Episiode 6 - Back to School

#pngretold retelling the events of exactly two weeks ago

This morning I have been helping with the learning technologies branch of CRMF. Today they have been giving computer lessons to pastors who have never used a computer before. We were based in a big church. A large building, but quite sparse on the inside, with plastic school chairs and old wooden tables. At the front however, it had it all! Projector, guitars, even a drum kit! I’m told that this isn’t common place in Papua New Guinean churches! I fought the temptation to jump on stage and do my best John-Lee Bonham impression, and helped to set-up instead. A few of the laptops had various faults on them. Apparently this was due to their “refurbished” status.

Just waiting for a rock concert!

The students came in. Some of them had clearly at least seen a laptop before, whilst others, well I’m not so sure. It was really interesting watching them progress. I was really impressed, having taught my dad from scratch with limited success (if you’re reading this Dad, then I take it back, you have clearly flourished if you’ve managed to find my blog!). They started off with the very basics – how to use the mouse pad and how to double click – actually far more difficult to explain than you would think. I left just after lunch and already by that time they were causing havoc with a word document – cutting, pasting, highlighting, justifying – the whole lot. Not always on purpose, but still. It was a real privilege to help teach these people, to make a direct impact into their lives. It was also really great to talk to them at lunch, to hear their stories and about their lives. I asked them what difference they hoped these lessons were going to make to them. They were all really excited about the change they expected and so grateful for the opportunity to learn. One pastor was excited about no longer having his sermons all over the place, but all in one small location. An administrator was looking forward to the ease in workload it would provide; no longer would he have to hand write each individual church letter, but he could write one generic letter and print off multiple copies! What a change! I will never look at a printed church meeting agenda in the same way again!

Studying hard!

Episode 5 - Clarity

#pngretold - retelling the events of exactly two weeks ago

After I woke up last night from my nap, I sat down, closed my eyes, and talked to God. I told Him all that I was thinking and all that I was worried about. And I felt a peace inside of me. All of it was still there, but it no longer seemed overwhelming. It no longer too much, because this feeling inside was telling me that I wasn’t doing it alone, nor in my own strength. And so with this new found peace, I went next door to Lukas and Mahala’s house for the nicest homemade pizza that I have ever eaten. Jael (their five year old daughter) challenged me to a game of “where’s Noah” (the same as where’s Wally only with, well, Noah). She beat me. Badly. But I do have a sneaky suspicion that she may have read the book before, given her uncanny ability to know where Noah was even before she has turned the page. Over the course of the evening we talked about everything and nothing, and somehow, by the end of it we had dealt with almost everything that I had been worried about. Then this morning over breakfast I met John for the first time, and instead of it being awkward talking to a stranger when only half awake, it was really comfortable, like we had known each other for a long time already (except without knowing anything about each other) and without trying, any worries that had been left remaining were finished off. I should at this point explain that John and Wanson are volunteering with CRMF for a year and I am staying in their house, only they had been on holiday and only got back late last night.

The daily comute

We walked to work and started the day the same way they do every day: with morning devotion. This involves singing worship songs (some of them in Tok Pisin), praying together and reading the bible together. It’s a great way to start the day and a great way to get to know the guys I’ll be working with. By the end of the session I already felt a great heart for the guys and felt like I belonged here.

My new work bench?

I was given a tour of the building and formally met all of the staff – so many names to remember! But they are all really lovely! I was pleasantly surprised by the equipment too, although I did have low expectations… All the equipment you could want is there, it’s all older than me, but that just makes it experienced right? They even have a water sensor in the sink to alert you to when large water bottles have been filled up because it takes so long!

Electronics makes everything better

Mahala took me into Goroka to see the shops and the market. At first glance it just looks like absolute chaos! All these bright colours, and so many people all milling about. Once you brace yourself and step into it however, it all seems to make sense. Each seller only sells one type of produce and they write the price on a piece of cardboard, so you know that they’re not going to rip you off unlike some countries that I’ve been to. I think that I actually prefer it to supermarkets!

The local supermarket

In the afternoon Lukas took me around Goroka to give me a feel for the town. I think he managed to get me into every establishment in the whole of Goroka; the MAF base, the sports centre, the boss’s house, the steak house, the university, and I’m sure many places that I’ve forgotten! Whenever a security guard asked why we wanted to go in, Lukas would just point to me and offer that I was from England, which oddly always seemed to be reason enough!

Soon to be my new home

We went up an old beaten track that not only went up steeply, but that also had huge potholes which seemed bent on throwing us off the side of the hill. Fortunately, Lukas is quite the rally driver! Once at the top, the views of Goroka made it all worthwhile and did a good job of putting everywhere into perspective. Looking back, I can barely believe that I’ve only been here two days! Who knows what the next four will have in store for me!..

