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Trip Start May 27, 2007 Previous
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  Alotau, Papua New Guinea
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Hey to one and all!
I hope you all have had an awesome week! I have been so busy this week that I really cannot believe it has only been one week! We have just finished our "village stay" and I really don't know if I will be able to describe everything adequately!

This year it has rained more here than many of the locals remember it doing in years past and I believe them! It didn't rain while we were in the village,( for that I am VERY grateful,) but I really don't know what we would do if it did not rain. It gets VERY humid when it does not rain, but then as soon as it rains it gets cool...so as much as we would like for it  not to rain when we have things to do...it is always appreciated when it cools everything off!

I guess I did post last Friday, but one of the best stories I have had all summer happened after I posted!
We, the girls, kept being told that there were a lot of roaches where we are staying, but we had yet to see any...and for that we were VERY grateful...BUT Friday night....dum dum dum dum (scary theme music J ) We came in after a long day and decided that our room was a disaster and needed to be cleaned since Bethany and Rachel had been sick for the past week. There were ants everywhere, but then again they are everywhere anyway!  Rachel got the roach spray to kill the ants and a few minutes after she sprayed the stuff everywhere (and our room smelled terrible) I saw a roach crawl out from under the bed. Rachel sprayed it and we finished getting ready for bed. I was on the top bunk that night, (we rotate beds since only one of the beds is comfortable,) and I crawled up there and began writing in my journal.
I look over at the window right next to my bed in time to see the biggest roach I have ever seen crawling up the screen!  I don't know how many of you know this about me , but I do not like big roaches!  Little ones..ok fine...but not big ones! Well, needless to say I got down VERY quickly!  Rachel sprayed it when it crawled onto the ceiling and then it fell onto my bed!
After Rachel and Bethany stopped screaming, we were all laughing hysterically at ourselves and the roach disappeared!  I was not about to sleep up there if that thing was going to crawl on me, so we called Logan to come save us from the roach...I still cannot believe that we called him down there!  He came and killed one and then one crawled onto Rachel's hand and she about had a stroke! Well, we didn't find the big one, so Logan went back upstairs and we were doing a few things before we went to bed.  Bethany walked over towards the bunk bed and there was another BIG roach on Rachel's clothes!  So Bethany decided to "sacrifice herself" and kill it.  She sprayed Rachel's clothes in the process of killing the bug and then it too disappeared!  She drug the clothes outside and began searching for the bug. She finally found it and was poking at it with the broom when it crawled inside the broom handle!  In the process of trying to get the bug out by beating the broom on the walkway she bent the handle of the broom and I have the whole thing on video!  It is almost the funniest thing I have ever seen!

Ok, well, we all survived the roaches and I have only seen one dead one since.  On Saturday we, the interns, were all going to go to this "resort area" called "Island Adventures," but Rachel and Bethany woke up on Saturday feeling sick again.  We still wanted to go, so Daniel, Luke, David, Jena and I went out!  It was so much fun!  We drove out there at about 9am and it took us an hour to get there.  The lady that runs the place got there right after we did and we found out that they were only opening the place up for us!  It started raining as soon as we arrived, so the lady opened up the main house and made us all tea and coffee with cookies until the storm passed.  We got to ride out to this uninhabited island on a small glass-bottomed boat and snorkel.  We were out there for about 4-5 hours and while we were there we found this big church building that was very old and very overgrown.  There were huge trees growing on the tops of the walls!
After going back to the mainland, we were able to shower and have more tea (do you see a trend?) and chill while the lady finished up some things.  We were there for about 6 hours and it only cost us about $9 each.  We could have stayed all day for the exact same price!
Sunday I went to Gama church and ate lunch out there because they had their monthly members meeting to talk about church related issues like buying a clock for the church and a women's camp in September.  Monday started our "village stay" and three days of SO much stuff!  Rachel and Bethany stayed at Rabe village.  It was a village hundreds of years ago and then it was a USA base during WWII and now it is a village again.  Daniel and I stayed in the village in which the church building is located and Luke stayed up the road in another village.  On Monday I learned how to plant taro; it's kind of like a potato but it has a weird taste. It is kind of the staple food around here.  I also learned how to sew a sago roof and how to weave a basket out of sago leaves.  We went and saw a "dam" that the soldiers built during WWII.  It is more of a concrete hole in the river that has a huge pipe that sends water to an old base.  That night we ate taro and cooked bananas (they are not the same kind of bananas that you are thinking about).  They had killed a pig for us before we got there so we also had pork!

Tuesday was VERY long, but really great!  We went and saw a war canoe being used to practice for a race that will be held in September.  One of the teenage guys that lives in the village I stayed in is in the canoe race and told us when to be there so I have an awesome video of them paddling! After that we- Luke, Daniel, Wesley and I-, climbed up a mountain...yes...a mountain...to a HUGE waterfall!
We climbed over tons of rocks barefoot because we could not wear shoes since the rocks were so slick.  My feet felt like ground beef after we got back.  I know that it is awesome to climb up that far normally, but I'm pretty sure that the guys could not have made it if they had to deal with a wet skirt like I did.  I am not negating the fact that climbing that much is hard, but add a wet skirt and try climbing over a bunch of huge rocks for an hour there and two hours back!  After we were almost back to Wesley's home, he asked if we wanted to go to his garden or just wait on him.  Well, we, being the crazy people that we are, agreed to go with him.  I really didn't think I was going to make it, but we climbed up another mountain and got up to his garden and helped him pick and EAT cucumbers and ibica greens...they are kind of like turnip greens, but they are the leaves of a type of okra plant!  We finally got back to the village and then Daniel and I went back to our village.  When we got back, the guys showed Daniel how to climb a coconut tree!  It was so funny!  Sima, the dad of the family we stayed with, climbed up the whole tree and chopped down a bunch of young coconuts for us to eat.  When he came back down, he taught Daniel.
If you have never had a young coconut then you are really missing out!  The juice is really good and the meat of a young one is awesome!  It tastes NOTHING like the stuff we have in the USA.  After climbing the trees and eating the coconut, we were shown how to make rice bags out of sago leaves that you can put rice in and cook in water!  Later, after dinner, a guy came over and told us the story of how his people came to be here!  It was really interesting!  Wednesday we learned how to fix a wall, make a trap for a pig....we decided to make a smaller version and try it on the squirrels at Harding...and then it was time to leave!

We are leaving for the Trobriand Islands tomorrow (Friday) morning.  There are soooooo many more details that I could add into this email, but then it would be about 20 pages!  I hope you are all having a great week and I love and miss you all! I will not be back from the Islands until next Saturday, so I will post after that!
 

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