In Transit

Well I guess it's probably time for an update.

The 16hr flight wasn't nearly as torturous as it sounds. I slept about 13 hrs of it which was fantastic! When I wasn't sleeping, I watched Mirror Mirror and concluded the last 1:30hr of the flight with back to back episodes of Bones.

We landed in Brisbane, and played cards until the flight to Port Moresby , PNG.

3 hrs there and we were picked up by a jolly national who drove us to the SIL guesthouse. We received our key, went to our room, observed the six beds available (decided against the  bunkbeds), and passed out in the double. We had set our alarm for dinner time and stumbled into the dining hall to be greeted with the other missionaries staying there and shepherds pie! The conversation was delightful and dessert was an ice cream float! (vanilla ice cream and orange mango soda!)

After supper we went back to our rooms and crashed again.

This was a mistake. It was 7:30.

So at 2:20 am, I convinced my husband to get up with me, brew some delicious Blue Mountain coffee, and sit on the patio with me to play cards. Eventually he was tired of cards, so we went inside and I played solitaire on the bed. (For someone who wasn't interested in playing cards, he sure had a lot to say about how I was playing!)

But per usual, 7:30am rolled around and we were on our way back to the airport.

When we pulled up to passenger drop-off, there was a police van with a national woman in the back. She had long dreads that lashed about as she rocked back and forth violently, throwing herself forward and yanking herself back. A crowd swarmed and people from all over the area, inside, streetside, in the parking lot, flooded to this location. The crowd shifted from the police van and it was empty, which leads me to believe  that she was moved from inside the van to inside the crowd, working her way inside the airport.

Our driver decided it would be wise for us to stay inside the vehicle while the crowd was at large, but eventually they dispersed and we got out. Our objective was a luggage cart. We had seen them when the crowd was thick but now there were none to be found. So our driver sent us in the airport to get one. The security guard sent us through security to get one. The people on the other side of security sent us to the far side of ticketing, but eventually we found one.

When we made it through security again, with our luggage this time, we approached the tv screen displaying flights to discover there wasn't one leaving for Madang!!!!!

Dun dun dun!!!

Now, Jacob and I are $550 short from our budget. What we do not need is additional expenses. Like another night in Port Moresby. So I go to the ticket counter and they ease my anxiety, informing me that there is a plane to Madang (they just don't always update the screen), and ticketing for it would begin when they hung a sign saying Madang from over a register. So we sat and waited. And when the sign was hung, we stood at waited. For an hour. (the concept of single file and turn taking is apparently foreign.) 

When we got to the counter the woman asked me if I had filled out some form. No one had told me I had needed to fill out a form, not even the PNG website from which I had bought the tickets. And I don't know why I needed a form, I had made it in the country with PNG's approval, I'm pretty sure I can now move about the country freely. But she insisted there was a form that needed to be filled out. I told her that I probably hadn't done so. She huffed and puffed for a while but eventually gave us tickets anyway. I really have no idea what happened there.

We had to pay $65 for extra baggage. And then we moved to go through security (again). They asked to weigh Jacob's carry-on (which is WAY lighter than mine) and it was twice the permissible weight. They told me we'd have to check our carry-ons.

There are multiple problems here.

1. It's half an hour til our flight. I do not have another hour I can wait in line for.

2. I have four laptops, 2 kindles, 4 cell phones, 1 camera, & 3 external hard drives, in the carry-on's all of which was very important to not get stolen, which isn't very controllable when it get's checked on to the plane.

3. I do not need to incur any further expenses!!

So I did what I do best. I can rock it in America, and baby, I can rock it in PNG.

I combined fear, sadness,  confusion, and innocence in a perfectly proportioned blend on my face. And asked "what? What do I have to do?!"

He then let us through. Many people find causing a pretty young lady unnecessary stress is morally wrong, and this man was, luckily, no exception. So instead of sending us away, he escorted us through security and saw us on our way!

We got to Madang (finally!!!!), grabbed our luggage and loaded up, with half the branch to the Madang Lodge for pizza!

They dropped us at the house, we showered (finally!!!) and then they picked us up again to go to the office. After some internet time, sing and share began at 6. And my poor jet lagged husband kept falling asleep during prayer. Finally, 7:30 we went to bed and lo and behold, 2:20 is when we woke up. But this time I worked on falling back asleep and finally got out of bed at 4.