Episode 4 – Do not be afraid

#pngretold - retelling the events of exacly two weeks ago

I'm awake! I've had a couple of hours sleep, but still suffering from extreme tiredness. It's five in the evening and almost time for dinner. As I awaken I feel overwhelmed by all of this, like I'm floating in space and unable to hold onto anything firm and solid. I expected there to be a moment in which it would all suddenly hit me and I'd ask myself; “what on earth am I doing here?”. This isn't that moment. I know exactly what I'm doing here, and I am as certain as ever that this is where I am supposed to be. But despite this, everything suddenly feels like it's going to be very hard. I know that it's just because I'm super tired and not thinking straight, but this life all of a sudden feels very intimidating. Every little aspect of life, however small, that I have ever worried about, however briefly, suddenly appears before me like an apparition. And it's good. Don't get me wrong, I'm scared. I know that I don't need to be. I know that it won't last. And I know that this life will be okay. More than okay. Much more than okay. But right now in this moment, I'm scared. These fears now stand before me and stare me in the face. Fears that I have paid little attention to because I knew that they would be dealt with, fears like that of not being able to make close friendships and not being able to fit in. Fears that hadn't even occurred to me until now, fears like having to relearn every aspect of life, however simple, because of the very different culture, or losing my freedom because of safety concerns. And the one fear that I knew would be hard, the fear of living without the one thing I never want to have to live my life without: My family. And so my fears have stepped from the shadows and look me in the eyes. And this is good. It is difficult to defeat an enemy that you cannot see. But now I know the face of my fears, I can do what I need to, to make sure that they are powerless to hurt me. Right now I am scared. And it is good. I will put my trust in God. And I will not be afraid. 

Not the scariest thing in PNG

Episode 3 – Out of the Silent Planet

#pngretold - retelling the events of exactly 2 weeks ago

Bam! I have finally arrived and bam! Sensory overload:- bright vibrant colours, the sounds of shouting and children playing and the smell of, well, hot air, if that's a thing. In his book “out of the silent planet”, C.S.Lewis describes the protagonists first experience of a new planet like this; “He gazed about him, and the very intensity of his desire to take in the new world at a glance defeated itself. He saw nothing but colours – colours that refused to form themselves into things. Moreover he knew nothing yet well enough to see it: you cannot see things till you know roughly what they are”. I think I know how he felt, and all of the time I was acutely aware that it would never appear like this again, that this was the only time I would ever get to see it for the first time. I stood on the runway looking around me, taking it all in. I watched the people milling about outside the airport and suddenly realised that there was far less airport between me and them than there usually would be. Just a gate infact. As I started to wonder where exactly my bags were going to end up, I noticed a table off to one side that was slowly being covered with the luggage of the fifty passengers. 

My winged chariot to Goroka

I found my bags, found Lukas (not too hard with him being the one with the white skin), got into his beat-up MPV and made the short journey to his house wide-eyed all the way. The compound in which Lukas' house resides is guarded by a 6ft corrugated tin fence, with curly barbed-wire perched ontop like a badly fitting toupee. The gate to the compound is operated by remote control. Such elaborate technology seems incongruous when combined with a gate such as this. The appearance was the very odd combination of looking like it was as fortified as Fort Knox whilst appearing to have the structural integrity of a sponge cake soaked in cream. It was actually far sturdier than I expected, although I still suspect that it was meant to deter people from trying than to actually keep them out.

My fortress

I had just enough time to drop off my bags and down a glass of water before Bryan arrived to take us to a women’s conference to pick up some stuff from a CRMF stall there. I was given the choice to stay and catch-up on some sleep, but I was eager to throw myself into Papua New Guinea to see what this country had to offer! So the three of us (plus two of Lukas' children and three of Bryan's) jumped into the car and headed off. The whole world around me was still very new to me and so I was fascinated by everything (whilst trying to play it cool infront of Bryan and Lukas) and tried to take it all in and have my eyes everywhere. I would love to describe what it looks like, but I can't. I don't have the words. I don't even think the English language has the words. Green and bushy with roads that are orange and squidgy doesn't really seem to do it justice somehow!

Standard PNG scenery

Distance seems to have a different meaning out here. Distance takes much longer to cover and places are far more isolated. Lukas asked Bryan if two particular villages were close to each other, to which Bryan replied, “yeah, they're really close. So close that they speak the same language”! Who knew that language was a measure of distance?

We arrived, set-up a picnic and listened to a sermon in Tok Pisin. Fortunitely, Tok Pisin isn't too difficult to understand and I got the gist of what was going on. It's a form of broken English with mostly the same vocabulary, just really strange sentence structure! It was great to see so many people there hungry to hear the word of God, and hungry they must have been to have come from as far away as they did. As we left with our supplies, we saw most of the attendees pile into the backs of pick-up trucks for the journey home. All the way back we also passed travellers who were walking home. Bryan greeted these people with a characteristic call somewhere between “uh-oh” and “yoo-hoo”. For the most part people replied in the same way with smiles on their faces, so I can only assume that this is a friendly greeting!

Listening to the Women's conference from just far away enough to conceal our identity as men...

