Home Away from Home

Today Ruth grabbed the camera and went around the home we're living in and snapped some pictures for the blog! So for anyone out there who is interested in what our house looks like, this post is for you!

The internet is working way better tonight so I thought I better get these pictures uploaded while I can!

Our house from the front yard

Garbage Talk

One of the additional tasks of living in Ukarumpa is that you have to separate your garbage. You have burnable, wet garbage, and other. So this means you keep three different buckets in your house and are constantly making decisions of how to sort your garbage when you throw it away. Also, if your garbage is in the "other" category, like tin cans and stuff, you are asked to wash it clean. I think this is because while their storing it in the trucks and containers before it's taken to the dump, it attracts a number of dogs and rodents that like to rummage around it.

An Update from Ruthicus

The girls started school on Wed July 20th and Chad had his first day of work in Friday the 22nd. The girls seem to love school. Meliah and Anna have had homework every night so far but they seem to enjoy the classes and friends. Kiery loves school and is making lots of friends and is reading lots of different things. Anna has decided to play the trumpet in the school beginning band, luck us....Actually I don't mind b/c of playing flute all those yrs and I figure its pay back time. :) She is also in choir and she went to ride horses today (Sat). Meliah commented that Anna is never home that is a switch We are very impressed with the schools thus far and everything about them. The weather we aren't impressed with though. We have had rain most days since being here (like the drizzle kind of rain contuinally in Seattle.)

To Be Stupid or Not Be Stupid. That is the question.

Hum. I started 10th grade today. It was pretty intense. Word of advice: when traveling around the world, and you hope to get some schooling done while traveling, BRING SCHOOL SUPPLIES. Even if they say the teachers and/or store will provide them, you need to bring them with you. I don’t care if you have to pay the stupid overweight fees on the luggage. Make it number 4 on your priority list, next to clean underwear, toothbrush, and Sammy the Teddy Bear.

Anywho, I really do hate being the new kid. I mean, the kids are nice and everything, but just the fact that I know that I’m out of the loop on most conversations, is all but maddening. It’s weird being on the other side of the fence(aka ocean). Metaphorically. I’m usually the one on the inside of the jokes and pick up lines; in fact I think I may be the causes of most of those jokes and pick up lines. Yah, it’s weird being an outsider. I have a new respect for all you new kids around the world. I bid you my condolences.

Annakah & Jazzie

On Saturday’s members of the pony club come to the paddocks to ride and hold courses for new riders in horse management and care. Annakah has dreamed of riding horses for years and was overjoyed at the idea that Ukarumpa has horses!

We had met Savanah earlier in the week and she offered to give Annakah a lesson and ride this Saturday so Anna made sure we were there on time and ready to learn. It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. We plan to continue with the lessons and take the horse management course. When we get home, I’ve seriously been considering getting a couple horses on the farm for the girls. So it’s great to learn good horse care.

We snapped a number of pictures and video, but have temporarily “misplaced” the camera. So I’ll try to think to update this post with pictures when we can.

Chimney Fire and Land Cruiser Fun!

Before you all panic, it wasn’t in our chimney, but our fellowship family’s. They live on the other side of Ukarumpa and in the early morning hours, their motion sensor, and then their fire alarm woke them up and their house was full of smoke.

On Monday, since we were waiting for our new house to become available, and I wasn’t working at my job yet, I walked over to see if I could help.

As it turned out, there was plenty of demolition happening and I was able to jump in and help. The next days were spent reframing the wall that had burned, and putting a window in where the fireplace & chimney had been.

A Trip to Kainantu

Sunday morning we attended the English service here at the Ukarumpa meeting house. We were very impressed and thoroughly enjoyed worshipping with our brothers and sisters in Christ here in PNG.

We were invited to go to lunch after church with a couple who have served here a long time as children’s home parents, Geoff and Sue. They took us to a hotel in Kainantu that has an outdoor restaurant. We had rump steak, t-bone steak, chicken and all the sides. The meal was excellent and the conversation was encouraging and inspiring as well.

While we were waiting for our meal, Geoff took us over to the “mini” zoo at the hotel where there were tree kangaroos, a regular kangaroo, and a cockatoo. I took a video of the girls laughing at the maniacal cockatoo for you all to enjoy. Unfortunately, the internet is bad enough here that I can't get it to upload. So, here are a couple pictures instead.

A Trip to Gatsup Village

Our family was invited to visit one of the nearby villages to help deliver some old doors and miscellaneous items to one of the homes there. The village is pronounced like God Soup. The person who greeted us and was receiving the items being donated, was named Mama Ruth! We really enjoyed getting to meet her and she showed us around her gardens and the various homes that are on her plot of land where several family member’s live.
She also has one of the few hotels in the area where people who are travelling through can stay for the night. One time, the police had a group of around 15 or so people who were stranded for some reason, and they brought them all to Mama Ruth’s hotel. She told us how she had to run out to her garden and get enough food to feed them all. It was really neat hearing her tell these stories in Tok Pisin while our friend translated for us.

Things that are different about living and adjusting to life in PNG.

