OK, so I know it's been a while since I've posted. I have no good excuse, so I won't try one.
Today we spent the morning out at aviation saying goodbye to friends who are going home on furlough. We are so thankful that we had friends here to greet us when we arrived and to help us get settled here. Now we say goodbye to them for about 6 months. We've send them on their way with extra hugs for friends and family back home.
It is term break right now, so the kids are out of school. They are enjoying the break from school and spend most of their day playing in the yard with their many Papua New Guinean friends.
I have committed to teaching ESL at the primary school next year. So, I will be working four morning a week working with small groups of students who need extra help with their English. This job will stretch me a bit, but I'm excited about the challenge. I'll have about 18 kids to work with from all over the world (PNG, Korea, Germany, Finland, Japan) I'm excited about getting back into teaching. Please pray for our family as we all adjust to Mom going back to work.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
A Birthday party PNG style
Today we celebrated our son's 6th birthday, PNG style.
We had about 10 kids (including our 2) over to celebrate. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and not too bid, 10 seemed to be a good number.
Decorations: I went to our store here to see what they had in the way of decorations. There were several rolls of crepe paper, all green, so I got too. He likes green, this is good. then I went to see if they had any balloons... they had 4. They were a dark silvery color and were printed with I love (insert a heart here) Papua New Guinea. Chad and I laughed a bit about these because usually you have "I love..." or "I (heart)..." We're not used to seeing, "I love (heart) ..." Just a funny translation thing. So that was pretty much the extent of the decorations, green streamers and 4 balloons. It worked, I spent less that 2 kina on it, that is equivalent to less than $1 in American money.
The Cake: I made a chocolate cake (from scratch) with chocolate frosting (also from scratch). Believe it or not we can get boxed cake mix here and sometimes frosting, but making it from scratch is cheaper and (I think) tastier. The question on my mind was how do I decorate this cake? Well, since we just got our cargo and now have a printer, I printed out on a piece of paper "Happy 6th Birthday" cut it out and set it on top of the cake. Then I found, at the store, some colored sprinkles and candles. There you go, simple, but colorful and fun. The kids loved it.
Goodie bags: It was very refreshing to see that the children at this party were perfectly happy with a ziplock bag (which I brought from the States) filled with 3 hershey kisses, 1 caramel candy, 1 lollipop, and one ballon rocket as their treat bag.
The Party agenda: As the guests arrived, we had some sidewalk chalk
(thanks Grandma) and toys out for them to play with. After about 1/2 an hour we began a treasure hunt around the yard. Ultimately the treasure hunt led them to find their goodie bags (hidden in the sandbox). This was great fun. I've never seen a group of kids so well behaved and cooperative as these. They worked together to find and read the clues, waited for one another before moving on the the next clue, etc. After the treasure hunt we served cake and then the kids played around the yard. Chad pulled out his banjo and they sang some songs, played freeze dance, and seemed to have a great time. Simple, yet fun.
The day ended with my son giving me a big thank you for a GREAT party.
We had about 10 kids (including our 2) over to celebrate. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and not too bid, 10 seemed to be a good number.
Decorations: I went to our store here to see what they had in the way of decorations. There were several rolls of crepe paper, all green, so I got too. He likes green, this is good. then I went to see if they had any balloons... they had 4. They were a dark silvery color and were printed with I love (insert a heart here) Papua New Guinea. Chad and I laughed a bit about these because usually you have "I love..." or "I (heart)..." We're not used to seeing, "I love (heart) ..." Just a funny translation thing. So that was pretty much the extent of the decorations, green streamers and 4 balloons. It worked, I spent less that 2 kina on it, that is equivalent to less than $1 in American money.
The Cake: I made a chocolate cake (from scratch) with chocolate frosting (also from scratch). Believe it or not we can get boxed cake mix here and sometimes frosting, but making it from scratch is cheaper and (I think) tastier. The question on my mind was how do I decorate this cake? Well, since we just got our cargo and now have a printer, I printed out on a piece of paper "Happy 6th Birthday" cut it out and set it on top of the cake. Then I found, at the store, some colored sprinkles and candles. There you go, simple, but colorful and fun. The kids loved it.
Goodie bags: It was very refreshing to see that the children at this party were perfectly happy with a ziplock bag (which I brought from the States) filled with 3 hershey kisses, 1 caramel candy, 1 lollipop, and one ballon rocket as their treat bag.
The Party agenda: As the guests arrived, we had some sidewalk chalk
(thanks Grandma) and toys out for them to play with. After about 1/2 an hour we began a treasure hunt around the yard. Ultimately the treasure hunt led them to find their goodie bags (hidden in the sandbox). This was great fun. I've never seen a group of kids so well behaved and cooperative as these. They worked together to find and read the clues, waited for one another before moving on the the next clue, etc. After the treasure hunt we served cake and then the kids played around the yard. Chad pulled out his banjo and they sang some songs, played freeze dance, and seemed to have a great time. Simple, yet fun.
