Chapter 3 Of John & Hilda's Adventure

Dear Family and Friends,

(Sorry to our avid readers for the lateness of this chapter, but with Holidays and our trip we didn’t make our deadline. This weekend we will do better!)

Another busy week has passed….Christmas has come and gone….we have returned home from our trip to Mondomil.

It is a tradition here to go caroling through the wards at the hospital during the Christmas season. A nice way to start the Christmas week. As we concluded our singing, gifts are given to each patient from items that you have sent in boxes. Here we are getting organized just outside of the hospital.

We spent Monday getting ready for Jeffrey and Susan‘s Christmas Eve party. We were to go “Dyna” (a flat bed truck) caroling around the compound at 5:30 PM then back here for snack food and fellowship….we had to cancel due to rain. The rain did not stop our celebration though we continued on with games, fellowship and lots of good food. We had a great time with the missionary family. We topped the evening off with watching Santa Clause 3.

It’s Christmas day! Susan has made her rounds at the hospital and is back home….children are up and ready to open gifts but first a breakfast of sticky buns and Grandpa reading the Christmas story. What a precious time together…. after opening gifts on to preparing Christmas dinner. A young couple the Benedick’s shared it with us. After a time of fellowship and rest we topped the evening off with a Christmas movie.

We took Wednesday to prepare for our trip to Mondomil on Thursday. We were going to spend a few days at the EBC mission guest house…Evangelical Brethren Church….the road is indescribable….the trip is very rough….I prayed the whole way up and down the mountain….through the deep mud holes….over rocks and deep holes….a wash out and that doesn’t even began to describe it. Jeffrey did a superb job of driving!!! One side of the road was straight down. We arrived safely and set up camp.

The house we stayed in was very nice but due to the electric wire being cut and stolen several times and sold the mission decided not to do any more wiring but we were prepared with our crank lanterns and headlamps. When it’s dark in PNG its pitch black. We played domino’s one night till 12:30 AM using our headlamps and lanterns….fun was had by all. For hot water, fire had to be started in a special fire place in the living room….it had coils arranged in the bottom and up through the chimney, when a fire was started it would heat the water. The roar of the river in the valley was heard night and day….it was very peaceful. Hikes, trips to the river, a tour of the mission, games, reading, picture taking, enjoying the scenery, flowers being delivered by little boys were enjoyed by all. One of the things we enjoyed most was looking from our mountain across the valley to the next mountain at the little huts set in the trees and the very neat hill gardens being tended. It’s amazing how they stand upright. Jessica says that sometimes the sides of the mountain are so steep that they must tie a rope around their waist with the other end to the tree above them.
One interesting thing that we had never done before was cook bread on bamboo poles over the fire….it was delicious! To my delight I saw not one cockroach. Then it was time to make that journey back to Kudjip….more praying but made it safely back Sunday afternoon.

Arrived back to find the two boxes that had been sent before we left had arrived along with other mail. Fun was had by opening the boxes. We finished the day off with pizza and a Christmas movie.

Until next week…..
John & Hilda