Ditch Day

Today we awoke to beautiful blue skies. There was not a single cloud
anywhere to be seen. In three weeks out here, this was the first morning
where there weren't already clouds everywhere, or hovering around the
mountain ridges, ready to spill down into the valley.

It was too beautiful of a morning to stay inside and do school. So after we
had our breakfast (apple-cinnamon muffins and canned peaches) and I got 2
sets of bed sheets scrubbed and hung, and all the clothes wrung out and
hung, I told the kids we were skipping school today and we set off on a
hike.

We set off up the mountain, on a trail we have gone on many times before.
The start of it was a mud pit. And very slow going. Especially with
Julianne and her crocs (note to self: I need to invest in some good Tevas
or something for her. of course, not a simple thing to do here. But I
digress). Poor girl! She was slipping and sliding everywhere. But she
was a good sport.

I had thought we might try to make for the river, but after a while, I
realized that at the pace Julianne was going, it would take a really, really
long time. So I decided we'd just go to where a little stream crosses the
trail. After hiking up and up and up, we finally got there. The kids
splashed around a little, and I had thought I'd break out the snack I
brought, but the biting flies started attacking, so we didn't stay long.

The hike back to the village was a lot better. Julianne still slipped and
slid a lot, but with the hot bright sun, the trail was a lot less muddy.
After bouncing along happily for a long time, and then taking a good nap on
my back, Elijah finally decided he was hungry. So I ended up feeding him
while he was still in the front pack, while also holding Julianne's hand and
helping her down the steep and sometimes slippery mud path. I was just
thankful that I didn't run into anyone else on the trail (not that they
would have cared... here it's very normal to see a nursing mom just pull
herself up and out the collar of her shirt to feed her hungry baby/toddler!)

We made it back home, covered in sweat and mud, but glad for a chance to get
out of the house and get some exercise. And tomorrow, we'll be back to
school.

A Morning at the River

One of the kid's favorite things to do here is go and play at the river.
Kaitlyn loves to catch tadpoles, and they like to play games where they are
animals and crawl around on the rocks, or lie down in the (freezing cold!)
water. Sometimes they like to build dams across part of the river and make
the water flow another direction, or build up a pool behind it.

The kids have been asking to go to the river ever since the day we got here,
but because of the gloomy, rainy weather, we haven't gone yet. So when
Saturday started out sunny, we decided we should finally head down to the
river.

Matt took along our shovels so that he and the kids could build dams. As we
were walking down to the river, Kaitlyn told us that the river looked very
different. (she had gone down there once on her own, but that's a story for
another day). And she was right! As we came down the mountain, we realized
that the river looked Totally different from ever before. We were trying to
figure it out, and then as we got closer Matt said that it must have been a
flood.

Usually, the river at where the trail crosses it is wide open, but just
above that place, the jungle encroaches and the river disappears from sight
among all the various vines and bushes and trees and other plants. But as
we came down the trail, we could see the wide, rocky river bed winding up
the mountain. The whole area looked so different. There used to be some
HUGE boulders that we would put our shoes on, or sit on, but they were
totally gone. No where to be seen at all! And rocks that didn't used to be
there were lying jumbled around in new places.

2004

Same view of the river now

We've been here in the village when we've gotten a LOT of rain. Like 10
inches in a week or so. But even then, with all that rain, I've NEVER seen
the river at more than ankle deep. So it's hard to fathom how much rain it
must have taken, and how much water there must have been to clean out the
entire river bed (and many people's gardens which had been planted along
the sides of it!) But it must have been massive, to clear it completely out
of all vegetation/trees/bananas/gardens and just leave the wide, rocky river
bed.

But that wide open river bed winding up the mountain was just too tempting
to leave unexplored. So we spent the next hour or so climbing up and up.
Even Julianne climbed along well, although she had to stop at each little
pool of water and sit down in it, no matter how cold it was! Matt, Kaitlyn,
Nathan and Justin went quite a lot farther on, but they still didn't come to
the spring where the river starts. They're going to save that for a future
adventure.

After we climbed back down to where we started, Matt and the kids had fun
building some dams and trying to make the river flow in certain directions.
I think eventually they gave up though because there were just too many big
rocks that they couldn't move or that the water went under. But they had
fun.

Then we came home and had one of the biggest rainstorms that afternoon that
we'd had so far during our stay out here.

Hopefully things will start to dry out a little around here and we can get
out on some more hikes or adventures!

Planting a Garden

For some time now, I’ve dreamed of having a small garden out here in the village.    I always come home from our 6 or more weeks out in the village, feeling like I’m about to develop scurvy or something from so long with almost no fresh fruit or veggies.  All I want to eat is a gigantic salad!

 

Anyway, this time around, I finally got around to bringing out some seeds, and a small tomato plant that a friend kindly donated from her garden. 

 

I didn’t get anything done on a garden our first week out here.  The first couple of days were busy with cleaning, unpacking and cleaning some more.  Then there was lots of rain.  And I didn’t manage to ask anyone to come help me.  Finally, after a week, and a failed attempt to find someone who would help me, I decided I didn’t want to wait any longer.  So one afternoon (cloudy, but not raining) I went out and started pulling weeds in the area where I wanted to put the garden.  There were a bunch of kids sitting around watching the kids, and watching me. 

 

Eventually, some of the teenage girls came over and started helping me weed.  Then more came.  I told them what I was hoping to do (plant a garden) and they started helping.  After the weeding was done, one girl took a shovel and started turning all the dirt over.  Then we all worked together to break up the muddy clumps and spread it neatly all over.  Someone dug some rows while others went down the mountain a short distance to cut some bamboo to build a small fence to keep the pigs out.  By dinner time, my garden was made!

