Sunday morning we headed up to the Kokinaga church for the last time(for me at least-next sunday i will be in simbai and the following ill be on my way home). Ruthie and I did the lesson for the kids, then played a few games and we gave them prizes I had brought from home. They were excited about this because most of these kids have nothing so punch balls and book marks were a big deal. We stayed for the entire service this week instead of just sunday school, because with Bill still being in Medang it was too hard for all of us to go to the other church as well. There were at least 4 women breast feeding in the middle of the service, not worrying about covering themselves up, thats just how it is here.(hahah can't even imagine the reaction we would have if someone did this in america)I look around at everyone, sitting there in the dirt, intent on what the pastor. At the end of the service the pastor explains to the congregration that it will be my last week at their church before i go back to america and he tells me how thankful he and the congregation are of my church back home who all gave money to them to help buy the land that the church is built on. They will officially own the land November 27th and wants me to let everyone at home know that. They then present me with a belim as a token of their apprecation, I'm a very sentimental person and was almost in tears at this point. Back at home, we all sit in church while the missionary offering is being taken, with no idea of what the money will be used for. And today I am standing here, seeing with my own eyes, how great of an impact we have on these people; how much of a difference we make; how much these people appreciate us. They have nothing; they sit on the dirt for hours every sunday morning to hear God's word. We have everything, and yet we find the most frivolous things to complain about and completely forget what church is all about. I truly love and admire these people.
Tuesday(today)- Bill and I went to town to run some errands. before picking Amo up from school. First stop was at the local hospital. That was...different, nothing like I've ever seen. For us, hospital and sanitation go hand and hand; that's not the case in PNG. I would best describe it as an insanse asylum you would see in a horror movie. Run down and dirty but at least it had electricity. So after the tour of the hospital we headed to the airport to pick up the Wagner's car. The Wagners are another missionary couple, who, along with their youngest daughter Abby (16), live in Simbai. Bill and I are actually going to stay with them Friday-Monday. Simbai is what they call "the bush", meaning it's in the middle of nowhere; they dont have internet, cell service, anything really. They get electricity three hours a day and their only ways of transportation are motorcycles and four wheelers.(super excited for this trip!) So we get to the airport and thankfully their car isn't a stick shift so I can drive it! I'm really excited about this since I have yet to drive here and everyone drives on the left side of the road so it's much different than what I know. So Bill is acting all nervous and is standing over me as I'm getting in the car making sure I know how to turn it on?? seriously hahah okay Bill this isn't my first time in a vehicle. Anyway we only had to drive for like a mile or two which wasn't bad because I was following Bill but it would've been a little scary to do alone. People are always out in the middle of the road and stopping their cars out of no where to pick people up. The roads don't even have lines dividing the two sides so it's not exactly safe. Anyway we get over to this storage unit that the car needs to be backed in to. I figured Bill would be doing this, I mean backing vehicles up into tight spaces is a man thing, but I was wrong. We had to puch the side view mirrors in to get the car to fit so you can understand how much room I had. So there were three guys standing at a fence watching us opening up the storage unit. I get into the car and start backing in and pulling ahead and backing up and so on for like 5 minutes(Bill's directions were...well let's just say I would have been better off without them). So as I'm getting flustered trying to do this without scraping the car, I notice the three guys has turned into 15..with more coming! I guess a white girl driving a car is somewhat entertaining? That or they were scheming how they were going to steal it. So I finally just ignore the directions I am being given and get it parked just fine.
We then headed to the grocery store and when we walked in there were a couple guys, probably in their mid 20's, creepily eyeing me up and down. Nothing new, this is the norm for me here so whatever, it's just starting to get old. So we keep walking around the store and I'm paranoid, as usual, about someone trying to steal my camera or wallet so I hold my belim a little closer. I'm pretty good about the way I hold my bag, so no one will try to snatch something. People here are always walking so close to me it would be easy to have something stolen. Anyway we keep walking around and I notice the guys staring and creepin on me and am starting to feel like they're seriously gonna rob me. I just act casual as I'm contemplating what I would do if they would take my camera. I'm probably overly confident in my ability to defend myself, but at least I'm not afraid. So Bill and I go down another aisle and I'm getting something off of the shelf when I look back to see these 4 guys standing at the end of the aisle about 8 feet from me just staring. These are the same guys I've noticed following us the entire time we've been shopping, they're not even trying to be discreet about it. I hold my belim tighter to me cause they are NOT going to be stealing from me today. "I think we're being followed" I say to Billand he says "yeah I know, get in front of me". So we walk forward and away from them, to the check out counter. While waiting the guys walk near us, still staring(seriously what is wrong with people here, if they're going to creepily stare they shouldn't be so obnoxiously obvious about it!), and out the exit. We spot Ruthie and Martha who happen to be here at the same time and since they're done shopping, are just going to ride with us instead of walking back home. So we get the groceries and head out the door and guess who's there? yepp the same three sleezeballs from earlier. So Bill walks to my right so he's between me and the guys and we get safely to the car. When we're leaving I ask Bill what they were trying to do..I assumed steal from me, but he said they were trying to get close to touch me, and if I had been alone would have followed me and who knows what. They were also saying some very inapproriate things about me, none of which i understood since it was in Pidgin but Bill sure did. I can imagine my mother now. "I told you to take your mace with you!"
Once back at the house the college guys are asking if I will finally teach them how to play American football. I agree to do that so Ruthie Martha and I head out to the field and a bunch of people are coming wanting to learn. Okay a dude should definitely be teaching them how to play, not me. But oh well I do my best and we just follow the basic rules of touch football. They have NO idea what they are doing. They are so used to rugby that they want to throw the ball everytime the get ahold of it. They don't understand the concept of catching and running haha so it's still a work in progress but we played until it was so dark we couldn't see anymore and they made me promise we would play again on Thursday. Guess they enjoyed it!
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