the best of Milne Bay

We had the privilege of attending to dedications. It was an experience
we'll never forget. I'll post the pictures in two installments. This first
post is from the Gapapaiwa dedication.

they didn't (but almost).

Tankyu tru, sista bilong mi long dispela naispela kaikai. Mipela amamas cos
bel bilong mipela pulap nogut tru. Tasol, mi sori tru dispela switkai em
pinis nau. Mi tingting yu mas salim sampela moa wantaim Pasta Dave.

Likim yu tumas!

Lisa

little sweetie

This weekend we headed up to Nobnob mountain for Ada's birthday party.
She's one of the cutest girls around. The last time she was over at our
house W & J took her frog hunting, but had no luck. So the night before the
party W & J went frog hunting to find some for Ada to give her as a present.
She was thrilled when we gave them to her believe it or not! Thanks for the
good time and the yummy cake and ice cream! We certainly enjoyed it
(especially Jester).

Meet Brendan.

Brendan is here for a visit! Brendan is our little village brother from
Sarang. He's on school holidays right now and he decided to spend some of
it with us. The boys love having an older brother around. He's got a heart
of gold, the biggest smile, and is an all around joy to have around.
Sometimes I wonder if he gets a little bored staying with us. Our life is
very different from the village life. But he always comes back, so he must
like it! Drew and I taught him how to play 'Blokus', so we've been doing
that in the evenings over a cup of Milo. The day Brendan arrived Jester was
beside himself. He gave Brendan the biggest hug and said, "you are my best
friend." Jesse asked me the other night if Brendan could stay forever. :)
That's not such a bad idea!

Photo 1 & 2: Taken on our trip to Nobnob this weekend - Photo #1: walking
to the top of the hill to see the view. Photo #2: See Madang town way down
there? That's where we live!

Photo 3,4,5&6 - W & J with their big brother Brendan....goofing around
like always.

what's on your ipod?

I thought it might be fun to share what playlists we all have on our ipods.
Here's what's on mine:

1. country!! (featuring: "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy", "Any Man Of Mine"
and LOTS of Toby Keith)

2. let's rock out. (featuring: American Boy, Don't Phunk With My Heart and
much much more.)

3. let's hang out. (featuring: Tracy Chapman, Coldplay, Feist, Sarah
Harmer)

4. sexy dining music. (featuring: Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Holly Cole
Trio.)

5. worship faves. (featuring: Jason Upton, Kelanie Gloeckler, Kim Walker,
Kristene Mueller)

6. cool Dad music. (featuring: Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Dire Straits, Hans
Theessink)

7. music from Chris. (featuring: unknown artist, unknown artist, unknown
artist). Help me out here, buddy!

8. favorite U2 (including: No Line On the Horizon, Vertigo, With or Without
You, Discotheque)

That's about it. So what's on your ipod?

Endless Summer

We can't escape the heat, so we do what it takes to cool off.

My internal clock is waaaaay off. Is it really autumn at home? Send some
of that fall breeze my way. It sounds nice right about now. This morning at
9am the thermometre read 35 degrees celcius. Wowsa.

I think Bill might have inherited the 'wrong name complex' from me. I have
a fear of calling someone by the wrong name, so even if I know the person's
name (or I think I know it) I just won't say it. My strategy is to wait
until I hear someone else use the person's name and then I know for
sure...then I can proceed to use it. This works unless the person who uses
the person's name uses the wrong name (and this has happened to me before).
Then it's just one big mess. I'm all for name tags. Anyways, we had a new
night guard named Reuban and in PNG it's respectful to use 'Papa' or 'Mama'
for those older than you. So we told Bill to call him Papa Reuban. Later
that evening Bill comes into the house and started talking about 'Papa
Rhubarb'. Papa Rhubarb? Come on, Bill. He was redfaced when he realized
his mistake. So I shared my name stategy with Bill, but Bill was skeptical.
I mean, the person he'd be relying on the most to get names right is Jester
and we all know what a disaster that'd be. Bill and I decided that the only
solution indeed would be that everyone has to wear a name tag. It'd make
the world a better place....at least for me and Bill.

Rollkuchen Virgin

I always relied on my mother to satisify my hankering for roll kuchen. Now
I'm leaving on the other side of the world...I don't have my mommsie close
by. So when I kept seeing big, beautiful watermelons at the market and that
hankering for roll kuchen just wouldn't go away I knew I had to take matters
into my own hands. I'm pleased to tell you that I am no longer a roll
kuchen virgin. And ya know? They turned out pretty good. But nothing
beats mom's, ya know?

Madang.

There has been a very, very long pause between this post and the last.  I hope you are still all out there.  You may not be aware that dial-up internet still exists.  Well, it does and that’s my excuse for not updating.  We’re back in the ‘90s as far as computer technology so bear with me.  Another fact that you may not be aware of is that we are now living in Madang, PNG.  We are putting out a newsletter shortly which explains the move, so I won’t elaborate now. 

 

Here’s a Madang listy thingy:

 

1. I start to sweat just by hanging laundry at 8am in the morning.  Sweating is inevitable and you just have to accept it.

