Trip to Madang

With Term 1 completed, the kids had a couple weeks break. We decided to be tourists for a while and went down to Madang which is on the Northern coastline of the Island of PNG. The drive takes about 5 hours and about 1 hour of it is through the Finistair mountains. It might be appropriate to just call it the Forest Stairs as the pass is just one steep hill after another on dirt roads that lead you through the jungle. Of course, the road hadn't been graded for a long time and it had rained a lot just before we left, so you are basically 4 wheeling it through a jungle dirt road for what seems like forever. Fortunately, even with all the shaking and jarring, Ruth's neck was only a little sore! There was even one river to forge right at the end! Here is a picture our friends took of us as we forded the river.

Chad’s Awesome Day

Everybody now and then needs a break. The lives of missionaries are no exception. Chad has been escaping Sunday afternoons to ride bicycle on trails throughout the countryside. This country is amazingly beautiful. The rides have all been great. Even though sometimes we follow a road that eventually gets swallowed by the jungle (as you can see in some of the pictures), it all makes for great stories we can tell later on.

This Saturday, we started off the day at the horse paddocks taking the 6^th of 8 horse management courses. Anyone who wants to become a member of the pony club must complete the entire course. Then you can have access to the paddocks and are allowed to “care” for someone’s horse when they are away on furlough or in the village.

Ruth went to Lae in a Day (twice)

Jail break!!! Sirens! Lights! Radio Chatter!

But seriously, Ruth has finally got off center and is on an infamous “Lae in a Day” journey with a couple of other families from Ukarumpa. Actually she went with the Lae in a Day group but she stayed overnight with a friend at the SIL Guest house in Lae. These two moms were long overdue for a break.  Besides getting a lot of much needed shopping done, they were able to relax and enjoy the nice accomodations and… get ready for this one… EAT OUT!!!

That's a big deal in this country.

To demonstrate how urgently Ruth needed to get out of Ukarumpa, here is a picture of Ruth "before"...

Church in the Villiage

Annakah, Kiery and Chad went to a viliage church this Sunday. It was about a 50 minute walk through the jungle with one river to forge. But it was really cool! The only down side is that they only spoke Tok Pisin at this church and they spoke really, really fast. So Chad could barely understand maybe 30% of the sermon and the kids didn’t get any of it. But, it was totally worth the hike.

Annakah got Bucked off Jazzie

Annakah had been caring for a horse on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons since her owner was taking Rugby at the high school those evenings. Annakah was brushing, cleaning hooves, feeding, saddling and riding Jazzie and hadn’t had any trouble for a few weeks.

Meliah played softball in Goroka (sun cookim face)

Meliah went with a small caravan (police escorted which made mom and dad feel better) to Goroka for the first of two softball tournaments of their season. They won! Well, they only had two other teams to play against.