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our walkabout

We went to see 'ukarumpa village' yesterday. It's on the other side of the river. This 'pikinini man' (little boy) stole the show. It's unusual to see them in their traditional dress. That is his great-grandma beside him on the left. Four generations living together in one house!

To see more pictures from Ukarumpa Village visit our picasa site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lisandrewvb

William em e go long school astay.

(William went to school yesterday)

That's the phrase I learned today from Opa. I wrote it down as I heard it, so my spelling won't be accurate. At least I'm trying!

Billy boy went to preschool yesterday for the first time ever. I suddenly realized, "this is a pretty big deal!" and got out the camera. This is him with his 'bilum' and security blanket ready for his big morning. With all the new places and people these days I kinda wish I had a blankie.

This is the beautiful school yard.

Stephie

This is Mama Opa's daughter Stephie. She has the biggest smile and cutest dimples.....such a sweet spirited girl. She came to visit the other day while Opa was working here (along with her brother Bill). The boys had fun having horsie rides.

To fill you all in....Andrew has started work. He is currently organizing the workshop and putting the finishing touches on his new office that he will share with 2 other guys. His supervisor arrived on Friday (he hadn't been here until now), so now it feels like his real job can begin. He's definitely ready to start!

We will be leaving on August 26th for Madang where we will be taking a 3 month course (mandatory). We will be learning Tok Pidgin, learning about the culture, and then living in a village (all alone!) for 5 weeks. I look forward to taking Tok Pidgin so I can communicate better with Opa and my other hausmeri, Nato. They are both determined that I learn! And I'm determined too.

My latest culinary adventures....I successfully made yogurt. My other attempts have failed. I added some strawberries and let me tell you... I was in heaven! I didn't share with anyone...not even with W. That's the food I'm missing the most since we've been here. Andrew misses chips...a lot. The other day he wanted to go home just so he could eat chips.

Today is Andrew's birthday. He is now 31 years old. He always thought once he was 30 he would have his life together and know what he's doing. My question is, when do you ever feel grown up? Here we are - living a world away, raising our two children (trying our best anyways!) and I still feel like I'm a kid myself! Well, maybe Andrew and I will 'have it figured out' by the time we're 40. Life is an adventure. That's for sure.

our web album has been updated!

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

Mama Opa

I met Opa today. She's an old friend and 'hausmeri' of our dear friends who lived in Ukarumpa many years ago. I thank Bikpela God that I found her. She is officially named our 'PNG Grandma'.

almost an old fashioned good time.

We read lots of books.....(so many that Drew almost lost his voice)

We play with blocks.......

We also make our own bread and yogurt and go everywhere on foot since we have no car.

BUT

We watch Bambi on DVD on a laptop computer. Well, Bambi is pretty old fashioned.

R4

We live in 'R4' now. It's quite different from living on Chestnut Bay and even more different than living at the M&M Hotel. There are many things that we like about it....the view for one is fantastic. We also love the dark hardwood floors. I love my kitchen. It's very spacious. The only thing it's lacking is a dishwasher. I'm the new dishwasher. (I know...I'm very spoiled.) The main difference is that we're not surrounded by our loved ones. sniff.

As you can see from the photo Bill & Jester love Ukarumpa livin'. Mud, rocks, bugs.....hissing bugs...they're in their element.

I appreciate that a treat is really a treat around here. A coke is a treat (not so at home), popcorn is a treat (not so at home), pretzels are a treat (not so at home). I like that. I've also discovered the 8th wonder of the world - the pineapples. Juicy, sweet...I've never ever had something that's tasted so wonderful. I'm not exaggerating.

As I said the view from our front window is so beautiful. We can see the horse stables which we've visited a few times now.

Life here is very laid back and very simple. It's a nice change from the ordinary....if only my heartache would subside...

I've finally updated my picasa album...check out some more photos of our new life! http://picasaweb.google.com/lisandrewvb/Ukarumpa

ukarumpa livin'

i'm not even sure where to begin..... we have enjoyed the first few days in ukarumpa. my initial feelings are that our family fits in here and that we will love living here. i really love our house. it is beautiful inside and has a beautiful view of the hills. things are way more 'normal' than i thought it would be as far as food goes. it's true that there is little for convience food, but i can make pretty much anything i could make at home.

this morning i went to the market for the first time. the market is mon, wed, and fri from 6am-8am. i bought some yummy fresh veggies and fruit. we were surprised to find out that they have strawberries year round here. they aren't nearly as good as vanhepp strawberries. if vanhepp strawberries are a 10, png strawberries are about a 6 or 7. i bought 4 litres today for $3.50 canadian. a bit cheaper than in manitoba! i was very ambitous and made some strawberry jam this morning (agatha suderman style). can't wait to have it on my toast in the morning! The market is a neat place - many locals walk for up to 2 hours to set up shop....i wish i could buy from everyone!

