Second Term Me

We made it!!

Almost.

We have been on six planes and seven airports and made it all the way to Goroka, PNG.

Our six hour layover in LAX that ended at 2 am our time.

Getting ready to board our 6th plane in 5 days.

It was a loooonnnnngggg but very good trip. We even stopped in Australia to pet kangaroos and hold koala bears.

We spent a couple days buying supplies and reconnecting with missionary friends here on the base. We also spent some time reconnecting with a few enemies.

Ants

Everything was going really well. The flights were smooth with no delays, we got all our luggage, we even got an extra flight to bring in food supplies so we would have to starve our first 3 weeks in the tribe. And on that flight, a family with two women and five children that have been marked as witches and on the run for years, were safely evacuated to another tribe.

Then April 1st. Came and we just had to have our own little April Fools joke from Papua New Guinea herself. The whole family was loaded up and buckled in the little mission plane, and just as the pilot was climbing in, our flight coordinator came out to tell us that our co-oworker radioed in saying that our village was completely clouded over and we couldn't come in.

So we unloaded and waited for a better report.

It never came. From 6:45am to 12pm we waited. The weather only got worse in Hewa. It started raining and never stopped. So went back to the guesthouse to try again the next day. (Today. In just a few short hours after I post this)

Yes, we were a little disappointed, but very thankful that we got the news BEFORE we got in the air. And I have to say, that this is a great example of what a furlough can do for a person.

First term me would have been all upset and stressed out about it, but second term me just laughed felt like PNG was just welcoming us back saying, "I haven't changed at all while you were gone."

First term me would have gone down to tribal supply and pulled some clean clothes out of storage grumbling the whole time, but second term me just dug the dirty clothes from the previous day out of the bag we were carrying and made everyone put those back on. (All the girls- including me- only had one skirt and those had to be worn into Hewa, so I couldn't risk someone spilling a huge cup of milk or something on them- sorry to everyone here for our smell yesterday). 

First term me would have thought about all the things that could go wrong the next day if we didn't fly in and what we could do about it, but second term me was just really glad that everything was already done and now I am just "forced" to sit here with nothing to do. (please imagine my sheepish grin here. I don't take selfies because I can't figure out how NOT to have a double chin in them, so you have to use your imagination.)

Also, first term me would have individually crushed everyone of those ants with my fingers because it's personal.  But second term me just took a picture and let them do their thing.

So, there you go. A little break from the crazy can do a person A LOT of good.

We're going to try to fly into the tribe again today, and if email is working, hopefully my next post will come to you FROM HEWA!!!