she left

Despite the popular vote that she would stay - she didn't. Auntie Arlene left on Monday. I keep wanting to set the table for 5....



We ended off our time with Arlene in Madang. Drew and I attended a conference with our organization for the first 5 days (all expense paid at the hotel!!!). Arlene watched the boys for us while we were in meetings. After the conference was over and the free stay at the hotel was over we moved to the 'guest house' flat for a few nights (I can't mention the names of our organization on my blog). Arlene got to experience a night in Sarang (our POC village). Her and I slept at our wasfamili's house and Andrew went back to Madang with the boys and picked us up the next day. It's about a 45min drive from Madang. We had a great time catching up with our dear wasfamili. Arlene was presented with a beautiful Madang bilum which was a pretty big deal! They treated her like a guest of honor - if she's our sister than she's family to them too.



One memorable moment.....we took a boat taxi to a secluded island for a morning. I had the unforgettable experience of getting stung by a jellyfish. It was really scary because we were pretty isolated and I was in a whole lot of pain. To make a long story short we found a boat ride back to Madang and I went right to the doctor where I got two injections - one penicillan shot and one anti-histamine shot. I would say that the pain was different than childbirth, but definitately on the same scale. I hope that never happens to me again!



Check out these pics from our time in Madang:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lisandrewvb/Madang0109