With their very own unique brand of tenacious nagging, the children managed to convince their dads to stop off by a river so that they could go for a “paddle” (I have no idea where the line between paddling and swimming falls, but I'm pretty sure that it's not usual to get your shoulders
wet when paddling). The kids had a great time much to the amusement (or possibly bemusement) of the locals, whilst I was deliriously trying to work out if this was all real. 

The cooling waters

On the way back the fact that I had only managed 6 hours sleep out of the last 48 finally caught up on me. I had to use all of the strength of will I had to fight to stay awake. A fight which for the most part I won, with my occasional loss being indicated by the tell-tale sign of my head nodding violently forward. This did not go unnoticed by Bryan who insisted that I go straight to bed when we get back. So here I am in bed. Goodnight. See you in a couple of hours!

Episode 2 - All change at Changi

#pngretold - retelling the events of exactly two weeks ago 

Singapore didn't go as planned. I had 13 hours until my next flight, so I planned to go into the city and have a look around. Unfortunately, because my next flight was with a different airline, I had to pick-up my boarding pass from the transfer desk before I could leave the airport, but they wouldn't give me the boarding pass until four hours before my flight, so that put an end to that. I'm certain that it was for the best though as I hadn't slept for 24 hours up to that point and I then managed to get six hours sleep over a few stints. I'm still a little worried about spending the whole day with Lukas today, as I want to make a good first impression, and I'm not sure that I'll be able to do that wearing a brain that can't think straight! 6 hours sleep in 39 up to this point is not what I'm used! It's only seven in the morning, and I have the whole rest of the day to go! 

 

Ready for take off...

Singapore might not have been quite what I had planned, but it has to be said that there can't be many airports in the world, that are better to be stuck in for thirteen hours than Changi. It has near horizontal chairs for sleeping, phone charging points at every table, a swimming pool on the roof; a free cinema, and of course, no airport is complete without it's own butterfly house! Conversely to English butterfly houses, it's the butterflies that are kept outside and the humans that are kept in a climate controlled environment! I had to put my jumper on to go back inside! So I eventually made it out of Singapore and a little under seven hours later into PNG (Port Moresby) for the first time. It's dark at the moment, so I can't see too much. Some of the neighbourhoods looked more like camp-sites as we came in to land, with no street lights, only the house lights dimly glimmering through the trees. The people here are very friendly. As I walked the short distance to the domestic airport, one guy ran over to me in a mild panic asking me where I came from and where I was going with a worried expression on his face as if to say, “you're not supposed to be here!”. I was. And I have even now found my way to the departures lounge to await the next leg.

Episode 1 - Pilot

#pngretold - retelling the events of exactly two weeks ago

Not me! Obviously not me. I'm not the pilot. No. It's just what you call the first episode isn't it? The setting of the scene. Much like this week I am about to spend in PNG, a prelude to what the rest of my time out there will be like. And although I am currently sat on a plane something-thousand feet above somewhere, I am definitely not the pilot. Yes, given my lack of locational awareness, I'm glad about that too. And as I think about this whole crazy adventure, not just this week, but the whole of my time that I will spend in PNG, and hey, while we're at it, why not throw the rest of my life in there too, I can't help thinking how similar it is to my current situation. I'm not in the captains seat steering this sky boat, I'm in the comfy seats looking out of the window watching the candy-floss clouds pass by. Most of the time I have no idea where I am,how I got here, or how I'm going to get to my final destination! Sure I know some of what to expect; at some point I'll be offered fish or chicken for dinner. And regardless of my choice, I'll get a meal that looks just the same, sealed by an impenetrable layer of film which I have no valid means to remove. I will then spend the next fifteen minutes subtly trying to get into it; first by using the sharpest object that I can find (usually a coin), then by biting it, and finally by giving it blood curdling withering looks. When all of this fails, I will eventually look over to my neighbour and remember that there's a little tab in the corner that I always forget about! 

 

I can't even be trusted to pilot this bad boy!

I can even prepare for the journey and bring a book to read, it is after all up to me to make the most of my journey, but there is so much of it that is out of my hands, beyond my experience, skill, and authority. As I look back to how I got here, I can hardly believe that I find myself where I am, and that everything has fallen perfectly into place just as it has. I could never have planned my life so perfectly. And as I look forward to all that I cannot yet see, I realise that I can only begin to imagine what lies ahead of me. But when I start to fear that I am out of my depth and wonder what exactly I have got myself into, I will draw comfort from the aeroplane analogy. For if it was just up to me and Bernoulli to keep this tin can up in the air, then I wouldn't fancy my chances. But the reason that I feel so comfortable travelling 10053ft above the Caspian sea (I found a screen that tells me) is because I trust in the skills and training of the pilot. As I look ahead to the adventure before me, it's still hard to really comprehend. Sure, I've done every bit of research on PNG you could possibly imagine, and on paper totally clued up as to what things will be like, but it's still just a theory, a thought in my mind. It still doesn't quite feel real, like a dream or even a distant memory. But I can look forward to it all with courage and excitement, because I know, that whilst I might not always be the best passenger, God is the best pilot there is!