Diary of My Trip to PNG #3

April 4th (Friday)

We flew up to Mt. Hagen, Wednesday, April 2nd. It is VERY beautiful. The landscape is green with lots of flowers; the air is cool and crisp. It's not humid at all. The sun gets hot during the middle of the day, but it's a little bit chilly other times of the day. We arrived at the airport and I saw a group of people with a sign and I cried. They were all so happy to see me and the two boys (and Win too). The older people cried and even some of the young ones. Tears of joy. We loaded our suitcases into a truck and we rode in a van to Mt. Hagen's shopping area to get a few things. After shopping, we went on about a 11/2-2 hour ride to Win's village. It was so beautiful. The air was so fresh. There were gardens all along the way. We drove on a smooth highway until we reached the turnoff- a dirt road with lots of rocks and ruts. It wasn't too bad in most places, but I had to hold on to the seat or the window so I wouldn't move around too much (no seatbelts, or car seats either).

Charity's mom and dad drove their truck/van for us to go up to the village. We finally got to Win's village and the first group of children saw us, smiled, and squealed with excitement. I was already crying just seeing them. It was so special and is not something that you have probably ever experienced. The people were jumping for joy. They gave us flower leis and had a welcome sign and the walkway was decorated with ferns and flowers. Everyone was lined up to shake my hand and hug me; they were so happy to see me. After going through we were surrounded by the people and some of the leaders spoke, welcoming us. It was raining pretty hard so they had to cut the speeches short. We went up to Bill and Clara's house and got all our things in. It was an overwhelming time and even as I write about it, I cry (even this time, as I type).
Yesterday, we went around and saw Robert and Joseph's (Win's brothers) houses and gardens. Today, we walked to see Wansilin's (Win's sister) gravesite. We went to see Matthew's (Win's brother-in-law) house and his children's homes and gardens. He seems like a very kind, sweet man.

The family said that they were afraid we would be afraid of them, but they feel free now. The boys like to play with them. When they saw me cry, they felt happy to see that I was happy to see them.

Cabbage and greens

Today they made me a shower room. It's made out of the mats that they use for their kunai houses. It's made in a circle with an extra side for the walkway. Bill and Clara have a "kitchen" house with a fire in the middle and benches near the ground all the way around. Their home is very basic; some plastic chairs, trunks (used for storage, tables, or seats), some homemade couches, wood-burning stove, and mattress on the floor. They dug a new outhouse for us. They have two baby pigs up at the kitchen house. Robert keeps one of theirs and some of his own down at his house. Jabin really likes them. The littles ones lay down and want you to scratch them all over when you pet them.

Taking the pigs to the mud swamp

Right now a lot of the young people are down playing volleyball. I am staying in the house with Ian, while he sleeps. Tata (Grandpa) Okie knows who we are (sometimes), so we are happy about that. He likes the boys. They haven't warmed up to him yet, but hopefully the next few days and weeks we'll spend more time with him. We are eating lots of fresh fruits and different greens and potatoes. Everything is very expensive here.