Easter Weekend
We had a fun almost 4-day Easter weekend in Telefomin. On Thursday afternoon a British MAF family with two young kids, based in Mt Hagen, arrived to do some training with our base staff and enjoy the freedom and safety of walking around our home town for the weekend. We had the pleasure of their company for dinner and it was really lovely to return the favour. This family arrange our fortnightly vegetable delivery for us, so they are a huge blessing!
On Friday, Shiv took them to a local creek for a picnic and so the kids could splash around and make clay models in the dirt, only the dark looming clouds ended our fun and the torrential downpour started when we were just 100m from home! Thankfully we all had umbrellas which are as important here for the sun as for the rain.
On Saturday morning Shiv had fun in the garden, planting seeds for flowers, lettuce, cabbage, asparagus & beetroot. The last lot of seeds she planted on our potting table did not grow, so Shiv bought new seeds in Hagen just 2 weeks ago, in the hopes of growing fresh greens! In the afternoon we had the Bristish visitors and our Dutch neighbours round for a very chocolate-filled afternoon tea. We read the Easter story to the kids and then they did an Easter Egg Hunt around our gardens whilst the grownups ate chocolate-orange steamed pudding! Yum!
Sunday morning was spent celebrating Jesus rising from the dead with the Church in the nearby village of Ankem. They had beautiful flowers on display and a visiting music group and preacher. Shiv was also asked to stand up and share something on behalf of MAF. She read from the Bible, in Tok Pisin, the PNG trade language, Romans 12 v 1-7 and shared about how we are from different countries with different skills, but we all have value and are all a part of the same family through Jesus’ life & death.
On Monday morning we found out that our dear friend, Joyce, had given birth to a healthy baby boy named John-Daning in the early hours (Daning means “Rays of Dawn” in one of the local languages). We then got a call about some Medevacs, so Shiv went and visited Joyce and her tiny little new baby at the hospital in between helping Ryan with the Medevacs. Not quite the restful Monday we were expecting, but a great end to a fun weekend!
On Tuesday morning everyone was back to work, which meant Ryan flew our British visitors back to Mt Hagen, along with our Dutch neighbours who were heading out of PNG on Home Assignment. This left Telefomin feeling very empty and quiet, at least for a few days. We’ve had so many visitors in the past 2 months that we’ve never been without MAF neighbours in Telefomin for long!
Our British visitors posing for the obligatory Guestbook photo!
Picnic by the creek at “Red Corner”.
I enjoy watching things grow, so on Easter Saturday morning I planted, from right to left, 5 varieties of flowers, beetroot, broccoli, asparagus, spinach, coriander, cabbage & lettuce.
Some of the delicious local veg we were gifted by Ankem Church, such a delicious blessing, but it was so much that we shared it with the other Telefomin pilot and some of our local neighbours.
Beautiful flowers, below are some Sugar canes which someone has given as an offering to the Church.
In true Telefomin tradition, it rained on Easter Sunday morning, so we picked up our British visitors so save them a very wet walk.
Our Dutch neighbours came over for our “Last Supper” together before they left Telefomin. Their oldest son has been helping Shiv to train Koda, to get him used to being around kids, they’ve formed a bit of a bond and will really miss each other.
Our dear friend Joyce, with her brand new baby, John-Daning, less than 12 hours old! The flowery Teddy Bear was made my Shiv’s Mum, baby’s first toy!
Easter Egg Hunt around the garden.
Our British visitors & Dutch neighbours in the plane heading to Mt Hagen, leaving us very quiet in Telefomin.
The bananas we were so kindly gifted by Ankem Church were too many for us to eat. We gave away more than half and the rest Shiv cut up and put them in the dehydrator to preserve them. Yum!
Local flowers displayed in the Church.