This is a list of things I’ve put together for those who are curious about how life is different here in Ukarumpa PNG. Not wrong but different than what is “normal” for us.

• Hot water depends on if Sun is out and how long sun has been out.
• Electricty is VERY expensive here and you don’t leave lights on unless you are in the room.
• Sun being out determines if clothes get dried in a timely matter.
• It gets light @ 6:30am and gets dark @ 6:30 pm. No fluctuation.
• People tend to be in their homes and in for the night by 8pm.
• The eggs stay out on counter here you don’t refigerate them. If the egg looks funny after cracking it then throw it out.

Asde yu bin baim wanem kain kaikai long maket?

Roughly translated, "What kind of food did you buy at the market yesterday?"

I've collected a handful of books and we're trying to learn Tok Pigin which is the local trade language in Papua New Guinea. We elected to skip the Pacific Orientation Course which is where missionaries typically go for 6-12 weeks  before coming to Ukarumpa. Since we were only committing to 1 year, it's considered optional and we decided to come directly here and begin serving straight away.

However, the disadvantage of doing that is not getting a handle on the local language. So, it's up to us to learn as much as we can on our own.

But getting back to the market… besides feeling completely out of place and like everybody was looking at us, we found some really great food and other items there. We got; potatoes, bananas, lettuce, strawberries, a bilum (a shoulder bag), and some necklaces for the girls to send home to friends.

Revenge of the Malaria Prophylaxis!

Our first day in Ukarumpa we visited the clinic! That's not a good sign J.

A part of living here in Ukarumpa PNG, is that we need to protect ourselves against malaria which is a major problem here. There are several different malaria pills that you can try, the cheapest is Doxycycline. This is a fairly large pill that must be swallowed so we decided that all of our family except Kiery could probably manage it fine. However, you need to start taking it a few days before travelling and when Ruth tried hers while we were still in the States, she got violently ill and ended up losing the medication. So, we called the doctor and decided to split Kiery's Mefloquin with Ruth which is working fine.

However, a little tip about Doxycycline is that you shouldn't lay down for at least an hour after you take one. Otherwise, it could stay in your esophagus and dissolve causing an ulcer. Well, we know that now, but we didn't know that until after Meliah took her pill and laid down for a nap!

She started complaining of a lot of pain in her upper chest, so we took her to the doctor at the local clinic and he explained what had happened.

The good news is that he started her on some meds that help soothe the ulcer and begin a slow healing process for her. She's feeling much better but it still irritates her after a meal. It hasn't slowed her down much and she's met several girls from her class already and has walked all over the town with them swinging from tree ropes over puddles and having a great time.

But keep her in your prayers that her ulcer would heal quickly and there wouldn't be any down-stream effects.

Planes, Tuk Tuks, and Automobiles

Well, we made it to Ukarumpa! Who Hooh! The last few days have been full of activity. Loren and Kensey dropped us off at Chad and Kendle’s for a home cooked meal. They have two children around our younger girl’s ages. It was really nice to meet these folks and they had a wonderful dinner prepared for us.

We spent a good time in fellowship and prayer with them and then it was time to head to our new home away from home. Translator Lodge 8B.

Use the term “Road” lightly

We landed in Lae- last plane ride!!!!!! Our fellowship family (the family assigned to show us the ropes of Ukarumpa living etc.) met us at the airport and drove us to a SIL guest house were stayed the night. The girls were very excited to see a pool there. The fellowship family has a girl that is a month older than Kiery and a son that is almost 10. So the kids paired up. Kiery was so excited to have someone to play with and they became friends immediately. Again the Lord knew what we needed just at that point.

The husband, Loren, will be Chad’s supervisior in the CTS department so the men started into the computer jargon and getting to know each other. The roads in Lae make the pot holes in Spokane look like nothing. The road is totally washed out or earthquakes have created big gaps in spots. And remember that we are on the different side of the street as well, so driving through town was an adventure.

All Part of the Body of Christ

Waking up at the Mapang house we leisurely went about getting ready for the day by repacking and sorting through bags, AGAIN!!!  Ruth was still in a lot of pain and not being able to move side to side well and knowing that yet another plane ride was looming ahead.  God knew what we needed when we needed it.  He sent a couple that was starting their trek state side after being missionaries for many years with a different organization.  The lady’s name was Penny. Penny and Ruth talked about life and stuff and got to know each other over breakfast. Penny noticed Ruth was rubbing her neck and asked if she could rub it for her.  Ruth quickly said yes!  She was able to get one of the many knots out of the neck/shoulder area as they talked about scripture etc. and being a missionary.  We saw Penny as an angel sent by God.

Brisbane to Port Moresby

Something really unfortunate that happened was during the flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby, Ruth's neck ache got really bad. We were in a smaller plane and you could definitely tell that the cabin wasn't pressurized as well as the bigger planes. Somehow, this caused Ruth's neck pain to elevate, and it felt as though she was having pinched nerves that were causing involuntary twitches in her legs. It was a pretty miserable flight, especially for her, but I continue to be inspired by her strength and ability to endure incredible hardships. And throughout all of these challenges she remains an authentic daughter of God, expressing her emotional highs and lows. I am so thankful that God established the institution of marriage so that together we can represent more of God's character from both the male and female perspective than we can alone.