ukarumpa runs on a cashless system (except the market). at the store you just shop for your groceries, the lady scans everything and you sign a paper with your account number. you pay at the end of the month. it's kinda nice! the store is about a 10 minute walk from our place...downhill....and of course it takes longer coming home. the nice thing is that the store delivers your groceries for you. it'd be too hard to walk with all your stuff.

the boys are doing great. they are sleeping much better. they are up around 6 - 6:30, but they are also going to bed earlier. it feels normal...not too early. the boys have made friends with the kids beside us. they play together constantly. Julia is 5, emily is 4 (and will be 5 in november just like madi!) and john is almost 2, but he's tiny for his age. jesse is being a bit of a bully with john but i've been very strict with him and discipline him immediately. poor john. Jeanine is the name of our neighbor lady and we have a bit of an understanding....my boys are allowed on their side (and in their house) and vice versa...we just send the kids away when it's time for them to leave....or just correct each other's children if they're doing something wrong. it makes life easier for both of us. this morning she took all the kids on a walk so i had 30 minutes alone. later her kids came over to play inside so she had some free time. Jeanine is very laid back and will be a great friend.

we have a little playground close to our place and we can also see the horse stables from our front windows. it's very picturesque. we went to visit the horses yesterday before supper. the boys loved it. if we want we can join a 'horse club' and help take care of the horses. i kinda think we'll just watch from our window for now.

i miss my dishwasher already. i definitely spend a lot of time washing dishes. life in general takes a bit more time. washing produce properly takes time...doing laundry takes more time....but I don't mind so much. I'm definitely going to look into hiring a 'house meri'. Jeanine has a girl come in once a week for a morning and pays her 9 Kina (about $3) to clean the house and help with anything she wants her to. I think this would be a great idea...it's really inexpensive and will help with my increased work load.

andrew is not sure when he'll be starting work yet. we'll take one day at a time. we're still settling in so it's nice to have him home for that. tomorrow we go to the clinic to get our malaria orientation and also to make sure that we're taking the right stuff.

we've already found some really nice accomodations for anyone wanting to come and visit us. they have some nice apartments for short termers. let us know and we'll hook you up asap!

some of my favorite things so far....fresh squeezed lemonade (this is the drink of choice here), seeing the boys have a great time, seeing andrew begin to live his dream, the smell of the air, the sound of the birds in the morning.....

that's all i can pick my brain for right now. keep in touch! love, Lisa

we're baaaad - we're REEEAL bad.

a little background....this beautiful picture was my Omie's and ever since she died me and my bro have been fighting over it. Petty theft has been involved. There would be an empty nail left were it was hanging in my home after Chris came to visit...and yes, I stole it back a few times. And now me and Drew have pulled off the biggest heist ever. If you want it, come and get it! mwa haha hahaha!!!

We've decided to start up a picasa web album so you can share in our adventures. Please check it out! I've been posting albums on facebook, but I think this is better!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lisandrewvb

green island

We visited Green Island today....a 'must do' in Cairns. The Great Barrier Reef is right off of Green Island (one of the 7 wonders of the world). We only got to see a small part of it by taking a ride on a glass bottom boat....it was pretty incredible. Bill was disappointed that he forgot his fishing rod. A glass bottom boat is even better than a fish finder. Yes, he has his father's blood flowing through those veins of his. We spent a lot of time on the beach while on the island....just chillaxin'.

The good Lord's creation is pretty incredible. I'm so thankful for this experience!

Bill is really taking on the Australian culture....he's using terms such as 'rubbish' (instead of garage) and seems to have a slight aussie accent. He's also got a very precise countdown going of how many more sleeps until PNG. 3 more, Bill!

sorry no images to look at....uploading them is not working right now!

we visited the Cairns Tropical Zoo

Koala's are my new favorite animal. You wouldn't believe how soft they are. They're so cuddly and sleepy and cute. I didn't want to give it back. I figured Jester kinda resembles a koala...he's soft and cuddly and sleepy and cute too. He'll do.

the lagoon

We visited a place called 'the lagoon' today. We stumbled upon it while exploring downtown Cairns. It was right on the beach - it was this large shallow pool with water fountains. Bill & Jester were in their element.....and it was free! We'll definitely go back there before we leave for PNG. We are definitely feeling pretty jet lagged still. The boys were awake from 1am-3:30am last night. We finally got them back to sleep, but we were all awake at 6am. We decided to do an outing today and try and be as normal as possible even if it meant a very tired (and cranky) Bill and Jester. The lagoon helped with that. Tomorrow's big plan: the zoo (if we can figured out the bus system).

