Waiting

Should I be feeling guilty that I'm happy I'm not currently sitting in the village? I could have been woken up at dawn by roosters, and then spent most of the morning sitting around, wondering if and when the church service was going to start!

We were supposed to go to Hamelengan (our village) on Friday, but because of Justin being pretty sick, we were asked to postpone. Justin had another check on Friday afternoon and we were cleared to go out. But I'm so glad that we didn't go on Friday. Matt and I both have the cough thing that Justin did, just not quite so bad. But with neither of us feeling 100%, the thought of all the work it would have been to be setting up/cleaning/unpacking/visiting in the village makes me so thankful that we have a few extra days.

But almost everything for the village is packed up and waiting out at Aviation for our Tuesday flight. So it's nice to not be tripping over boxes and rushing around packing still. I've still been doing little things (drying pizza sauce, making granola, making a meal to freeze for our first 2 nights out in the village) but it has been nice to have a little extra down time. (We haven't had much of that over the past who-knows-how-many months)

Everything packed and ready to be taken out to aviation Wednesday morning

So, I'm going to use this extra time to get a little reading in, and to be on the internet (find recipes, read friend's blogs, check facebook). Because in a few short days, I won't be able to. We still get emails (so if anyone is ever inspired to write, please do!) via our 2-way radio HF email modem, so we're not completely cut off from the world, but still, it can sometimes feel that way a bit.

Getting ready for the village.....

Unfortunantly, getting ready to head out to the village doesn’t mean just tossing some clothes in a bag and we’re off! In the past, I’ve given myself up to a month before we actually go to the village to get organized and packed. This time I have just two weeks. Our past several months have been full of packing and travelling and transitions, and I’m finding it really hard to get back into that way of thinking. Personally, I’d LOVE to stay in the same place/same house/same routine for like six straight months. But, as we’re leaving for the village in less than two weeks, I don’t have that luxury.

Getting ready for the village involves getting all our clothes and bedding washed and packed. We always bring all our bedding back to Ukarumpa when we leave the village as hand washing sheets and blankets in the river (or now, in my shower base) just doesn’t get them as nice and clean as I would like. So I’ve been washing and airing out lots of village clothes, sheets, towels and blankets. Then they go into our heavy-duty rubbermaid containers to head out to the village.

Then comes planning meals. I don’t do good if I just bring a variety of stuff and figure out later how to use it. I’d be sure to forget some basic ingredients, or not have enough of something. So I sit down and make up a calendar for our entire time out in the village. Then I plan meals for each day. Once I’ve figured out enough meals for our stay, I go back and double and triple check everything to make sure I know exactly how much flour, sugar, margarine, eggs, etc I’m going to need. I have to figure in how many times I’ll be making bread or tortillas, how much milk it will take for cereal and recipes that call for it, etc. I have to estimate how many loaves of banana bread the people in the village are going to ask me to bake for them, etc.

Once I get all the amounts figured out, I go shopping at our store here at Ukarumpa. I then have to get all the stuff boxed up in cardboard boxes and labeled for our flight. I try to make a bunch of pancake mix and granola ahead of time, so I don’t have to spend time doing that in the village (and it saves on how much gas I use out there as well).

Since we have no refrigeration I can’t take any perishable items. (except for eggs, which don’t need refrigeration, and margerine, which can last quite a while without). Because everything has to be flown in to our village on the helicopter (which is rather expensive) I try to dehydrate as much as possible to cut down on weight. The things that are on the list for me to dehydrate this coming week are: cheese (for pizza, burritos, etc), spagetti sauce, pizza sauce, ground beef, italian sausage (which I’ll use on our pizza), beef jerky and probably some fruit roll-ups.

As you can see, just the food prep takes a lot of time.

Thankfully, I don’t have to plan Kaitlyn’s and Nathan’s schoolwork. The school here provides exactly what they will need for our time out. I need to plan some school activities for Justin however, as he will need some things to keep occupied with while K and N are working.

