Catering for all the missionaries at NTM Headquarters of PNG...

 The national ladies (Linet, Loli and Efeke) and I had a great time cooking for 200 at the NTM headquarters yearly conference. They have a time of spiritual refreshment for their missionaries. It is great to help out during this time and provide the meals for all the missionaries so they can sit back and enjoy all the guest speakers without having to worry about what is for dinner.

  Here the national ladies are cutting all the lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers and carrots for the salads! It was wonderful to have a working walk-in cooler again! I'm not sure how we would have done this without our "Coolbot"! :)

Making chicken enchilada casserole with Suzanna! I couldn't believe how much sauce I made and I was sure that it was way too much! But we used it all!

Brown bread for 200! I loved using our 40 Q mixer to the max!

Jacob was a huge help!

Utu, Kesi and I

Julie, one of our faithful dishwashers.

Everything is ready and waiting for our departure via truck to our catering site!

Drawing up a diagram of the set up of the food once we arrive at the Center.

Ready to go! We have a warmer that we can strap to the back of the truck that keeps all the hot food hot! It works so well! Till, Richard, Jonas and Julie did a great job helping us transport and serve the food!

Jacob drove us each day and helped out by setting up the dish lines and refilling food too!

Serving the missionaries!

 

Everyone helped out by doing their own dishes after wards! :)

Our Walk-In Cooler works!!!

Our walk-in cooler broke down at the end of our January Interface team... a very sad day. An even sadder day came when we found out the price to get it fixed. But then there was hope... the Coolbot! As you see, it is very empty, but Wednesday is coming... this is the day we will go to town with our big truck and buy enough veggies, fruit and bread to feed 200 people for three meals! Great fun! Jacob is a good sport.... driving me all around, hauling boxes of food, putting up with my strange excitement over food I find that the stores or market hasn't sold in a long time. :)

It is pretty amazing actually. We bought the largest Air conditioner unit we could in town, a split unit. And we had the Coolbot sent to us from the states. We had some expert AC and Electrician guys come out from our NTM Center to rewire and install this new system. Thank you! The Coolbot attaches to the air conditioner and transforms it into a refrigeration unit! It keeps the walk-in at 33-38 degrees F. It is like walking into winter, well ok, I guess it is colder at home in the winter. But I had to wear a pretty heavy coat when I was in there for a long time relabeling all the shelves. :) I am quite excited to cater our Center's conference next week now that the walk-in is up and running.... more pictures of that to come.

Jacob... on to Culture and Language Study...

Jacob loves his 4-wheeler! It is great for work, especially since he has a handy trailer now! But now Jacob is taking a little break from work for the next 1 1/2 months to finish up his language and culture study. This means he goes to the village almost every day to hang out with the people, observe their culture and learn more and more of the pidgin English language.

One of the Papa's in the village considers me a daughter. So Jacob likes to visit him on his trips to the village. His name is Peter and this is his son David, who is building a house. This house will be their sleep house, so they are building it off the ground.

David with his son.

David is showing Jacob the difference between a man's bilem (string bag) and a women's bilem. Bilems are a very important part of the PNG culture. This is a picture of a woman's bilem. But a man's bilem is a different size. It is the same length, but here he is marking the proper width of a man's bilem with his fingers. I am working on making a bilem for Jacob so I hope it is the right size!!

This is a picture of a typical "kuk haus" - cook house. Notice that it is built right on the ground, unlike the "slip haus" - sleep house.

Pigs are very important in the Papua New Guinea culture... they even build special houses for the pigs, "pik haus"... and they cook special sweet potato for their pigs too.

Here is Benjamin working in his garden.

Jacob thought that their method of falling trees was very interesting. They burn the base of the tree which causes the tree to start dying and eventually, it falls down itself.

This is Heva, one of the new Bena believers, and a little kid who likes to hang out with him.

Sometimes I get to go with Jacob to the village to hang out with the ladies. This time I had the privilege of giving a sweatshirt to a Mama in the village. A former co-worker, Nate sent it to her in a package. It was quite the experience!

 

A typical PNG greeting plus a a lot of excitement over her sweatshirt!

Wie, Nate's village mama, very happy that Nate thought of her and sent a sweatshirt and some photos!

A typical view around Interface.

Meanwhile, back in Massachusetts, my dad is battling the snow... I think he is doing a great job keeping it under control. :)

And meanwhile, back in Arizona, my sister, Ruth is walking a half-marathon. Her husband, Jay and two boys, Jack and Zander, along with my mom cheering got to cheer her on! I'm so proud of her.... loosing over 100 lbs in the the last two years!

Relaxing by the Ocean!!

Flying via NTM's C90 plane to Madang for our 10 day break!

It was hot! But it was beautiful by the ocean!

Jacob and the Intern guys enjoyed taking a course to learn how to dive! Actually they thought it was a very hard course but really enjoyed the last day of diving in the ocean! I had fun watching them! We were thankful that we had saved some of our money from our wedding gifts so we could use it for this course and our stay at the hotel!

Ethan, Jacob, Jonas and Richard, ready to learn how to get in the water with their gear on. Jacob will be happy next year when we go to Madang with the new Interns... he won't have the hard work of the dive course, he can just enjoy diving after the guys learn!

Yayoi and Aso, the main instructors teaching Richard, Jacob, Ethan, Till and Jonas. This was a long day in the pool... 9 am - 6 pm!! They were all water logged by the end of the day!

At first I couldn't find them anywhere around to take a picture... and then I saw them...:)

Break time...

We really enjoyed buying fish at this fish market, just outside our hotel every day for lunch!

We were quite surprised to see a Lobster at the fish market, only K5.00. :)

Jonas and Richard enjoying their pizza! They ate the whole thing!!!

There are some crazy looking trees in the Madang area! This is the truck of this tree... and it is only 1/4 of it!!! Every evening we would walk to a local restaurant for some good food. At least usually it was good food. :) I really enjoyed our time relaxing in Madang... reading, napping, second hand shopping, working on my bilem for Jacob, swimming and watching a few movies!

January 2011 Interface team...

 Our Interface students: 

Roger, James and Ellie (back row)

Richard, Judah, Jonas, Christopher and Till (front row)

 Jacob and I at the mumu that the students language helpers made for them.

 Yummy kaukau! (sweet potato)

 After the mumu the students were excited to eat pizza!!

 

Ethan and Jacob grilling some pukpuk (crocodile)

Lena and I are having fun together working in the kitchen cooking for this Interface team. We cook for 10-30 people depending on the day. We are so thankful for the national ladies who do so much to help us!

We are having a great time working with the ladies in the Kitchen. :) This is Kesi and Loli.

 We have fun working together!

Interface staff: Lesley (and Pete), Jessica, Kelsey, Micah (and Josh); Julie; Lena; Dawn (and Rich), Havannah, Hadassah, Jordan and Hannah; Janie; Ethan; Jacob and Beth; Drew, Bobbi, Gracie, Annie and Malachi