Saturday, April 21, 2012

Journal cont'

July 14                                                                                                            Over Australia

He did fall asleep, but so did I. Then I woke up. Then I fell asleep. Then I woke up, then I fell asleep, etc. There was a TV for each seat but the only movies I knew were ok were the kid ones. So I watched Tangled. Had fruit and yogurt (or yoghurt, here) and a little raisin muffin. We never get free meals on planes in the states! And it was all pretty good! I <3 Quantas. Except, we were delayed, so our 15 hour flight got in late, and we missed the next one. But we caught one a couple hours later with jet star, who doesn’t serve free meals. So for lunch I had a pepper jack cheese stick and left over Quantas snacks (which were free, by the way). So that’s what’s happening now. We’re headed up to cairns from Melbourne. Then Mrs. Delong will take us to Tree tops, where we will swim, relax, and reassemble ourselves. Security in LA was way worse than here in Australia, by the way. This time tomorrow we will be in PNG!

July 15                                                                                             [In the air between Cairns and PNG]

There are the most beautiful clouds outside my window with the sun just coming up and shining on them. I could just sit and snap pictures the whole way! It looks like a whole other landscape…or sky-scape! We met Mrs. Delong and got our luggage right away once off the flight from Melbourne. Juliette was getting tired. We got our stuff taken to Treetops’ by about 3:30 or so. Then they took us to the grocery to get a few things. We had to wait for Mr. Delong to go get his daughter and take her home then come back for us. They only had one car and we had to work around their schedule because we missed the flight. So it was getting dark by the time we got back. No swim. But there’s supposed to be a nice pool at the hotel in Wewak. We had pineapple, a quarter of a chicken, salad and crackers and brie (an interesting cheese) for dinner and went to bed at 7, which was 2 a.m. to my brain. Oh, and I washed my hair, too. We wouldn’t want to forget THAT gripping detail. We got up at 3:40, which was (I think) 10 a.m. for my brain. Perfect. Juliette is most definitely a morning person. So cute!! Bro. Delong picked us up a little after 4:30 and now we’re on an hour and a half flight with Quantas again. I like these guys. I just ate a little tuna sandwich and passion fruit yogurt with real passion fruit, including seedsJ. I like those crunchy seeds. I’m hoping we’ll cross a clear spot soon so I can see the sun on the ocean.

Ps. I LOVE hearing little kids with accents!! Adorable. J

               July 16                                                                                                            Port Moresby

Ah, here we are in the land of the unexpected. Just, the wrong part of it (see above). Our flight out of POM was cancelled yesterday (we never did find out why…) and rescheduled for five a.m. the next morning. SO here we are at 4:23 in this non-air-conditioned room again. Not that any of the building is. After the announcement of the change of plans, Jeannie got in the eternal customer “service” line and I went over to reclaim our luggage. Luggage from more fortunate flights that had made it into the air we’re still coming in and while I was waiting, a guy who was dressed like an American and had no accent started talking to me. I did a little talking too. He was also on the canceled flight. He said he was raised in the states and is now a missionary (sort of) here. He offered to give us a place to stay but we obviously said we would wait and see what accommodations we would be provided by the airline. While waiting in the line for a couple hours, Juliette attracted (again) attracted the attention of some Japanese guys behind us. Did I mention how many people stop and say hi to us because of Juliette? A lot. I’m still not sure what those guys are doing on PNG but they were also on the cancelled flight. It’s pretty funny to watch how taken these people are with a little blue-eyed, curly-haired white baby. Anyway, let me pause and rewind for a minute. When we first arrived in POM (which is gorgeous from the air) I was  thinking how NOT fun going through customs would be, but we just slipped right through! We called and let everybody know we got there and started looking around for a shuttle to the hotel we wanted to have lunch at but we couldn’t find it. SO a tourist helper guy took us to a closer one and we ate there. Except I didn’t really. My heart was pounding and my heart was all flip-floppy. And it was hot and MUGGY, but the café was nice. The guy came and picked us up on 1. Our flight was supposed to be a 3 and right when we were supposed to board, they announce the cancellation. We ended up getting a voucher to stay at the Crown plaza hotel which is where we originally wanted to got to lunch. We were on a shuttle by 6 p.m. Met an Australian lady on the shuttle who had been to Seattle. We got dinner and went to our room for showers and bed. I had been worried the whole time we were waiting in line and when Amy called to check on us, I almost cried. So much for my test of faith. Fail. :/ When we missed our flight , it was fixed so quickly that I didn’t have time to worry, but standing in line and just waiting and watching other people struggle to get what they needed, I. Was. Scared. And a little cranky…eh, scratch the ‘little’. But the Lord took care of us again. Just like he promised and I learned (hopefully) a lesson. SO that’s that. IF all goes according to plan, we should see Joey and Amy in a couple of hours!
Traveling partners!!

               July 17                                                                                                            Haniak Village

We’re here!!

William says he remembers me and he hopped on my lap right away in the truck. We went to the guest house and I called Mom. Joey cut up a FRESH pineapple and it was sooo good! Then we went to the market. (I just had my second cup of coffee :D My first was with the pineapple and cold cereal. )

My cousin William with his new duds :)

Papaya tree

 We got some supplies and made a couple other stops and by the time we were on the way to their house, I was SUPER sweaty. I REALLY wanted to swim but since the flight was cancelled, we couldn’t. We might go to the beach later. They had a youth night last night, and I was kinda nervous and didn’t really want to but I pretended it was fine and just went. And I got to see Demaris! We played a Bible trivia game and watched a video on how the “Voice of the Martyrs” got started….pretty amazing. And Joey did an improv message. I can understand his Pidgin and most of Amy’s but that’s it. Today (Sunday) Martha did the Bible story in Jr. Church and I got zip of it. And I met Michelle and I really like her, but she and Demaris are going back to school in the morning. Demaris is going to stop in and I’ll give her the earrings.
Demaris!

I’m really warm. Like, REALLY. I was getting dizzy and un…-eaty I guess. So I’m more of a wimp then I thought. Jeannie is doing great with it and Joey sweats buckets all the time. SO ya know what? I’m just going to buck up and put a face on it. I hope…Joey was just talking about how young people are easy to read. Eh.. we’ll see.
PNG Church building

Ps. tonight there were some really awesome testimonies! I didn’t get much of it, but it was explained later. Very neat!
Be Thankful, Sarah
Ps: I added pictures to the last post too!

No comments: