So long neighbours…
We have 2 expat neighbour families here in Telefomin. We returned home just in time to say hello and goodbye to our Aussie neighbours who are heading on their extended Home Assignment for 6 months. We’re going to miss them!
Preparing for New Neighbours
We had a super busy month of May, getting the house next door ready before our new neighbours arrived. We are very blessed to have had so many people come to help us.
The First Neighbours Return!
After 4 months of being the only pilot family, we were thrilled to welcome our Aussie neighbours back to Telefomin last week!
Some of our local friends came out to welcome them with flower necklaces.
Crocodile for dinner?
A lovely friend of ours, Helen in Wewak, on the north coast of PNG, recently sent us an eski (cool box) full of tropical fruit, including Kulau (Young Pineapples, great for drinking), pineapples and avocados. She also included a surprise, some Crocodile Tail fillets.
Helen assured me you cook them just like chicken…
Telefomin Base Christmas Party
We celebrated Christmas as a Telefomin Team with most of the families together. We shared lunch topped off with a big treat of ice cream! As none of our local colleagues have fridges or freezers this was a big novelty. Our Base Manager, Lucy, brought a big box from Mt Hagen and we stored it in the freezer of our empty transit house before cracking it open for the celebration.
Getting the Grass Cut
We are responsible for cutting our own grass and looking after the garden in the MAF transit house next door.
This lovely team came from Ankem Church, just down the road from us, and worked for 3 hours to tidy all the fiddly bits using bush knives. And they didn’t even do it for money!
Mushrooms!!!
Simple pleasures can be a huge blessing!
Our friend, Glenys who is a pilot based in Goroka, kindly arranged to send some locally grown Oyster Mushrooms on the MAF plane to some of us in Mt Hagen (My friend, Mandy is pictured with me). This is only the third time I have seen fresh mushrooms in my 6.5 years in PNG! Usually we just use tinned ones, so this is a lovely treat.
Meeting my old Guard, James!
When I (Shiv) lived on Kum Road in my single days, James was our compound day guard who would also keep the garden tidy and even wash my car on occasion. His smiling face greeted me when the work bus returned to our compound at the end of the day.
When Ryan & I got engaged his wife very sweetly made me a Hagen-style bilum (string Bag) saying “I (heart) PNG” and she made Ryan a Hagen-style wool hat. These gifts are very traditionally part of PNG wedding ceremonies, know as the “Bride Price”, so we were honoured and blessed to receive them.
Since we moved out of Mt Hagen, James left one security company and went to work for another one, so we haven’t seen him much. It was lovely to see his smiling face again!
Making the most!
We have roughly 36 hours left before we check in for our first flight on Friday. In the past couple of days we’ve been saying goodbye (again) and trying to make the most of our final days in Canada.
We had our 4th (!!!) COVID test on Monday morning (we’re still waiting for the results). Shiv visited a Chiropractor to try and help some more with her on-going back pain. We had dinner with some lovely friends, who are also family, and played a final game of Carcassonne with Ryan’s sister. (Shiv won!)
We have asked our Travel Agent to re-confirm all of our flights, just to be sure none have cancelled at the last minute, and unfortunately we are still waiting on our COVID test results.
Please keep praying!!!
Zoom with our MAF PNG Family!
Isn’t technology brilliant!
Our colleagues in PNG had an update from the MAFI CEO, Dave Fyock, and thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we were able to join them along with friends in the UK, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, the USA and even Suriname!
The MAF PNG team really is a global family!
Click on the picture, left, to watch a video of our friend, Nurse Rhema, one of the local health care workers who MAF supports and we fly out of Telefomin.