 

The next morning, the kids and I went out and planted our (by now slightly drooping) tomato plant, and a few carrot, cucumber and marigold seeds.  I eventually am hoping to plant some potatoes, and maybe some lettuce too?  It will be a little tricky to time everything when we are constantly  coming and going.  I will plant a few more carrot and cucumbers in 6 weeks, right before we leave the village, in hopes that they’ll be ready in about 2 more months when we come back.

Heartbreak

It's amazing how quickly things can change with just one little email.

I'm sitting here, listening to the voices of my kids playing happily
outside, getting dirty, with not a care in the world. One voice rises above
the rest: Kaitlyn, who, for good or ill, tends to be the loudest, most
dominating. She's invented some sort of game with cups and dirt and
who-knows-what-else.

And my heart breaks listening to her happy (albeit rather bossy) voice.
Because very soon we're going to have to tell her about the email we just
received. The one that tells how Cookies, her favorite pet guinea pig, was
killed by a dog. She'll be devastated. Angry. And oh-so-sad. I'm
practically in tears myself, just thinking of how horribly sad she soon will
be. As a Mom, Oh! How I wish I could protect her from pain and bad things
happening. But I can't. I can only be there for her, and hold her when she
cries. But if I could, I would give anything to bring her little piggy back
so she didn't have to suffer this heartache and loss.

If you think about it, please pray for her in these next couple weeks as she
will be one sad girl.

In the Village

After what seems like solid weeks of thinking about nothing besides plans
for the village (what meals I would make, what food I needed to bring out
and how much, setting out kids clothes and packing them, etc) we finally
made it out to Hamelengan. I know I will quickly get really tired of the
extremely slow pace of life out here (where one day often feels like it
easily could have been two or even three!), but for now, I'm really enjoying
having a little extra down-time.

Our last day in Ukaurumpa was just crazy busy. We had sent out most of our
cargo to Aviation on Tuesday afternoon, but there were still lots of little
last-minute things to take care of. I was up at 5:30am getting my last 24
cups of granola made. Then it was a quick run to the market to get
(possibly) the last fresh produce we'll have for the next 8 weeks. The kids
all had their last day at the school, I had my ladies Bible study.

By the end of the day, I know I was completely exhausted. Then, just to
complicate things, I caught Julianne, after dinner, getting into the malaria
meds. She has always been great at swallowing pills (something she didn't
inhierit from her Mom!) and thinks it great fun. So I caught her with the
bag that contains Matt and Kaitlyn's meds (our family takes a variety of
different things) and one missing. She denied drinking it down, or even
touching it, but the guilty look on her face and the missing pill told me
otherwise. And, she had just taken her own dosage of her med already!
Needless to say, we called the clinic, very worried. But the nurse assured
us that the two kinds of pills she had taken weren't dangerous together, so
while she got more than she needed, it wasn't harmful. Thank you God!

Then, right before bed, Elijah got really cranky and then threw up all over
me. Great! Then I was envisioning a night of a throwing-up baby, and
soaked bedding and a sleepless night to start out our trip to the village.
Thankfully, it ended up being a 1 time thing.

Our trip out to the village went smoothly. We were thankful for a
relatively late 6:30am pickup. Then we sat out at aviation for an hour or
so before the helicopter was loaded and ready to go. We had a smooth trip,
with no kids throwing up, which is a major accomplishment! We landed and
stood around for a while talking to people. Eventually, E started getting
fussy, so I headed to our house to feed him and start the immense cleaning
job.

It seems like whether we're gone for 2 months or almost 9, this house gets
extremely dirty! The dust accumulates in a thick layer over everything.
And the cockroaches! I don't know what they eat in this house when we're
gone, but they have a massive, months-long party. So in addition to the
massive layers of dirt/dust on everything, in every drawer, on every table
or countertop, all over the bathroom, etc is a layer of cockroach turds.
Fun stuff. =( So I get to sweep and mop and disinfect counters and drawers,
just so I can start putting things away. Usually, I do this while almost
incapacitated by horrendous allergies. This time, however, I got a dust
mask and tried that. Miraculously, I didn't sneeze once the entire day,
despite all the dust, dead bugs and cockroach poos everywhere! I know my
Bible study friends were praying, and I was so very thankful for them!

We got the first couple layers of dirt cleaned, and most things unpacked and
put away that first day. But we were exhausted. We had an early dinner and
went to bed early. Yesterday (day 2) we continued with the cleaning and
unpacking, helped along by all 4 mobile kids playing in the mud all day long
(it rained from about 10am on our first day, and all the second day) so they
each had 2 separate baths during the course of the day.

Now we're here, and trying to get settled back into a routine. It will help
when school starts up again on Monday and we have a more set schedule for
each day. But overall, things are going well.

This Past Week (2 May 2012)

It's been a busy week.  In fact, sitting here, I feel utterly exhausted.  I'm typing in between cycling kids thru the bath, and packing up last minute odds and ends.  We have a 6:30am pickup tomorrow, which, relatively speaking is actually a "late" one for us. 

Here are just a few pictures from this week:

Helping Daddy pack and label boxes

Finally caught that bugger!  (but discovering this tail first thing in the morning was pretty nasty!

My Favorite Super-Hero!

 More Elijah:

Julianne's Pictures

Julianne got a hold of the camera the other day.  I thought it was hilarious looking at the sequence of pictures she took of Elijah.

Here are a few:

What's missing???

I love how E's head progressively disappears! =)  But she caught some cute smiles!