Days can be long out in the village (especially if we are getting a lot of rain), so I want to plan a variety of craft activities the kids can do if we are stuck in the house.

I also need to get over to the school library this week and pick out the allotment of books that the kids are allowed to take out to the village with them. These books will be for reading assignments, as well as leisure reading, and ones we read aloud as a family.

I am also in the process of sewing curtains for our downstairs storage room in the village. I need to make some for the translation office room as well, but there is no way I have time to complete that before this village stay.

I’m definitely feeling a bit stressed as I look at my “To Do” list for village planning. I have now just 12 days till we leave for the village, and really only about 10 to get packed, as we have to have all our stuff out to avaition at least a day before our flight. So I guess it’s time to stop blogging and get back to planning and packing!

Introducing........

our very first Taylor family pet!

Here's Daisy!!

The kids have been begging for a pet of their own for a while now (Kaitlyn at the foremost), and we've been putting it off as finding pet sitters for a pet that you have to leave every few months can be quite a challenge. (And we have no plans of helicoptering a dog, cat or other back and forth to the village!). But Matt and I decided that a guinea pig was fairly low-maintenance, and would be relatively simple to find someone to watch when we go to the village. So now we have a guinea pig. =)
Ideally, we'd like to eventually let Daisy have babies, and then keep one of them, so that she won't be a lonely piggie. However, with the amount of time the kids are spending with her currently, Daisy may be begging for some alone time before long! =)

Snapshots from the past week or so

Here are a few pictures of stuff that has happened in the last week or 10 days or so:

Nathan and his friend Marissa climbing trees and playing on the swing

Kaitlyn getting a horse ride last Saturday

The kids playing with their belated birthday gift from Grammy

Justin and Julianne enjoying a beautiful sunny day!

I was thinking it would be interesting to chronicle a normal day here in Ukarumpa. But then as I went through my day, I thought, wow... that would be so uninteresting! My life here is just pretty normal. Just in a somewhat different setting than friends and family back in the U.S.

So maybe instead, I'll just write (ramble?) about a few things that have been going on.

Justin and I are still trying to get used to the long school days with K and N gone. When they don't get home till almost 3:30, wow, it makes the days very different. I try to do some activities/school with Justin every morning for a short while. Painting, alphabet or number games, worksheets, reading.


But he still gets to missing his siblings. Yesterday we set up a playdate and Joshua was able to come over for the morning. I need to be intentional about doing that on a regular basis so that Justin can have some good time interacting with kids his age.


Yesterday was a typical laundry day here. I always wash my clothes the night before so that they can have the maximum drying time the following day. But, like many days (most?) recently, we woke to grey rain. It comes and goes, so I watched the sky for hours, debating whether to risk hanging the clothes outside where the rain might not come, or just go ahead and hang them on the few lines in my laundry room. I finally hung them inside, and it was a good thing as it POURED later in the morning. However, the sun did come out again after lunch, and it looked like it might stay around for a while, so the clothes got to go outside for a few hours. They got about 80% dry before I had to bring them back in.

Drying in the laundry room

Later in the day when the sun came out!

Every Friday at the Primary school we can go eat lunch with our kids. This was the first Friday of the school year, and I had planned for us to go eat with K and N. However, it was pouring right before lunch and the roads were just running with streams of water, and the thought of walking across Ukarumpa (like 5 mins) in the mud and rain with Julianne and Justin just wasn't appealing. So we'll try hard to make next Friday's lunch with the kids.

I had to run to the store to pick up something for a friend. I had already done all my weekend shopping on Thursday (here the store is only open M-F, till 4pm... so you have to plan ahead and get stuff for the weekend), so I wasn't planning on buying anything for me. However, I got in there to discover that there were finally tomato products in the store!!!! (for the 2 weeks we've been back there have been none). They had tomato paste, sauce, canned tomatoes, spagetti sauce, etc on the shelves. So I had to get some of those, since so many of my recipes call for stuff like that! So now my pantry is very well stocked!

