We are back from POC

We are back from POC (Pacific Orientation Course)  As many of you know I (Ruth) was not all that excited about this new adventure.  And of course since opposites attract Chad couldn’t wait to get started.  I really felt the prayers of everyone while we were doing this course. So thank you very much. Our health was good, nothing major to speak of, which is usually not the case when in that environment.  The heat and humidity was intense especially close to the coast (down in Madang and in our village during our 5 day village stay it is really hot and humid).  Cold showers have never felt so good even Kiery and Anna enjoyed them.

Our typical day was Breakfast @ 7am,

 School start for girls and classes for us @ 8am,

 Morning Tea @ 9:30 (snack time) with our Tok Pisin teacher

 10:00 More classes for us adults.

12:15  Lunch

1:00-2:00  rest time (or get laundry from the line, get kids ready for afternoon hikes or swims or study or just lay in front of fan for a few minutes)

2:00 it was either hike or swim on Mon and Wed.  and the other days was class for us adults and usually a field trip for the kids.  Yes the kids had more fun than we did. :)

4:00 it was “free time”! If the internet was up we could check email or go to the little store for something cold to drink or try to fold laundry or study or watch the guys play volleyball. 

Volleyball!

5:45 Dinner and then the evenings were spent either with fellowship groups or trying to study or get a cold shower or do something that didn’t involve brain power.  Before and after every meal we had duties to help with meal prep or clean up or setting the dining room so that took time also.

Chad and I generally went to bed soon after the girls who typically went to bed after 7 pm.  Yes with the fans blowing on high.  The heat took its toll on our bodies.

One of the many things that surprised me while @ POC was that I enjoyed the hiking more than swimming,  I thought before we got there that I would enjoy it the other way around.  I was the slowest hiker, I knew if I fell it would be more than my pride that would be hurt. Chad was very good about staying with me on the hikes in the back of the herd even though he so wanted to be the one setting the pace with the guys 20 somethings  at the front.    But swimming was a challenge being in salty water, and not being able to touch bottom at all times.  I wanted them to throw me in a pool just to show everyone I did know how to swim.  Anna even swam the adult rope 3x.  She did better than I did.  (thank you very much! I am the one who taught her basic swim techniques). :) 

I knew going in that Chad and I learn differently, big surprise there… NOT!  So we arranged for us to be in different Tok Pisin classes.  Chad of course had a good handle on the language before leaving so his language really excelled while in POC.  Ruth’s language, well it was very s-l-o-w!!!!  I can understand more now than before but getting it spit out of the mouth is another story.

Another not so surprising fact was Chad was always looking for an adventure.  So the weekends or any down time he was talking to the employees (which are the nationals) to practice his language or seeing if someone would show him something new.  He has now climbed a Kokonas (coconut tree), Bui trees (the source of their beetle nut, which could be compared to chewing tobacco), went to a beautiful waterfall, hunted kindom (giant crayfish type things) in the middle of the night, went to 2 different gardens, made a mat and a wall.  I know he will fill in the details on his blog. Filled his adventure tank to overflowing. 

Wokim Mat

The thing I enjoyed probably most was building relationships with those that came to POC as students.  Since we had already been to Ukarumpa people asked us many questions about life there.  All of us ladies just kept trying to encourage each other in the things that were harder than others.   There was a German couple there, United Kingdom couple, 5 Korean people, 1 Chinese and a few families from the South in the United states (and we know that is like living in another country, joking.)  It was so great to see the body of Christ learning the culture, the language, the everything, either to become a translator or be a support worker for the translation process it was a common goal we had no matter what language we spoke as our heart language.  

Anna’s favorite things about POC was: swimming and swimming and also swimming and pulling a vehicle out of a muddy spot while on field trip.

Kiery’s favorite things about POC was: playing with her new friends and swimming.

Meliah did very well in the hostel while we were gone.  She has built some lifelong friendships.   She loved the freedom and living with teenagers.  The hostel parents are great and they love teenagers and really knew how to handle things as they would come up.  Meliah’s constant comment since being back home is this house is too quiet!!!  So she will start singing, or humming or making some noise of some kind.   One of the positive things that came out of Meliah in the hostel is her grades went up.  She made silver Honor roll while we were gone.  I think we may send her over to the hostel for their study time a few times a week.  :)  We are loving the stories she is telling us of what so and so did and what happened then etc.. It has been so heartwarming as a parent to see your child grow and mature not only physically but spiritually while we were gone.  The apron strings are getting longer and longer the closer to “adult” hood she gets.  Hopefully Meliah will share something on the blog from her perspective. 

Second hand shopping in Kainantu

Now we are settling back into life in Ukarumpa and getting our feet back under us.  Chad is now back to work at CTS and doing some programming jobs before he jumps into the manager role again.  And I will be at the school again starting in Term 4.  They have break at the end of this week, so I am using this time to get caught up on countless things