I'm in PNG!
And it turns out my wife wasn't at all
exaggerating when she told me we would be living in paradise.
Although I've barely spent a full day here in Madang, I've already
been impressed with the sheer beauty of this country. This is dry
season, when it is sometimes possible for missionaries to run out of
clean water to drink, yet everywhere I look this country appears
green and vibrant to my eyes. Most of our day was spent at the
Pioneer Bible Translator offices here, so I haven't had much time to
see the strong sense of hospitality displayed by the Nationals here
in PNG, but I'm certain that that too will come in time.
Elizabeth and I are most definitely
still recovering from our time traveling. A day and a half of flying
will exhaust anyone for a day or two, and adding in the extreme time
difference, we've been lucky to have been able to stay awake during
the few meetings that we've already had. In fact, our first two
nights in PNG we both ended up falling asleep around 7, and waking up
at 2 in the morning. Tonight we've already managed to break that
streak. We're thinking about staying up til 9 or 10 even!
Even though I've traveled a fair
amount, and been on numerous mission trips, I do believe that this
trip would only be the second one where I could describe my time here
as living in a country, and not just visiting. We do our own grocery
shopping and cooking, we work in the office daily, and we have our
own apartment. This trip, for me, isn't about the possibilities of
Papua New Guinea, of what we could do while here, but rather about
the realities of PNG. Of what my job will look like, and what it will
take to live and work here long term. I appreciate that so much.
Yesterday, for example, I inventoried a box of literacy materials
that hadn't been looked at in over a year, due to lack of manpower.
Most of what I found had already been documented and recorded
elsewhere, but I did find one or two items that would allow the team
to move forward with checking the translation of some teaching aid
books. Today, I'm looking at doing data entry in the office. Indeed,
we are living here, not just visiting.
Even so, there are a number of fun
things that we will get to do on our weekends. We plan on going
snorkeling around some coral off one of the beaches, we've heard of a
nearby crocodile farm that we might decide to visit, and I'm still
looking forward to the possibility of going spearfishing and pig
hunting while we are doing our bush living.
As I write this out I am sitting in my
living room talking with my wife. We had pineapple and Blue Mountain
coffee for breakfast, and I cooked a stir fry for us to take to the
office for lunch. We are in Papua New Guinea. And it feels like life.
Greatness!
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