Second day

So since I've been here, I've had a few funny stories.
1. Riding to the duplex where we're staying while in town, I noticed an uncomfortable poke in my back. It was like a pole hidden in the seat. I was careful about it but the roads in PNG aren't exactly smooth. Soon a large rut caused me to come slightly out of my seat and firmly into it, falling hard on the metal pole. A gasp of pain. "Are you all rigt, Vahey?" a fellow intern asks. Trying to blink back the instant watering of my eyes, I hoarsely reply, "I'm not bleeding... i think." I slid over, almost on top of the person sitting next to me to clear the pole. From then on I made sure I wasn't sitting in that seat.

2. 3am. My first night in PNG. I awake because nature calls. I walk to the bathroom and flip the switch. Crazy strobe lighting begins. Never fully illuminated either so still really dark. I look around for any unwelcome wildlife and see none. Things went smoothly. But! Have you ever tried to flush an australian toilet at 3 am while under the inflence of jet lag and under a strobing light? There's no handle! After a few desperate attempts of feeling for a handle that wasn't there, I noticed a button on the top. At this time I did what one should always do when discovering a mysterious button: I pushed it. What did it do? No idea. It was 3am and very dark. But it did something involving water. So I pushed it again and hoped for the best before going to pass out once more until 6 am.

3.8am. Second morning in PNG. I walked over to my commorades, who were attempting to chase a rooster across the yard (but then they found out that it was a chicken and trying to lay eggs for breakfast), on my way to them I noticed a large and ugly toad in the dog's food bowl. "katie" I called. As she walked over, I contemplated reaching out and grabbing the toad. Just as I went to bend down. Katie came up and said "Oh yeah, that's poisonous." I straightened up.

4.8pm. Second evening. Dinner at the house of some missionaries. As we walk in, on of the dogs nuzzles up against one of the interns skirts, pulling it up. Awkward, I thought, so I reach down to hold down my skirt. It was then, not when I left the house, nor when I got in the car, nor the whole car ride over, nor when I got out of the car, but when I was walking into the house with nationals inside that I realized that I was not where a skirt but my mid-thigh shorts. Mid-thigh. Appropriate you'd think! I mean, I wouldn't get written up for wearing them at MACU. But in PNG, where the thigh if the part of the body men lust after, this is not ok. Lindy was stupified. The missionary man jestingly told me to go to my room as he sent me to the back and pulled out one of his wife's laplap's. Lindy assured me that this would become one of those tales that started out "some there was this one intern" and ended with "now dont you all do that"
Good times

The afternoon of the first day

I spent the day in the office in Madang. It wasn't as miserable as it sounds because Team Albatross (I'm part of Team Awesome. I'm sure there's no need for further explaination) lives above the office so we could go up and recline and be "home." So, not bad.
Anyway! Internet all day is amazing. We planned the meals we'll be eating for the two weeks while we're in Samban before lunch. We had a late lunch today (when breakfast is a 6am, it needs to be BIG if lunch is late) of tiger noodles (think Ramen).
After lunch, I went to the butcher with a few interns and an office worker. There are foreign sodas here. "Well, duh," you say, but no! There's Fanta, but crazy flavors. I found a strawberry ice cream one. It was VERY sweet.
Afterwards we sat down to take our meal list and turn it into a grocery list. During our team building week in Dallas, there was a complaint that nothing was really stress provoking. This would have been a good activity for that. It was late in the day, before dinner, Lindy, our team leader, (being a very important person in the office) was in and out of our meeting, we didn't now some recipes, and had to guess. We found ourselves stepping over each other and tensions were high. But the job got down and we all left, perhaps mildly miffed, but very relieved that THAT was over. I think we apporpriately aimed our irritation at the event and not each other.
Now, I'm putting up this last post for the night before going upstairs to dine on the lovely cuisine Team Albatross prepared for us.
Good night!
(or good morning, as it's 4:13am there and 6:16pm here. So welcome to Thursday. Don't worry, it wasn't too bad.)

First Day in PNG

After the third plane, I was on the verge of tears at the thought of getting on another on. But I managed (not particularly well).
Getting into PNG was mind-blowing. I almost cried when I realized that I finally made it here. After investing so much of myself in getting to PNG, I am not finally here.
After getting off the final plane, I was meet with familiar faces and brought to the place where I'm staying. I got a shower and then went back for dinner. I hadn't even finished my burrito when I started having trouble keeping my eyes open.
I DID take the time to put a fitted sheet on before I passed out at 8pm.
At 6am, I was wide eyed and bushy tailed.
It was very odd to wake up with the realization that I am in Papua New Guinea. Walking into the kitchen, my leader asked me how I was. "i'm in PNG," I mumbled. "You're in PNG!" she exclaimed. And she hugged me.
I drank PNG coffee, breakfasted on little lemon poppy seed muffins. A pineapple was cut up and I am here to tell you that USA pineapples are nasty! I can not believe I liked those. PNG pineapples are the way to go!
I also ate passionfruit. Passionfruit tastes really good but it as the texture of monkey brain.
Ryan ate an ant right off of tree!
Now I'm in the PBT office.
There's a lot of traffic here. Always someone walking in or calling.
We're supposed to be going to the market soon. THAT'll be an experience.

