Graceful Pumpkins

Look at that beauty as it hangs on the fence out back.  I don't think it will be quite ready for Thanksgiving pumpkin pie but we can be patient a little longer.
Now as some of you know, I have been trying to get something to grow here for a while, so it is a great thrill to look out at the fence and see not just one but two pumpkins getting fatter!
I have tilled, turned, rock picked, weeded, composted, and mulched.  I have started little seedlings and transplanted and must say my efforts have been mostly in vain.  For you see this pumpkin volunteered it's self out of the compost pit and grew with a fury.  For this pumpkin I did exactly nothing to get it to grow.  Once the flowers started to open I even went out and made sure the male and females had some contact, sad to say though, that fruit just shrivelled up and fell off.  So I gave up and decided since it didn't need my help to get started it maybe didn't need my help to finish.
Isn't that a picture of grace, something I don't deserve and can't even work for to get!
Mel for the Marshes

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

Detour!

On our way home, back to Rumginae, at last.  After waiting in Hagen for several days for a plane to be available to take back, we arrived out at the airport on Saturday morning just waiting on the final go ahead and our bags to be loaded, Jason came in with the all famous MAF words, "there has been a change in plans!" I was getting ready to hear that we would not have the plane after all, but it turned out we needed to do a medivac on our way home.  That meant a longer day, but that is alright, that is why we are here.  Into the plane we all piled with all of our bags loaded and set the heading to Mogulu.  After about an hour flight we touched down in Mogulu.  This is not where the sick patient was, only where Jay would have to leave the boys and I and all of our baggage in order to head into Yehebi.   Yehebi is only just a five minute flight from Mogulu but because it is a shorter strip with a ridge on one side and a cliff on the other Jason has a heavy weight penalty taking off there.  This means we could have all flown in with him but he would have had to leave us there.  Leaving us at Mogulu with the promise to return shortly he took off to pick up the patient

As the boys and I waited we recieved a treat.  In Mogulu there is a couple, the Hoey's, who have been working in PNG for over 40 years and what a testimony they have to share.  They are the ones who invested many many sweaty hours back in the seventy's to build the airstrip in Mogulu.   While they do not live in PNG full time anymore they come up every year still to help out with the church and other projects that need doing.  Currently they are spear heading the building of a new hospital.  Instead of the usual treat that Jay receives when he land in Mogulu; a big glass of ice cold lemonade, biscuits (cookies) and bananas, we were invited up to the house to enjoy some fresh bread and the fixings.  While I did not indulge, (thought it might be wise as I still do not travel to well in these little planes) my boys certainly enjoyed!  Instead I enjoyed the company and listening to Mrs Hoeys stories.  Oh boy! could I learn a lot from her.

We heard the plane on it's way back long before we had enough time to chat, but back down to the plane we headed.  Jay had picked up a sick little girl and her mom and now we needed to quickly reload everything that had been off loaded and get on our way.   Forty five minutes after taking off out of Mogulu we were touching down in Rumginae and home again.

This is the strip in Mogulu, nice and straight and flat and long, after a whole lot of dirt had been moved. MAF is still benefiting from the work invested many years ago. 

Tom and Salome Hoey still looking great with more energy than I feel I have some days, although she says they are starting to slow down a little.

This is the little girl Rosie, who we brought back with us.  From the info the Dr's where given over the radio it sounded like she was struggling with a severe ear infection but upon arriving here they discovered that the infection was actually in her brain.  They had the correct treatment for her here (ever amazed at what our little hospital has available).  However she did not respond well to the treatment, as Dr Daniel said some don't, and I am very sad to say that she did not pull through. 
You can pray with us for her family and for the Dr's who are continually being stretched.
Mel from the Marshes

Mammoth Moth

We thought of you Dea when we saw this one!!  There are some very big winged things here!  Jay called me up to the MAF shed one morning to get a look at this guy.  Amazing how big the moth was, and then it started to fly.  It looked pretty clumsy trying to stay up in the air, but maybe it had just spent the night fighting off bats as it also looked a little tattered.

One of our favorite pass times in the evening is checking out all of the critters that come and congregate on our screen.  You see in the evening as it is getting dark we turn on a light outside, the bug light, so that all of the moths, beetles and other critters are attracted to that light instead of the one in the house.  This means we get all kinds of great bug specimen landing on our screens.  A myriad of moths, big bumbling beetles, swarms of flying ants and critters like praying mantis and stick bugs all come to bask in the glow of the bug light.  This also bringing plenty of geckos to come feed at the twilight smorg, so as we eat our supper we have entertainment watching the geckos trying to catch theirs.  

I have yet to see a gecko big enough to take on the mammoth moth and win, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't try! 

Mel for the Marshes