on and Bill yells at them, and this literally continues until we get down the mountain and they can't keep up. I'm learning the kids here really have to make there own fun, they don't have video games to entertain them.

Monday morning I was more than happy to see all the aunties and Ruthie and Martha in the kitchen when I went out for breakfast. I was even more happy when I came in for lunch later to find all of my clothes washed, dried, and folded in my dresser drawers. Kinda creepy actually. I have three little house elves of my own(lol family joke about Julie). After lunch Ruthie and Martha took me down to the river which was like a mile hike downhill, hadn't expected it to be that far. The river is on the college's property to the entire way down there were a ton of gardens that the students and village use. There are 7 types of bananas here...7! And they all look the same i have no idea how to tell the them apart but some are just for cooking and, well, i dont even know what the other differences are. So anyway we get to the bottom and go through a fence to the river where a few women are doing laundry. Well this makes me appreciate my washer and dryer. I would never have clean clothes if this is how I had to wash my clothes. This is also where the women bathe, and the men do the same further up the river. No wonder everyone here smells awful!!

Tuesday comes and goes rather quickly. After our morning routine we go to play basketball with some kids they have been trying to minister to. We go to this old run down gym and there are a ton of people outside playing volleyball and they all come in to the gym for some bball. Looking around the gym I just laughed to myself...lone white girl trying to play basketball with a bunch of hoodelims, you can imagine how that turned out.

Wednesday(today!) was a fun day. Bill left for Madang, another city in PNG (about 200 miles away-takes 6 hours driving to get there) where he'll spend the next 5 days attending meetings. So with him gone, and Lori at the clinic, all the aunties and Ruthie, Martha, and myself slacked off a little and watched some movies. Even the men that work for Bill and Lori came to join us as we were watching High School Musical, watching grown men watch that movie is the highlight of my day. I make coffee for everyone(18 cups!-since I have arrived they've become big coffee drinkers!) and we just hang out and talk. Everyone can pretty much understand english so I can talk to them but they answer me in Pidgin so Ruthie or Martha have to interpret for me. They all find it amusing that they will be talking to me and I won't realize that it's directed towards me. Ruthie also likes to talk to me in Pidgin and they all watch and laugh as I stare at her dumbfounded. Ya know the feeling you get when you're getting your nails done by a bunch of chinese people and they're all talking(probably about you) in chinese and laughing and you're the only one who doesn't get the joke...that's me 24/7.

The students and villagers here all play volleyball every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, and I have been itching to join all week but haven't had the chance. So this afternoon I was bummed that they wouldn't be playing and decided I was going to make my own fun. I needed to get out and burn some calories anyway, so I grab a soccer ball and Aaron and head to the big field we have. Ruthie and Martha didn't seem to want to play but they ended up coming along too. As I'm leaving without any shoes on I realize that a week ago I would have never done anything athletic without sneakers, but now I am used to being barefoot 90% of the time. If I didn't love shoes so much I would seriously consider going barefoot in the states. So the three of us kick the soccer ball around for a while, while Aaron sits and watches. Soon after we start two guys come over to play, the one's name is Alex who I recall having seen a few times before, he's about 26 and the other guy is probably early 30's. A few kids, about 16 years old, stop to watch and I tell them to come play with us. Before I know it a bunch of little kids are coming to join, so we decide to split into teams and play a real game. We accumulate about 30 people and we're all just playing, running around, laughing, and enjoying ourselves. I feel like a little kid again, i must say it's rather refreshing.After an hour of playing it's time for the students to go to chapel so the girls and I head back to the house with Aaron. My feet are so sore from all the rocks and pointy twigs I ran on top of during the game and the bottoms of my feet are probably permantly stained brown. Lori is not home from work so I heat up dinner, cut a fresh pineapple, make coffee, get everyone their food, feed Isaac his dinner, go over spelling words with Amo, make sure the boys get their fruits and veggies, clean everyones mess, wash, dry, and put away the dishes, then remember I need to eat as well...so this is motherhood.