The day ended with my son giving me a big thank you for a GREAT party.
Haus Meri
Yesterday was the first day that our haus meri came and worked for us. Here in PNG it is kind of expected the expatriates will a hire national woman as a haus meri (house help). I waited a while to hire one because I just didn't feel ready, but I finally decided it was time. Yesterday was her first day. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, but it's great to have the help around the house. The housework has always been my job and it feels strange having someone else do it for me, especially when I am home and when I consider the rate of pay that is expected for work such as this. Most American's would be appalled at how little these women are paid. My tendency is to want to pay her more, but I have to respect the economy here and paying her more would upset the balance. So, often we find other ways to supplement their income like throwing in a bag of rice with her pay.
The people of this country are rich by some standards. Most have land and gardens that produce enough to feed their family and sell some at market, but what they often don't have is much cash income. The biggest need for cash comes when their children enter school and school fees must be paid. Some of they ways that we are able to help them with this is by buying their goods at market and by hiring them as house and yard help.
One of the best things about having a haus meri (and yard meris) is that it gives me a relationship with a national. It gives me a window into the PNG culture and a chance to make a wontok (friend). My prayer is that through my relationships with our hired help, we can encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.
The people of this country are rich by some standards. Most have land and gardens that produce enough to feed their family and sell some at market, but what they often don't have is much cash income. The biggest need for cash comes when their children enter school and school fees must be paid. Some of they ways that we are able to help them with this is by buying their goods at market and by hiring them as house and yard help.
One of the best things about having a haus meri (and yard meris) is that it gives me a relationship with a national. It gives me a window into the PNG culture and a chance to make a wontok (friend). My prayer is that through my relationships with our hired help, we can encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.
Monday, April 30, 2007
PukPuk
Lest you think that all of my cooking here has been learning to make familiar dishes with the resources on hand, I wanted to let you know about one of my latest culinary adventures.
Last weekend my family enjoyed a wonderful stir-fry meal with rice, noodles, various veggies, and PukPuk. (PukPuk is the Tok Pisin word for Crocodile tail). It was quite delicious. I wasn't too sure about it myself before cooking it, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised at the flavor.
I guess that goes toward the top of my list of most exotic things I've cooked and eaten. Maybe later on, I'll get more adventurous, but for now I'm feeling proud of this accomplishment.
Last weekend my family enjoyed a wonderful stir-fry meal with rice, noodles, various veggies, and PukPuk. (PukPuk is the Tok Pisin word for Crocodile tail). It was quite delicious. I wasn't too sure about it myself before cooking it, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised at the flavor.
I guess that goes toward the top of my list of most exotic things I've cooked and eaten. Maybe later on, I'll get more adventurous, but for now I'm feeling proud of this accomplishment.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Rambutan
This place is full of foods that I’ve never in my life seen or heard of. Going to market is a great cultural experience. I have enjoyed several new foods since arriving in PNG. Today I tried something called Rambutan. This is possibly the most bizarre fruit I have ever seen or tasted! I thought passion fruit was interesting, this definitely tops that! It is a small oval shaped fruit (smaller than a kiwi, but bigger than a grape) the skin bright red and has what looks like thick black hairs coming out of it. (Sounds appetizing I know!) To eat it, you cut open the skin (thankfully you don’t eat the skin) and inside is what looks like a white eyeball. It’s roughly the texture of a firm grape. You eat the flesh (the white eyeball part) and the spit out the seed that’s in the middle. I’m sure after this description most of you are thinking, why would you even want to eat that? Honestly, I don’t know what inspired me. I was prepared to spit it out and never try one again, but I was quite pleasantly surprised! It was pretty tasty. I fact I think I’ll go pop open another!
Making bread
One of the things I was most nervous about before coming to PNG was baking my own bread. I was given a breadmaker by my aunt, but since our shipment hasn’t arrived yet, I’ve been making it by hand. I’ve come to the conclusion that making bread here in PNG is easier than making bread in the USA. I have had quite a few failed attempts at bread baking in the US. I never can seem to get it to rise well. Surprisingly, here in PNG I’ve had much better success. It may seem like a small victory, but I feel a sense of accomplishment every time my family bites into a sandwich or piece of toast made with my homemade bread.
One thing I have learned, though, is that not all bread products are created equal. After a couple of successful batched of bread, I decided to try my hand at making hamburger buns. Well, I tried… and failed miserably! Who knew that making homemade hamburger buns could be so much harder than baking a loaf of bread? Thankfully, my family is very understanding and puts up with my culinary failures!
One thing I have learned, though, is that not all bread products are created equal. After a couple of successful batched of bread, I decided to try my hand at making hamburger buns. Well, I tried… and failed miserably! Who knew that making homemade hamburger buns could be so much harder than baking a loaf of bread? Thankfully, my family is very understanding and puts up with my culinary failures!
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