Life

View of Alotau from Top Town where Les and Loopie Williams live.







Hannah exploring the river.









Our new truck! (See story below)








Boys at Cameron High School Culture Show.

Testing the truck

A wise man once said – ‘listen to your wife’. Well I’ve never been much for old wives tales, but I guess I learned my lesson. On Thursday we were asked to take a family to the village so they could cut some logs to build a new house. We were glad to oblige. The journey out went without any problems. While the family was cutting the wood we went to a local river (headed for the beach, but got lost – how I digress). Hannah thought she was pretty hot stuff because she walked upstream in waist high water. We were pretty surprised by her pioneering spirit. We then returned to get the family to take them home. It was at that point that we heard those five dreadful words – we know a shortcut (is shortcut really one word .. OK, ok, those four dreadful words). I have been told in the past when a New Guinean suggests a shortcut avoid the proposal. However, they caught me in a moment of weakness and we took off on their wild goose chase. We ended up at a large muddy area. Can’t go around it. Can’t go under. I guess we will just go through it. Jeri – my beautiful wife and eventual hero of the story – suggested we might be better off turning around. Honestly, men, how many of you would turn around like a dog walking away with his tail tucked under his legs. No we do not so weakness in the face of such danger. So I turned on the 4 wheel drive and proceeded. At least for a few feet – we were stuck, really stuck. I had just been telling Jeri I needed some more exercise so I got it. We had 10 guys and it ONLY took an hour to get the truck out. We are just glad there was lots of help and one guy who randomly was walking past with a shovel. How often does that happen? Jeri was very mature and never once said I told you so – but if eyes could talk she was screaming victory. I was just glad there were other people in the truck to contain the raging beast. (Jeri is making me say she really wasn’t upset). Once we got out of the mud one of the guys said he knew another shortcut. Yes, a wise choice would be to got the long cut. Still anxious for adventure we took the other shortcut. This pathway led to another large muddy area. This time Jeri suggested strongly we turn around and we did.

Moral of the story: The wisdom of men is often derived from the comments of women.

Cameron Culture Show

This weekend there was a cultural show at the local high school. Each class was given a tribe to represent. They build a typical house for the tribe, cooked typical food, and had a traditional dance (no we didn’t dance). It was a great experience as we got to see lots of really neat things.

Good news is for Sharing

Within the last two weeks we purchased our truck and received our container.

We managed to buy the truck from someone locally in Alotau. This was nice because it saved us shipping it from another city here. It also meant we were able to do a closer look at it with our mechanic. We are happy with it. It is a 2003 Toyota Hilux Double Cab pickup truck.

Hannah likes the new truck, especially her new feature – a new car seat. Her legs were too long for her infant seat, and she likes facing forward now.

Our container arrived July 20^th, 2006. Our container was shipped May 2^nd, 2006. Sometime between June 15^th and 31^st the ship from New Zealand to Port Moresby broke down. Sometime between July 10-14^th, 2006 the ship from Port Moresby to Alotau broke down. However, despite everything we have only noticed two broken items – neither of which were significant. There does seem to be a strange odor right now and I just can’t tell if it is all our stuff that has been in the container for all these months or myself. Check in later and I will give the verdict.

Our weeks are getting busier and busier. Jeri is doing studies and teaching. I am doing some studies and several activities with the church. We feel like God is using us and so that is an encouraging feeling.

Hannah is close to walking. She stands up freely. Walks when holding something. And has even taken a few small steps on her own. When you start noticing more than a one week period between blogs you will know that she started walking J.

Adventures

Village where Craig stayed in Port Moresby

Jeri and Hannah have fun

Craig’s big adventure in the city – Jeri mans the fort

Monday afternoon I was summonsed to Port Moresby (the capital of PNG) to help clear our items from customs and to transfer all the goods from one container to another. If God has many ways to teach patience none could be as effective as a few days in POM trying to take care of business. The good news – we managed to get out without paying a single toea (penny) of duty. This is almost unheard of. The customs agent was more interested in three things. First, the fact that I was staying in the village instead of the Holiday Inn. Second, in my prediction on the World Cup Soccer games and third the decider for the State of the Origin. On top of all that we had a fun time trying to decide if I was part of the ‘old’ church of Christ or the ‘new’ church of Christ – I still don’t know what he was talking about.

Transferring the contents to a second container proved eventful as the 9 foot container we had ordered was not available and also because of a bomb threat in the building where our shipping company is housed. By Thursday afternoon I settled for a 20 foot container and shipped the items to Alotau – just ready to get home.

Meanwhile Jeri and Hannah took care of everything in Alotau. This involved attending a baptism on Thursday of one of the young men in the village church. It also required Jeri making a trip the hospital to take a young girl who had a very bad case of malaria. She did an amazing job in my absence.

While I was gone Hannah thought she would show off her walking skills. She took two steps in my absence. Ironically, Jeri and I have been thinking extra hard about baby proofing the house. I wonder if there is any relationship to Hannah toying with walking and our desire to baby proof the house?

By the way, for all of you who have been concerned about my inability to use cloth diapers I am happy to report I have become quite a diaper specialist. I offer a special thanks to Sarah Logsdon who sent snappies to get me on my way. For those of you who don’t know snappies are used instead of pins to hold the diaper in place.

Hannah's First Birthday

Early in the morning, Jeri got up and baked a cake while I slept. Hannah woke up oblivious to the fact that she was a year old. In the afternoon the Reeses came over for banana cake and ice cream. Hannah took a bite of each and then decided it would be more fun to throw it on the floor. We cleaned it up and the party went on. Actually all the adults sat around talking while the kids played. We think Hannah enjoyed herself. We also let her look at all the cards she has received.

Hannah almost ate a whole big piece of pizza for supper. Mommy and daddy eventually decided she had enough – much to her chagrin. Hannah was ready to keep eating.

Blogging

Sorry that our blogs have been a little sporadic. Between problems with the phone and the internet, posting has been a little difficult.