A few quotes from Bill:

the wheels on his suitcase had flashing lights on it when he pulled it and one stopped working....he said, "That wheel is a wittle bit wazy."

when we arrived at the lodge in Cairns he asked, "Is this Papua New Guinea?"

he frequently asks, "are Nana & Papa going to be there?" and "Is Madi going to be there?" and "Is Grandma going to be there?"

Today when he was feeling tired he asked, "can we go home to Nana's?"

we made it...

Instead of recapping our journey again I decided to post the email I sent out to our family after we arrived in Cairns:

Hey Everyone!

We arrived safely at the Tree Tops Lodge around 3:30 Monday afternoon (which would be 12:30am Monday your time). Yes, we are extremely exhausted and so happy to be here. Cairns is beautiful…very tropical and humid! Our trip went incredibly smooth. The boys did SO good. We only had one or two moments where things got a little tense with them. Andrew and I also did well. We were pretty relaxed throughout the entire trip.

The theme of our journey here was God's favor and grace. It started in Winnipeg when we checked in our over-weight bags. The lady who checked in the bags just said, "I'll look the other way on this one!" All but one bag was over-weight and we didn't have to pay anything! Our flight from Vancouver to Sydney was about 15 hours long. One flight attendant made a comment to us that she's never seen a family sleep so well on this flight. William & Jesse probably slept about 9 hours….Drew and I pretended to sleep…we maybe got in 2 or 3 hours each.

Arriving in Sydney was very exciting. I was glad to have the long flight over with. When we arrived we had to go through customs. We arrived just moments before a large stampede of people came. We were so thankful for that because we only had one hour to catch our flight. Then came some discouragement…..We collected our 7 over-weight bags (along with 2 children, 2 strollers, and 5 carry-on bags) and had to get on a bus (that was a performance in itself!) to take us to another terminal. The bus driver never announced the stop and nothing was labeled clearly so we got off when everyone else did. After unloading everything (and paying $20 for the ride) we discovered we got off at the wrong place. I had to fight back some tears at this point. We caught the next bus and did it all over again. I'm glad the bus driver didn't charge us! When we finally got to the right place we were running quite late and there was a long line up. When we checked in our bags they told us our flight had been delayed so we would have time to catch it. The man who checked our bags never charged us for having an extra bag (Jesse could have one bag on our air Canada flight, but not with this flight) and then handed us our tickets and said, "enjoy the service in first class! The flight is full and since you were running late you've been bumped up." Drew and I just looked at each other with big smiles (answered prayer!!) – that definitely made up for that crazy bus ride. We didn't even request 1st class! We were even in the 1st row of 1st class! It was incredible! The boys had so much room to play and we had such nice service and all those little extras. Oh, and I almost forgot….since the flight was delayed by and hour they gave everyone on the flight a $15 food voucher. Our little family got $60 to buy ourselves lunch! An added blessing. One last thing….since we were late catching our flight our bags never made it on our flight and arrived in Cairns 2 hours after we did. We were very excited about this because it was much easier in the long run. Lugging around our many bags and kids was almost impossible! Our bags were delivered to our door 2 hours later! We didn't have to lift a finger.

Thanks everyone for praying. It wouldn't have gone as smooth as it did without your prayers (especially those who prayed for 1st class…tee hee).

We are relieved to have that long journey over with, but at the same time God used it to show us how much he cares for us and loves us! The boys had a good 3 hour nap after we arrived. I felt like we were torturing them when we woke them up to eat supper. William was eating his grilled cheese sandwich laying down on the couch half asleep. Our plan is to give them a shower and then put them back to bed. Hopefully they won't be up at 2am!

Love you all, Lisa and Drew, W & J too.


And a little sleep update.....the boys came into our room at 1am...ready to go for the day! yikes.

today

Today is the day that we've been hoping for, planning for, and dreaming about for 2 years. We said many difficult good bye last night and there will be more today. Sleep didn't come easily last night as my mind went through all the faces that I will miss so dearly.

Here are some pictures from our last family shin dig. We treasure these times!

We had a joint birthday party with Auntie Arlene, Nana, and Jesse.

The grease monkey.......the thirsty grease monkey. Jess decided to fix the tractor while we weren't looking. It's his party and he can be greasy if he wants to.

Jess had a very bee-utiful cake. He LOVED it.

Madi & William are the bestest of friends (just look at the adoration in his face). We attempted to say good bye to Madi yesterday, but it was just too sad and we couldn't do it. We will try again today.

Thanks to all our family and friends who took the time to say good bye to us! We will miss you all. Keep us in your prayers as we travel today and tomorrow!

our life in 6 bags.

Bill & Jester had a little r&r time at the cabin with Nana & Papa these past few days while Drew and I have been frantically (okay, that's exaggerating a little) running around doing errands and packing our suitcases. I kinda wish I was in Bill's shoes right now. Having Nana look after my every little need would be pretty sweet right about now. My stomach has never been put through this many butterflies at one time and for this amount of time. My dad always says, "you just need to get those butterflies to fly in formation." Realistically this will only happen when I'm on the airplane...after all the good byes have been said, after all our stuff is packed, after all the loose ends have been tied up. Then perhaps those darn butterflies will get it together.

