The boy who loves to mow!

'Life'

Things have not settled down this week health wise. Caleb came back from his school camp full of his stories of raft making, abseiling, assault courses and bonfires but then spent the weekend on the sofa vomiting and with a fever. Not sure if he had sun stoke or was actually ill. Anyway he had recovered by Monday and was back to school. Then Bethany developed a bacterial skin infection and had her braces put on. She had to see the dentist and the doctor both on the same day!  Her mouth is now full of metal, the braces adding to another metal thing she has in her mouth, a 'quad helix'. She was pretty miserable for a day or so until it all settled down. PTL for antibiotics, the skin infection just melted away before our eyes. Having lived in places where health care is not so readily available I  am so thankful to be able to go to the doctor so easily and get treated. It's not something I will ever take for granted now. Thursday everyone was in school and now today Joshua is off sick. To be fair to him it is his first sick day, so I guess he is allowed. On the up side, Ruben is thrilled to have a sibling at home.

Summer- Cyclone season.

This is a funny country! Now it's summer we spend more time in doors and almost never eat outside. Too many flies  and mossies and too hot. In the winter we eat outside everyday. The weather is oscillating from torrential rain one day to sweltering hot the next. Really all you have to do here to work up a sweat is sit in a room without a/c. 

Fortunately the recent cyclones that hit Australia (category 4 and 5) were north and south of us. 

There was quite a lot of damage in Arnhem Land (to the north) but nobody was hurt. All MAF staff and planes were evacuated to Darwin for the duration of the cyclone.

Now there is a lot of work to clean up the destruction that the cyclone left in its wake. 

Below is a great TESTIMONY of God’s hand of protection upon two Christian communities very close to Galiwinku: (Arnhem land)

Written by NT Christian Schools

Gäwa – All school and community buildings (with the exception of a small demountable) are still standing and the airstrip is clear. What an absolute miracle! The Wind Turbine lost its blades and headgear, so is now just a 30m pole sticking straight up in the air. We have 2 people from the Gäwa team heading up to the community today to do a ground-level assessment of the site. Once buildings have been assessed for any required repairs, the focus will be on clearing the ‘track’ (from Gäwa to Galiwinku) to restore a food/diesel supply route. Community members in Galiwinku are keen to get home to Gäwa. Evacuated staff remain in Darwin this week and are also keen to get back on the ground.

Mäpuru – With so many trees down at Mäpuru and no damage to buildings, there is no question that God’s mighty hand of protection was over that place. We believe the eye of TC Lam actually passed over the top of Mäpuru, as judged by the 30mins of sudden stillness in the early hours of Friday morning. Although there have been no injuries, many residents are still in a state of shock. Essential services have continued to function, as have phones. We are expecting food supplies to land as soon as the airstrip is open. Please continue to pray for Principal, Linda Miller, as she supports the school and the community on the ground at this time.

Photo catch up

A few photos to catch you up. The first two are in Australia the day before we left, the rest in England. I think you can tell by the clothes! Oh and of course the birthday cake!

Catch up!

So we have a lot to catch up on, a few weeks if not months since we last wrote a blog. We spent Christmas in England then had what I would describe as 'not my favourite flight' back to Australia. Ruben had diarrhoea most of the way, but clearly not the type that makes you feel tired and lethargic, the type that makes you want to bounce constantly for hours and hours, (apart from the frequent nappy changes) much to the annoyance of other passengers. Add to that Caleb vomiting in the other seat and the fact that we caught the edge of a typhoon which made the flight quite bumpy, I think you get the picture. We had carefully calculated the number of nappies we thought we might need for the flight, plus a few extra for emergencies. Unfortunately that calculating failed to include frequent bouts of diarrhoea, up to 4 changes an hour! We almost ran out and had to scour Hong Kong airport for more nappies. I finally found a pharmacy that sold a pack of 2 nappies, the only pack in the whole airport! Fortunately we just managed and made it back to Australia.

The first week back everybody apart from Ruben adjusted back to the 10 hour time difference really quickly. Ruben woke at 2 am, 3 am, 3 am, 4 am , wide awake and wanting breakfast. He didn't want to go back to bed either. So I had many a morning watching the Australian dawn break. Thankfully it comes early around 5:30 am and the bright sunshine that follows is very cheering for a weary mum.

We just about sorted out Ruben's sleep when he got sick and then very spotty. We thought it was chicken pox, it may have been chicken pox but he has been vaccinated against it and then Bethany and Caleb also got spotty too. They have had chicken pox so I think it was hand, foot and mouth disease. What followed was a week off school for everyone apart from Josh who remained spot free. He didn't miss out on the fun however, as he had to have his ingrowing toe nails removed. It was encouraging to note that Bethany and Caleb were gutted to be missing school and pleading to go back.

