Big frog, Huge Heart!

Wow! this frog was pretty cool, certainly the biggest frog that I have ever held and I must say the coolest colour!

Needless to say the day the boys came back in from morning school break with this creature it took us a while to get back on track with our studies.  But that is what it is all about isn't it?  I guess we just switched gears regarding what we were learning about.
 It didn't take the boys long with the aid of the Internet to discover that 'she' was a giant, white lipped tree frog, the biggest species of tree frog.  They also discovered what they would need to feed her and started to thinking about what kind of habitat she would need.
Before long they had a big plastic box filled with all kinds of a frogs favorite things, such as dirt, logs, banana leaves and a water dish.  I found myself once again sewing a nylon screen cover for the top. (thanks Mom for the elastic, I think most of it has been used on the boys various pet homes!)
 While the boys searched online they also discovered that they should not handle her to much and since she had already had her quota of heart failure for one day they reluctantly left her alone.  They feed her some moths off of the screen that evening and brought her into their room for the night should she manage to escape from her cage.
That was the last we heard of her until about 3:00 in the morning when Kaleb came in and asked "Mom can we move her out of our room, she keeps jumping around and thumping an bumping, I can't sleep." And so they learned something new, she was also nocturnal.
A couple of days after catching her the boys noticed that she was beginning to get a sore on her nose, probably from running it into things because her cage was not big enough, and so they made the very tough decision to let her go free as they did not want her to die.
Both of the boys were sad to give her up but Kaleb in particular loves his pets and while he knew what was best had a really hard time letting her go.
All this restored a new determination to build a big cage out on the deck so that when they catch another one it will have a better home.
The boys and I learned many things about this giant frog, (including the fact that it can pee up to a distance of six feet, didn't witness this one!)  but I think the biggest thing that I learned is that my boys have hearts of gold!
Mel for the Marshes

Independence Day

September the 16th is Independence Day here.  PNG was 35 years old this year; and we think Canada is young.  All over the country people took the day off to play games and have fun together.  Rumginae was no exception.  All day people played in the big open field just up the road.  There was basketball, volleyball, and soccer going on all day.  I am not sure how they play so hard out in the blistering sun.  It was neat to see everyone out and having fun playing together.  There were all kinds of things to buy like ice blocks (freezies), sweet scones (kinda like a donut) and all kinds of lollies (candies)  .  There was also very cute children dressed up in traditional gear like this little girl Sylvia.   I think her father took great pride in getting her all dolled up, I'm not so sure she was as keen.  It wasn't long before the bird of paradise, (her head dress) came off her head.
Mel for the Marsh

Dream Team

These are the men and woman that I get to work with every day, they help to make my day so much easier. Let me introduce them to you, I will go from left to right: Agisa is our Programmer, he sets up Matt's and my flights for the week, he is a hard worker and a great friend. Agisa and his wife head up the youth program here and he also is helping with Bible translation work for his village. Nawi is our Traffic Officer, every morning he is getting weather for Matt and I and gets our manifest done up for each of our flights and makes sure that our planes are fueled and loaded, ready to go. Myself in the middle. Uddy is next, he is our Ground Crew. Uddy was one of our agents out in the bush and wanted to work for MAF. He volunteered at our base in Kiunga for several months showing up early everyday, working hard to help out, this did not go unnoticed and is now an employee of MAF. Last but not least is Rose, she is our Base Manager. She is newest addition to our Dream Team here, but is not new to MAF. She has come to us from another base. She too is a hard worker and pleasure to have around. She has really been able to get things ship shape at the Kiunga base. It is a pleasure to work with this team everyday.

Resourceful Women

If you read the last blog entry I mentioned Salome Hoey, she really made an impression on me!  What a women!  She was truly a pioneer here in PNG.  When we stopped in and had a lay over  in Mogulu in her humble kitchen I could have chatted  all afternoon.  As Salome busied herself getting a lunch on the table and pulled a loaf of bread out of the bread maker I asked her where they get their power and how she used to do her baking, when she had all of her children out in the bush.  She explained that now they get their power from a little hydro electric damn when there is enough water flowing in the river and when there is not power she falls back on the wood stove or little gas oven that she used to use.  She then went on to explain how she used to bake her bread.                                                                                                                         

Salome shared that she brought some bread pans with her to PNG back in the 70's but said that they had quickly worn out, so she did what any pioneering women would do, used what was available.  She discovered that aircraft oil cans worked really well for bread tins!  This one had not been used in a while but was pulled out of a trunk where it had been tucked away should it need to be recalled into service.  She said they made great round loaves and the cans never wore out!

Oh, the things we can discover when we think outside the box
(or in this case the tin)!
Mel from the Marshes