I'm amazed that practically everything we need for the next 2 years all fits in 6 bags. It helps that Drew is a packing expert. You should see how small he can make a t-shirt by rolling it up. You probably would have trouble believing it. I'll admit my suitcase is the biggest and the fullest....all the more reason to be thankful for Drew's incredible packing skills. Women require more stuff than men.

check out my ruby post.

http://lisadrewbill.blogspot.com/2008/06/r-is-for.html

or just scroll WAY down.....

Heart Ache Continued

My brother sent me a link for John Paul Jackon's 'Coffee Talk' a few weeks ago. He is doing a series on transition, which is totally what we're going through right now. He says there are 3 phases to transition; desire, discipline, and delight. As I read part one on desire I felt the Holy Spirit touching me, encouraging me and comforting me. This article pin-pointed exactly what Drew and I have been going through and experiencing in the last few months. To read it in words was very liberating for me! 'Transition' has been very difficult and even confusing because you're feeling two very opposite emotions at once.

I'd like to share the article with you. I hope it'll encourage anyone else going through transition right now or just give you better understanding of what we're going through right now. I'm looking forward to reading the next two parts on discipline and delight! Here's the link......http://blog.streamsministries.com/2008/06/09/three-phases-of-transition/

As the years have passed in my life and ministry I have gone through several times of “transition” I have noticed three distinct phases to transition, Desire, Discipline, and Delight. I’ll address the first, Desire, below and the other two in the next posts.

DESIRE
The first phase, Desire requires a very intense time of mental and spiritual reorientation. Here you experience one of two types of deep felt emotion, either elation or sorrow, as the reorientation becomes more defined.

Some, at first, experience elation only and with it a false sense of euphoria. I say “false” because at this time you sense the excitement of the future and seldom consider that hardship will eventually be mixed with destiny. You just want to get there - now - and like a bad penny, you cast any flickering thought that there might be a coming cost to your newfound destiny aside.

Some will experience sorrow because you are being directed to leave a place you have come to love. Others will have sorrow with the leaving of family. This might mean cutting the strings they have to you and/or you have to them. That cutting is often emotional and painful, but you cannot become a leader if strings of control are attached to you. In addition, you cannot follow the wind of the Holy Spirit if you are anchored to your friends or your family.

At this juncture in transition, it is as if God is taking you away from the desire of your heart and that departure often creates a spiritual quandary. So the Lord begins the process of making you uncomfortable where you are. Some might say, “He stirs the nest.”


Sometimes one feels both sets of emotions within minutes of each other as your desire for the location, job, or career to another location, job, or career.

One thing you can count on - when God orders you to go through a time of transition, regardless which emotion you have, God is bound to make you restless and uncomfortable to insure you become willing to leave where you are so you can become what He has created you to be. He is simply waiting for our “yes” to His direction and for our desire to become His desire. It is here that He gives us the “desires of our heart.”

Blessings,John Paul Jackson

On that note here are some more of our dear family that we will miss.

The Aunties:

Auntie AJ


Auntie Crystal


Auntie Julie

Auntie Arlene

The Uncles:

Farmer Mike

Uncle Chris

Uncle Joel

The Grandparents:

Papa

Grandma

Nana

backyardigan fun

I had little H all to myself yesterday....well for part of the day and then I had to share him with Bill and Jester. I think H's favorite part was the gum and freezies I gave him (sorry AJ). My favorite part of the day was savoring every minute with little H.

It's hard to tell who is who since they're all wearing identical hats. H is the small guy, Jester is the chubby guy, and Bill is the tallest guy.

H enjoying freezie number 2.

Bill cooling off.

You could tell who is who, but the tallest guy is sitting down and the chubby guy looks all blurred and the little guy looks the biggest because he's closest to the camera.

Jester was in his happy place.

Bill.....wuzzz up.

The Heart Ache Begins.

These are all the wee ones we're going to miss....a lot.

Gideon will be 2 years old when we see him next.

Ruby will be 2 1/2 years old when we see her next.

Hezekiah will be 4 years old when we see him next.

Madi will be 6 1/2 years oldwhen we see her next.

Isaiah will be 4 years old when we see him next.

Noah & Ari will be 4 years old when we see them next.

Justin will be 5 1/2 years old when we see him next

Samara will be 3 1/2 years old when we see her next.

2 years doesn't sound like a long time, but when you measure it by how much growing a child does it suddenly seems like a long time.....like a very long time. I'm sad we're going to miss those growing years, but look forward to seeing how you all change and grow while we're away.

to be continued......