Week 4 begins and we are thriving in Papua New Guinea!

I'll start with the best news first, Elisa has gotten better, thanks to all who prayed for her.  She has only two days of antibiotics for her pneumonia and she will be through.  Unfortunately, one of our classmates has also gotten very sick, and is down in Madang at a local doctor's office. He, too needs your prayers.  This photo was taken of Ellie in the POC clinic just before getting pricked for malaria testing.

The testing was negative...  This photo of Ellie was taken over the weekend... obviously much better!!

This past week included training how to light gas lanterns, gas stoves, and how to start fires.  During the classroom training of "How to light a gas lantern", it caught fire and had to be rushed out of the classroom.  it became a lesson what NOT to do!

Fortunately, all ended well and nobody got hurt.  Our hike last Monday was the longest and hardest to date, we left our little mountain and hiked to a different one.  This time I left my pack and hiking boots behind, opting instead for lightweight Keen sandals and only a water bottle.  This turned out to be a very good decision, less weight = less sweating!!

Last week Thursday night, we left the POC center to walk to our Was-family's house.  This is the family that is responsible for helping us adapt to the PNG culture, and give us a taste of what life is like for them.  While there, we ate dinner, played "hot potato" and taught them how to play Uno.  On the way home, we found a surprise in the middle of the road.  This is why flashlights (torch) are a good idea when traveling at night in PNG...

 

 We cooked outside over the weekend on fires that we started ourselves.  What could be done in the USA in 20 minutes using modern conveniences, takes 1-2 hours here.  We "adopted" a boy here named Galilee who we invite to our outdoor meals when he shows up.

That is a summary of week 3!  More to come...