Goroka, PNG

It's been a week and a half since I got back to Australia, and already I miss PNG. It's a great place and I can see myself going there one day - but that's a long way off, and we'll see. It was great to see Mum and Dad and Caitlin, and to see first hand what they are doing.

my Dad has the coolest office

...and this is his desk. I went flying with Dad a couple of times while I was away. It's a whole different type of flying. Dad says he's never done so much praying about his flying in all his life. Mostly the type of flying he does is flying people in and out of Goroka, some doing church work or going on a Sunday school trip, or flying coffee out of the village to take it to the market to sell. MAF is a vital life-line for the people living in the PNG highlands - the country is so mountainous that any other form of access is almost impossible.

Mum

Mum has to make a lot of things from scratch - not least, bread. She has a bread maker, but even so she is making a loaf at least every two days. She buys most of the vegetables from the open-air market two or three times a week, then goes to the supermarket to get other things, then to the other supermarket because the first one didn't have everything she wanted, and then she ends up making do because no one has what she is looking for.

She's also involved in things during the week. Prison ministry is on every fortnight and she goes with some of the other ladies to that; it is taking a while for her to get to know the locals, but gradually she is making more and more contacts.

and much more...too much to tell

I could go on and on, but I have only so much space. Seeing it all has made such a big difference, and given me a much better idea of what it is that I will be doing should I go to PNG with MAF. I am very grateful for the opportunity - and hopefully next year I will be able to visit Mum and Dad in Telefomin, where they will be moving to (in the middle near the border - more remote, no roads, but really pretty, apparently). They are coming home this December/January for Joel and Carolyn's wedding.