Saturday, August 18, 2012

Last days at Home in PNG...

 After the Interface students headed home we were packing like crazy to get everything done in order to leave 12 days later. I was also excited that I was able to finish the bilem that I had been working on for the last 1 1/2 years! I made it for Jacob who was looking forward to using it in PNG. But unfortunately it isn't proper for men to carry bilems in North America so I guess I'll have to carry around while we are home in North America. :)

We had to say goodbye to our cat, Socks. But we know she is well taken care of by our co-workers and will keep all the mice and rats away from our house while we are gone. :) --We also miss our co-workers in PNG too. :)

A quick stop in Hong Kong...

On our way home to North America we stopped in Hong Kong for 2 days. We had some good times with some long time friends and got to see a bit of Hong Kong as well. Definitely a completely different culture then Papua New Guinea!

 We even got to see the backyard of Hong Kong which was beautiful!

 But most of Hong Kong looks a bit like this...

 There is so much smog that some people where masks in the city.

 We took the Peak Tram down the mountain which was built so that more people would move to this hard to reach area of Hong Kong.



 Jacob was amazed that all the scaffolding was made out of bamboo. And some people used ropes to climb up and down, but some people didn't bother. They say that the bamboo is more flexible in the wind storms or typhoons. It seems to work well for them. But Jacob thinks he will stick to normal scaffolding. :)

 Lots of fresh fish for sale!

 We took this old wooden boat around the coast to see the sights of Hong Kong from the ocean.

 A Chinese menu.... quite confusing to us! We were thankful that our friends ordered for us!


A visit in Detmold, Germany...

 We also spend 10 days in Germany on our way home to North America. First we stopped in Detmold and visited a lot of German Intern Alumni. It was so good to see everyone again and great to introduce Germany to Jacob, his first time in the country!

 We had lots of amazing Germany food, pork schnitzel, German bread, cheeses and lots of fresh fruit. We stayed with Will's parents. Willi on the right and his wife Helene is on the left. We also ate with Markus in the back and his girlfriend, Laura. Good times!


 We noticed that everyone had a cell phone or ipad and no one really talked to the people around them, so strange!

 Willi and Helene showed us their apartment not far away and we were amazed that they could leave their shoes outside their door and no one would steal them. :)

Willi and Helene in their home.

 We were also able to see Ben who just arrived back from Central Asia! Willi, Markus and Ben arrived in PNG together when Jacob was there in 2005!

 Of course you can't get together with Germans without playing Settlers of Catan...

 It was fun to meet Edgard and Thomas who are headed over to PNG for a year in Sept!

 Willi, Edgard, Markus, Thomas, Jacob and I

 And you can't go to Detmold without seeing Herman the German. :)

 Herman the German held off the Romans when they attacked Germany a long time ago.


 Thomas, Edgard, Markus and Jacob


 We also got to see Andy again and meet his wife Marina. And we got to meet Franz who works with NTM Germany, sending all the German interns our way. Willi's sister, LeAnna and her husband Dennis joined us as well!

We always enjoyed traveling from place to place by train, except of course for the one time we got on the wrong train. :)

Heading out to Dessau in East Germany.

A quick visit to the east of Germany...

 We headed to Dessau to meet Matthias, another Intern headed to PNG in September, spend time with his family and answer questions. They didn't live too far from Wittenberg where Martin Luther spent most of his life. So we got to see the door where Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis.




 We visited the University where Martin Luther worked.

 Being in the east of Germany was quite different because not long ago it was a Communist area. When it became open all the buildings looked like the building on the left because there was no money to renovate. But after the years most things have been restored and look new like the building on the right.

 And saw the church where Martin Luther preached. It was very sad to learn that the place where Martin Luther lived now is full of atheists, not many believers live there and there aren't many people interested in the things of God.


 We also saw the Castle of Fredrick the Wise who helped Martin Luther during his life.

 Back in Dessau we stayed with Matthias and his family for the night. And Matthias showed Jacob his pet snake.
Matthias playing around with his pet snake. He also has pet spiders as well... we think that Matthias will love being in Papua New Guinea with the many different kinds of bugs and things.

Bielefeld, Germany...

 While we were in Detmold, Daniel, another Intern Alumni, stopped by and took us to his home town of Bielefeld to see a castle. You can't visit Germany without seeing a castle!

 There was an amazing view from the top!



 The tour of the inside was very interesting, hearing about how they used to live in the middle ages. So hard to comprehend!

 Daniel and Jacob at the top of the castle.


About Me

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Enjoying life where God has me... currently in Papua New Guinea cooking and loving life with my husband, Jacob, my son, Jonathan and my daughter, Naomi.

Nova Scotia

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Amazing view from our back porch!