Here I go.

Today I went to Duncanville Church of Christ, an a capella church. Then I went to Deliverance Bible Church, a punk rock church. It was a little different.
Tomorrow I leave for Papua New Guinea.
That's a crazy thought.
Here I go.

A feet of a missionary

I just spent the past 3.5 hrs of my life at the feet of a missionary who has been in Papua New Guinea for 30 years, asking him questions about life there from how to be an inside outsider to the animal population to how to walk in the streets of the city.
Also, I got the honor of being giving the traditional Waran greeting. The missionary walked up to me, the foolish one who volunteered to be greeted, and grabbed my head and began to rub his nose all over my face. Of course, the first time this happened some sitting in the circle had a bad view of the event and so it was repeated at a different angle for their enjoyment. I was not informed of the manner in which the greeting was given. Needless to say, I responded better the second time around than the first.
The conversation was delightful and illuminating. I can't wait for tomorrow for yet another opportunity to hear and learn.

PFO-PMI

Tomorrow is the last day of Pioneer Missions Institute and thus the final day of pre-field training. This training began on May 31st. The first week was Pre-field Orentation, a time to have lectures on what we would need to know in order to have a successful ministry on our trips and do some team building. The second week was PMI. PMI is a two part training and you take one each year. The first is a Discovery course, in which PBT gives a tantalizing taster of who it is, the second is Orientation, which is a "Ok, now what?" course of seminars to help guide budding missionaries to have a lucrative ministry. All of the interns are dispersed between the courses. Except for me. I have done both which makes me staff (a.k.a. kind of a big deal). I thought this meant that I would have a relaxed week. This is not so. While I did get to sleep in an hour and a half. I run sound for chapel, go to lunch, go to childcare before classes start again, go to afternoon chapel early to run sound there again, go to dinner, engage in the after dinner activities, return to my room and crash. Only to gain an hour and a half sleep over my roommate who is no silent ninja in the morning. The other interns, who have been coped up and quiet in a room all day, can't imagine why I'm so tired all the time!

Ticks

For a few days, I went up to Orange County, VA with a friend. He gave me a tour of his town (which didn't take very long) and one of the sites we drove by was a haunted house. A family had died there in the 50s and no one had lived there since. The place was overgrown and the house was not visible from the road. My friend merely pointed it out and drove on. But there's something about a haunted house that entices me. I didn't forget about it and the last day I was there, I begged him to take me to see it.
We began to pick our way through the brush that had grown over the drive. We were still in sight of the road and not yet in sight of the house when he began to perform a crazy dance on the path in front of me.
"Ticks!" he shouted, stomping them off his feet and swatting at them.
I took a deep breath and tried not to get irritable. Seriously? I thought. They're just bugs. I'm the city girl. I should be freaking out about bugs, not the country boy who grew up here. But he refused to go on and promised we would another time, when we both had pants and shoes on instead of shorts and flip-flops. We got back to the road (although, I admit, I did snap once or twice for him to get going when he stopped in front of me to wipe at more ticks. (but seriously, if you stop in the brush, more will get on you as you remove the others. Wait till you get to the road!))
When we were on the road, and he had become content that he was clear of ticks, I asked him, "Do I have any on me?"
He said, and I quote, "you're good."
He lied to me.
After this, I went back to his house, packed my car and drove home, taking about 4 hours total. I arrived home at about 11pm and, tired from the drive, promptly changed into some pajamas. This is when I found the first four ticks on my legs. I came to realize why my friend flipped out about the ticks. These were not just bugs. They were bugs that wanted to bury their heads in my flesh and suck my blood until they became gargantuous and then depart, obese on my life blood! I scrambled to remove the bloody little parasites and was relieved when I threw the four in the toilet to meet a watery grave. Relieved until I began to search the rest of my body. 5 more ticks joined their friends in the Whirlpool of Doom and finally I was satisfied that I was tick free. (I did, however, have that creepy crawly feeling for the rest of the night.)
The next morning, I was pleased to recall that that far from lovely incident was in the past and today was a new day. I got in my car. Evidently, during the three hour drive, a number of ticks had crawled off me in my car in a (successful) attempt to evade the Whirlpool of Doom and a (successful) attempt to crawl on my at a later point and dine on my blood.
13 ticks total.
Two lessons from this:
1. It is completely reasonable to freak out when ticks are discovered on self
2. After adrenaline rush from freaking out about ticks on self, friends become blind and fail to see the dozen+ ticks scurrying across your legs.