Village talk

Hello!  Today we were able to go to Goroka, a town about 2 hours away from Ukarumpa.  We went shopping, and we met the Bowers, with whom Dad has been in contact with for a while.  It was a lot of fun!
So, this past week we've been with the Bariai people on the northwest coast of New Britain island.  We left on Thursday morning (Jun 26, It was about a 2 hour helicopter ride out there (which was awesome and included the refueling stop where dad got to pump from the drum after the wind from the helicopter blew the outhouse door open).  We arrived in Bombak (the village that the Gallagher's house is in) around 10 am and landed about 50 feet from their house!  We cleaned the house, got the battery and solar going so we could pump water, set up our mosquito nets and such, and tried to stay cool, because it was quite toasty.  We walked through the jungle for about 10 minutes to reach the river (the villagers usually wash and clean dishes there).  It was nice to sit in the river for a while and cool off.  We went there a couple of times during our stay.  On Friday we stayed at the house, and the dads worked on updating AudiBibles and Sabers (Sabers have the same content as AudiBibles, but are much larger and instead of solar power, they have a hand crank to charge the battery.  Sabers have much older technology than AudiBibles, and usually had batteries that were biting the dust.  Towards the end, we ended up giving AudiBibles to those who had faulty Sabers).  On Saturday, we went on a boat to some of the outer villages (the Barai speaking people are in about 8 villages, all along the coast).  It would have been a 4 hour walk to the village of Siamatai (the picture of the man with the toothbrush necklace was from Siamatai.  Also, they gave us really good kulaus--young coconuts--there), but by boat it was much quicker.  Instead of just parking ourselves at one village for a while, we stopped at a village and told them about the AudiBibles and the opportunity to update their old ones, then we would go to the next village so that they could gather their money and AudiBibles.  On our way back, we would stop at the villages and sell and update the AudiBibles then.  We left around 6 am, and didn't get back to the house until around 2 pm.  We were able to go to three villages that day.  On Sunday we went to church. Mando, the man in the picture with Anessa and I with the white shirt.  He is the minister/bishop/Catholic authoritative figure in that church.  It took us about a half hour to walk to the parish, and we were able to sell a few AudiBibles after church.  On Monday we walked to the west for about 30-45 minutes, and were able to update a lot of Sabers and AudiBibles in Aliado where Brad and Laveryl recieved nice necklaces like the girls already had.  On Tuesday, we did about the same thing, except we went the other direction to Kokopo.  That is where they had the dedication two years ago and the bamboo bridge had not been kept up so we just walked in the mud beside the bridge.  That afternoon, we were able to go to about a 100' waterfall, which was about a 2 hour hike through the jungle, but totally worth it.  It was really cool, literally :)  On Wednesday, we went fishing (but it was raining and windy, so the fish weren't really biting), and also to a little island that we could see from the village.  We walked around it, picking up some shells and having fun.  Side note: Final AudiBible count: 125!  The Gallaghers and the translation committee (men in the villages that helped translate the Bible into their language).  We also updated about 20 Sabers and 30 AudiBibles.  We thank God that so many people are able to hear more of God's Word!  Anyways, on Thursday, we had quite the adventure.  We prepared to leave the village, but there was poor weather surrounding us, so after circling around for a while, our pilot landed, took off again by himself for more fuel, and came back after several hours (kind of confusing), and after that we actually left the Barai people and went to Lae (On a totally unrelated note, Mr. Voss believes he saw pterodactyls on Umboi island, where there have been other pterodactyl sightings.  Unfortunately, the rest of us were not glancing in the right direction and there was some miscommunication.  Not like I'm bitter about not seeing them or anything :).  We weren't able to arrive in Ukarumpa that night, but we overnighted in Lae at the SIL guest house and ate at a really good Chinese restaurant (I tried, unsuccessfully, to use chopsticks.  The waitress took pity and gave us some silverware).  That morning we went to the airport really early and waited for a long time until the weather cleared up enough in Lae for our plane to land.  We ended up arriving in Ukarumpa around noon, and ate a scrumptious moo moo for lunch.  A moo moo is when you dig a hole in the ground and light a fire, and somehow arrange banana leaves, meat, and vegetables so that the food is essentially steam cooked.  It was really good.  That night we celebrated the 4th of July at a person's house and it was probably the most patriotic 4th  I've ever attended.  We sang the national anthem and other American songs, said the pledge of allegiance, and as always, ate good food and lit some fireworks.  It was not the traditional American fireworks though...mostly sparklers and some steel wool.

This was an extremely condensed version, and I apologize for the dullness it implies about our time at the village and such.  It would probably be better, when we get back, to talk to my Dad or I personally, as we would be happy to yak your ears off about our trip.
Karissa :)