2. Living beside the ocean is fun.  If I’m having a bad day, I just look at the ocean and it ain’t so bad anymore.

3. A/C takes on a whole new meaning.

4. Madang is known for it’s flying foxes (bats) and for the Kalibobo Light house which is a WWII memorial.

5. Eating out is always a treat.  Always, always, always.

6. White girls can jump….kinda.  I joined a town basketball league.  It’s rough, tough, and fun.

7. I can now drive on the ‘other side’ in a city.  Scary, eh?

8. Don’t sit under a coconut tree.  It’s very dangerous.

9. Seemingly random people know my name.  It’s kinda weird, but it’s okay at the same time.

10. Madang feels like home already.  We like it, sweat and all.

 

8 Observations

a few observations:

1) I can't lose to cribbage. I'm on a 13 game winning streak right
now. Drew is not happy. I'll keep you posted on that.
2) Tok Pisin continues to infiltrate our English. Jesse says 'kapsait'
instead of 'spill'. William says 'kros' instead of 'mad'. And we all
say 'rubbish' instead of 'garbage'.
3) The saying is true - you don't know what you have until it's gone.
And it's really awesome when that thing (or person) comes back to you.
4) I have this never ending craving for farmer sausage.
5) I'm a professional pickler. I get myself into 'a pickle'
continuously. It's not a fun trait to have.
6) Bill is rockin' that mohawk of his.
7) Packing is easy when you hardly own anything.
8) If you want to get an email, you have to email.
9) I'm married to an awesome guy....he's an awesome daddy. (love ya, Drew)

325

Yesterday I was calling Drew at work and I absentmindedly dialed '325'
before his work number. Winkler is still in my blood, yo.

The other day Drew and I were watching a driving scene in an American TV
show - we both thought for a moment that the guy was driving on the
wrong side of the road. Weird. I felt like I had betrayed Canada for a
minute. Every time I hop into a car I still have to think really hard
which side to get in. Sometimes I want to be the passenger, but I end
up being the driver. I'm curious to know what will happen when I get
home. Hopefully it'll all come back to me. It's just like riding a
bike, right?

we're, like, totally refined

boy will be boys

When it rains it is impossible to keep these boys inside!

Side Kick

We've been waiting for the right time to crack open the package of
3-Cheese Sidekicks that my dear Crystal sent along with my parents.
Tonight was the night!!!
Tonight was the night because:
1)I'm feeling a little under the weather and didn't feel like cooking
2)It was rainy and I didn't feel like cooking
3)I cook ALL THE TIME and I didn't feel like cooking

This was the conversation we had after we ate up all the delicious,
processed noodles.

Lise: "Hey Bill, did you know that these noodles are from Auntie Crystal
in Canada?"
Bill: "Oh! Did she send them on a ship or by airplane?"
Lise: "Via airplane with Nana & Papa"
Bill: "Oh....We need to go back to Canada to get more noodles"
Lise: "Yes, we do"
Bill: "We need to go to Super Store in Canada to get some more."
Lise: "Yes, we do"
Bill: "You should tell Auntie Crystal to save us a package"
Lise: "I will."

Crystal, Please make sure there is a package of 3-Cheese Sidekicks at
SuperStore when we come home. Thanks for the treat! You saved supper.
AND here's a big BIRTHDAY shout out to my FAVORITE gal on the planet.
I'm gonna celebrate hard core in PNG. AND I get to celebrate before
anyone else because today is May 21st on this side of the globe. AND
because I'm Canadian I have the right to celebrate again when it's May
21st in Canada. Party Hardy.

Heck ya!

I will now attempt to capture PNG

I am officially doing photography for a job!!!!!!! My assignment:
capture images that scream 'PNG'....texture, fabric, people...the sky is
the limit. They will be using the photos for brochures and other kind
of media stuff. Cool, eh?

Top 10 Signs Tok Pisin Has Infiltrated Your Speech:

This was posted on the humor board and I had to laugh at myself....I've only been here for 10 months and my English has been officially infiltrated by Tok Pisin! ~Lisa

1. You've started an English sentence with the phrase, "No good you."

2. That was right after the sentence you started with "Suppose."

3. You meet every sad story you hear with "Oh, sorry!" before the
person has even finished speaking.

4. You've used "gone finish" as part of an English sentence.

5. You can't think of a better way to describe your problems than as
"hevis."

6. Your use of "alright", "true", and "yet" is out of proportion with
normal English speech.

7. You've started a petition to have "maski" officially added to the
English language.

8. All your neighbors have signed that petition!

9. You have to work extra hard to keep Australian curse words out of
English conversations. (It's not swearing when it's in Pidgin!)

10. You let your "Yes" be "Yes" and your "No" be "Nogat!"

Snail on a Nail

What's up with all the rhyming lately? I just can't stop. :)

Lae in a Day

Clever rhyme, I know. Actually we were in Lae for 4 days, but the rhyme
just worked better in the singular....

Highlights:

1. Swimming in a pool
2. Buying sour cream
3. Getting out beyond the fence!
4. Seeing Jester get excited about fish & chips
5. Not cooking
6. Finding the boys' caps after thinking they were lost forever
7. Buying a watermelon
8. Drew tearing up those roundabouts!
9. Watching Jester chase down 2 frogs, successfully catch them, and
then throw them up in the air over and over and over and over again. It
just didn't get old.
10. Cable TV

Lowlights:

1. Bill's rash
2. Jester waking up at 2am and wanting me to scratch his legs for an hour
3. Wanting to go to 'Best Buy' and learning that it burned down a year
ago.
4. Culture shock....
5. Potholes bigger than our van

This is good - the pros outweigh the cons. I think we should do it
again sometime.

Just a Friendly Reminder.