We arrived late in the evening in Port Moresby around 9pm and had the daunting task of going through immigrations and customs in our already exhausted and miserable state. Before we got off the plane we just prayed together that God would give us the energy and strength to get through this because at that point, we were close to collapsing on the floor (literally). We managed to get off the plane with all our carry-ons and march across the tarmac to the lines forming for immigrations.

Pictures from Our Journey

Some Pictures of our Journey from Spokane to Brisbane!

Ready to leave Spokane

In LAX awaiting our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. It was pretty crowded at the gate.

In Auckland Airport. Burger King for Breakfast!

Brisbane Australia

Waiting at the gate for our Air Niugini flight.

Too Much Stuff

After we arrived in Brisbane, we had about a 6 hour layover. The first thing I wanted to do was to make sure that Air Niugini was going to accept our excess baggage fee receipt from Air New Zealand. The main concern was that they were going to want to try and charge us again using their fee rates which would be thousands of dollars for the amount of luggage we were bringing.

I had spent almost 3 hours with between two ticket agents in Spokane and LAX trying to figure out how the luggage would work. The week before we left I called all three airlines multiple times and each time I talked to a different person and would get a completely different story of how I should check my luggage. It gave me a very uneasy feeling that I couldn't really know what they were going to charge until I arrived at the ticket counter!

Anyway, when it was all said and done, we made it through paying $1300 for around 650 pounds of luggage. While that's a lot of money, I am actually pretty pleased with the end result considering the other possibilities that were floating around.

10,000 Kilometers in a Plane can sure give you a Crick in the Neck!

According to the inflight display screen, we travelled 10,677 kilometers in just under 13 hours from Los Angeles to Auckland New Zealand! We left LAX at 10:15pm and so the entire flight was during the night. We were chasing the sun past the horizon so it was pitch black outside the whole flight.

It was really touch for us to sleep at all, and Ruth ended up with a painfully sore neck. We've pumped her full of ibuprofen and will put some icy hot patches (or PNG equivelant) when we can if it's still causing her problems.

As I write this we are on the plane waiting to leave the gate at Auckland Internation for our flight to Brisbane. I'm a little nervouse about switching airlines in Brisbane because Air Niugini may not readily accept my baggage receipts from Air New Zealand. Later, I'll have to put together a post about trying to get baggage through three different airlines on the same booking and how amazingly complicated and mysterious it is. Thanks to Jeff Mahowald who met us at the Spokane airport and stayed for the 1 1/2 hours while we tried to get it figured out with the ticket agent. His help lugging the bags around was much needed and he led a time of prayer for our family just before we headed through security. We love you Jeff and family!

Anyway, all electronic devices must now be turned off! Pray for us and for Ruth's neck. This day just keeps going on and on. Can't wait to actually sleep in a real bed and not in an airplane chair (not at all comfortable to sit in let alone try to sleep in).

God Bless!

Opening a New Chapter Today!

Today we end the preparation phase and begin the journey to Papua New Guinea to serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators for 1 year!

It's been amazing what God has already done in the lives of our family and those in our circle of influence. Even if we go and nothing else were to happen, we have already bonded like never before. We appreciate all your prayers, help and other support over these last several months and especially the last couple of weeks.

Our ride just showed up to take us to the airport, so I guess that's it for now. We'll post to the blog with pictures from our trip as soon as possible.

Thanks and God Bless!
-The Michael Family

Michael Family Send Off Party

We had a great evening with Chad's family last night. Mom, Dad, Jason, Evan and Sara and her family Michael, Brandy and Cameron all came and we had a BBQ in the back yard of Mom and Dad's farm where several  generations of Michael's have been raised. It's a beautiful setting with a little campfire and picnic tables. It was great to enjoy some delicious home cooked treats and spend time with loved ones.

We took a ton of pictures, here are a few to share.

An Angel Among Us

Yesterday after church, we came home to huge piles of "stuff" and half packed bags. We needed to go back through everything and try to figure out how we were going to get all of it to fit into our luggage and still be within the weight limits for the airlines.

As much as Ruth and I work at this and pray for patience with each other during the process, it's difficult for us to work together when packing. It's a delicate balance of allowing one of us to be in control without the other one irritating the other.

But God answered our prayer yesterday in the form of one of our dear friends, Denise! She's a wonderful friend of ours who has always gone above and beyond to help us out. She came over and started working with Ruth on organizing, sorting and packing. They worked well into the late evening and by the time they were done for the night, they had been laughing so hard their side's were aching! It was a lot of fun watching the two of them rolling on the floor.

Home Church Send Off

Our home church, New Horizons, held a potluck send-off for our family last Sunday after service. We feel honored and blessed to have had such an expression of love from such dear friends.
Our pastor, Randy used our family in part of an illustration and we got a kick out of his drawing of our family.