Last week some of our best friends from Tanzania (the Cousleys) arrived to work with MAF in Mareeba. So we had a fun but busy time helping them out and catching up. It was nice to see how the kids pretty much just carried on where they had left off even though there has been a 4 year gap.

It was also Caleb's 10th birthday which he celebrated with a trip to the cinema with his friends followed by a massive water fight and 'Nerf gun war'  (The war was not in the cinema of course, that was back at our house).

So this week Caleb has school camp and next week Bethany gets braces!! Phew! It's hard work keeping all the balls juggling.

PNG

A couple of weeks ago I took trip to PNG. 

It was an odd experience. 

It is only an hour and a half flight from Cairns to Port Moresby, but it is like stepping off the plane into Africa. In fact the whole experience was like being in Africa. It is so strange how it can be so close, yet have such a huge difference in development. 

Moresby was exceedingly hot (much like Cairns), but fortunately I was not staying there - so took another one hour flight upto Mount Hagen - the main MAF base. Where PNG is much like Africa (speaking in very broad terms), it is interesting how one MAF programme is much like another! It felt very familiar to stay in a MAF guesthouse (although they call them 'transit houses') and to be on hospitality (although quite weird to be on the receiving end rather than the hosting end. 

PNG is the biggest MAF programme in the world - flying almost as many hours as all the African programmes combined. However they are going through some transition at the moment, and have had a tough year with a shortage of pilots, which has had a significant impact on their ability to meet the needs they face. Next year they are hoping to increase pilot numbers (although it takes a LONG time for pilots to become fully operational due to the riskiness of the terrain). However they will be facing a significant shortage in engineering staff, as both the existing expat engineers will be leaving. Unless they find a replacement for the Chief Engineer they will be in a very sticky spot 😓

I was fortunate enough to be able to jump on a short flight to Mendi - about half an hour round trip. It was nice to be a bit closer to the action again - if only for a short while! Here are a few piccies

All the guys from the compound I was staying on take a MAF bus to and from the hangar. It is about a

15 minute drive, and gave me ample time to ponder the surroundings. Here are some rambly jottings that resulted...

The scrawny dogs nosing through piles of rubbish at the side of the road
The down at heel and the no heels at all
The worn down mothers with their snotty nosed kids
The roads crumbling at the edges and cavernous potholes waiting to swallow you whole
Th ubiquitous corrugated iron
The endless procession of battered minibuses and shiny 4x4s
The crowds of people massed at the road sides waiting for who knows what
The seamless intermingling of English and localese
The endless roll call of recent deaths

The mess, the dirt, the grime and the life

This is Africa

but wait, it's not...

Jingle Bells Aussie style

Sorry we haven't blogged the last few weeks. Just been busy, the camera broke and really so much of what we do is not that interesting. Daniel is away in PNG, so maybe he will have something interesting to say when he comes back.

We have just a week and a half left of school. Summer arrived in force on Wednesday and I gave in and put on the air con. The humidity is very high, so we are all sweating. We spent Tuesday evening at the end of year presentations at school. It was pretty hard going sitting through two hours of presentations in that heat, even though I was outside. 

They seem to do lots of fun things here at the end of term. Caleb is off to a Japanese restaurant with his Japanese class, and there are trips to the cinema, bowling, the barrier reef and sports things, art things and hiking.

No traditional Christmas meals here, it is all BBQs. The MAF Christmas party is a BBQ with a trip to a water park. This year I think I must have eaten a record number of sausages.

Just so you get the picture, here are the words to the Australian version of Jingle bells:

Dashing through the bush

In a rusty Holden ute

Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It’s summertime and I am in
My singlet, shorts and thongs


CHORUS
OH! Jingle bells
Jingle bells
Jingle all the way!
Christmas in Australia
On a scorching summer’s day
HEY!
Jingle bells
Jingle bells
Christmas-time is beaut
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a rusty Holden ute!


Engine’s getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggie climbs aboard
He is welcome, too
All the family's there
Sitting by the pool
Christmas Day the Aussie way
By the B-B-Que!


Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and Uncle Bruce
Are swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car
And all shoot through
Before the washing-up



Just in case you don't speak Australian, a Holden is a make of car, ute is short for utility vehicle (i.e. pickup).  A kelpie is an Australian sheepdog, an esky is a cool bag, thongs are flip flops, a swaggie is a homeless person, and to shoot through is to leave quickly. I think you can work the rest out!