As I'm writing this, I'm amazed that my time in Papua New Guinea, at least for now, is nearly at its end. I have just five work days left at aviation, as this Friday is a holiday. In ten days I will leave Ukarumpa, and first thing in the morning on the eleventh day from now, I will be leaving returning home. But, I've still got a little more time, so more reflections on the trip and everything will come later. Just a bit of a "wow" at how close I am to the end of my trip.
This week had one work day for me, and I took an hour off during it, to make for a 7 hour work week. Monday I finished working on one particular part of my project working on the rig used for the engine rinses for the King Air and Kodiak. All of us going to Madang took a two-hour lunch break to go to finance and get some cash for our trip, as well as take care of a few other errands. Then Tuesday began our trip.
We were waiting just outside the main entrance to the Centre by 7:05, and had to wait until about 7:45 before the first PMV showed up. We climbed in and headed to Kainantu. Once we got to Kainantu, we got out of the first PMV, and immediately found another one headed for Madang. About 8:45 or so there were enough people in the PMV that we headed to Madang, stopping several times to pick up and drop off various passengers. At one point there were at least 22 of us in the 16 passenger van. I'm told that the trip to Madang by road takes about 5 hours in good weather, but our driver did it in 4 hours and 15 minutes, in heavy rain. Once we got there we went to the SIL Guest House in Madang and checked into our flat, then went into town for lunch and groceries. I had heard about the Flying Foxes, but was amazed when I saw them. There were literally hundreds of these giant day bats flying over Madang. We returned to the guest house, and the other interns and I all headed out to go swimming. We learned that it would have been nice to have had a beach, instead of rock faces made of sharp coral, and it also would have been good to go at a time when the tide wasn't coming in, with strong waves trying to throw us onto the coral. It was fun, though.
Wednesday was spent in Madang, then at a resort near Madang, snorkeling. Craig and Daniel Holtz and I swam out to an island and just did a lot of marveling at God's underwater creation. The schools of tropical fish, the small ones being very unafraid of us, were absolutely beautiful. And the coral, in its different colors and shapes, was quite stunning as well. I learned another important lesson that day, though: be very careful to make sure that you don't step on a sea urchin. I was watching a group of these spiny little critters, and stepped onto a large piece of coral near them. I was very quickly made aware of the presence of another sea urchin in a hole in the coral, as he decided to stick a spine into my toe. Thankfully, it didn't sting me too badly, so it just hurt for awhile. Again, very worth it.
Thursday we went out to Rempi, the village where Daniel Jezowski stayed during his Pacific Orientation Course. Most of the time we were there, Craig and Daniel Holtz and I were snorkeling again. We swam out to one of the islands where Robinson Crusoe was filmed, and just did a lot of snorkeling around there. The water was so clear, and again, I was amazed by God's creation. I am really hoping that our underwater pictures turn out okay. Both at the resort and at Rempi we found bright blue star fish, and at Rempi there were also several fairly large sea cucumbers. Yet again, I learned an important lesson, though: if you're going to be snorkeling about 6 degrees off the Equator, make sure to sunscreen your back. In our rush to leave to catch a PMV that morning, I forgot to sunscreen my back, and ended up with second degree burns over a large portion of it. Yet again a painful lesson, with an experience that was definitely worth it.
Friday we got up, cleaned up the flat, checked out, and went to the airport. We then flew back to Aiyura in P2-SIM, one of the 206's that all of us interns had gotten to work on. As good as the experience of the PMV ride down was, I really liked the 40 minute flight back. I came back to the house, dropped off my stuff, then walked down to the store for groceries. We ended up taking the day easy for the rest of Friday, and Saturday as well. Saturday night was a group movie night, and this morning I went to church at the English service. It was weird to sit there and realize that I only have one more service left here, at least any time in the near future.
Have a great week, and feel free to drop me a line and let me know what's going on in your life.
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