I love the rare opportunities when I don't have to cook! (I mean, I LOVE cooking, but occasionally, it's nice to NOT need to!) Friday nights during the school year we have "Teen Center". The high schoolers run a "burger night" at the Teen Center (gym/multi-purpose building) where you can get hamburgers, salads, chips (fries for you Americans) and shakes. You don't go for the great food. But it's fun to hang out with friends and not have to cook or wash dishes later.

notice J's wearing K's slippers! She LOVES two things in life: shoes and dolls!

Contentment

Last week my ladies' Bible study group here in Ukarumpa began a new study. We're doing a study that I had never heard of before, but as soon as I heard the title of the book, I knew it was one I definitely needed to do.

This first week has definitely been challenging. The author refers to a diary in which the writer listed her prescription for having a habit of contentment. The list is as follows:

Never allow yourself to complain about anything -- not even the weather!
Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.
Never compare your lot with another's.
Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
Never dwell on tomorrow -- remember that [tomorrow] is God's, not ours.

Wow. Reading that list was eye opening! I know I am not the most content person in the world. I worry about stuff. I complain about stuff. But I still have always considered myself a fairly content person. But wow! When I read this list... how many of those do I do on a regular basis? I whine about the cold, rainy weather. When I'm in the village or Ukarumpa, I think about what I'm missing back in the U.S. When I'm in the U.S. I'm missing stuff in PNG. I'm really bad about comparing myself to others.

The author points out that "true contentment is separate from our circumstances. Contentment is a state of the heart, not a state of affairs." I need to be seeking God, and his will, and not focusing on the slow, lonely days in the village, or the mud, or not being with family. I need to learn to have an attitude of contentment. Like Paul, I pray that I will learn "to be content whatever the circumstances."

I'm excited about where this study is going to take me!

(quotes from Linda Dillow's 'Calm My Anxious Heart', p. 13)

Readjusting

I love living in Ukarumpa! There are so many great things about being here. It does take a little getting used to/readjusting to how things are done however. In the states, everything is convienent and easy. Or at least, relatively speaking. Here, the pace of life is a bit slower, but you do have to plan ahead and do a bit more.

Yesterday was a holiday. So after the tremendously long school week of 2 days, we had Friday off. So dear friends of ours planned a "Back to School BBQ". It was great fun visiting and having the kids play, even if it poured off and on the whole time so that we were in the house.

But the morning before we went was crazy! I still am adjusting to how long it takes to prepare meals, etc here. I got up at 7am and walked down to the market to buy our fruits and veggies for the next few days (only available every M, W and F morning). When I got home, I started making some yogurt from scratch. Then, because we were going to a BBQ and having hamburgers, I got my bread dough started. (none of this just buying a bag of buns at the store here). I was supposed to bring a dessert and a side dish, so I got my cookies and my mac and cheese (again, none of that boxed stuff) going. Then some friends stopped by mid-morning to get some books I was giving away and I got 2 loads of laundry washed and then hung up outside. Suddenly, it was already 11:30, a whole half hour after our get-together started and I was racing madly to finish shaping the hamburger patties and get Julianne's diaper changed so we could go over.

Where on earth does the time go??? I just need to re-adjust to meal planning and daily life here! I'm getting better, and it comes back pretty quickly. I just have to remember to start dinner about 4pm if I want it to be done by 6. And to give myself a good 15 minutes per load to get the clothes hung on the line. And not to stress if unexpected visitors drop by and my plans go out the window.

But hey, because yesterday was a holiday, I now have a "second Saturday" to relax a little. (and the bbq was great fun, and I even got to go play Bunco with a group of friends (and no Julianne) last night! =) ) Now, to just not forget to get my chicken kabobs made and marinating before it gets too late in the day!