Up High

I was told that the mountain range here rises faster to 13,000 feet from sea level faster than any other place in the world. It was amazing to see how high and rugged the jungle peaks were. At the top I was surprised to see yet another village on a small sierra plateau. Just a few hundred feet from the houses the cliff drops away thousands of feet in a massive landslide that looked relatively recent. It would be amazing to meet these people and learn how they have managed to live in a place like that. It would be the same as living near the top of Mt. Rainier, only at 45 degrees and now snow. We made it back to Ukarumpa and I spent the rest of my day in the hangar, but it sure was nice to get out and fly.

Transfer

The people were happy to see us but we did not have much time to mingle. We quickly unloaded the cargo we had brought and loaded up the translators things into the plane. We had brought some petrol for the village and transferred that from our containers to theirs. In the meantime the people were happy to take refuge from the heat in the shade of the wing. After the translators said their goodbyes, we were on our way.

Long Island

The airstrip was right along the shore. The island strips are usually more straight forward with few obstacles but the wind was very gusty and unpredictable as we made our way to the ground. Gavin flew well and got us down safely.

The coast

After we crossed the mountains we descended quickly and made our way out over the ocean toward Long Island. The Island was covered in clouds except the coast were the airstrip ways. In the middle of the island is a large lake. If you look just north west of the island New Britain you might be able to find it on a map. It is the only large round island with a large round lake in the middle of it.

Green

The mountains on the far side of the valley are very rugged and rise quickly above 13,000 feet. We climbed high to cross them and looking down on them reminded me of the color of the wicked witch of the west. I saw many small villages scattered all through the mountains down in the valleys and along the ridges. Many of them distinct languages and cultures just a few miles apart.

Into Ramu

The Ramu valley looked even more spectacular from the sky. It stretches from Lae to the East, up to the Sepik in the North West. The sun was just rising and all the waterfalls and rivers flowing into the valley glistened and shown bright white against the lime green of the grass and foliage on the hills.

Where are we?

After the fog lifted we took off and headed east towards Ramu valley. It took 10 minutes by air instead of the two hours it took us by car to reach the the valley. Most of my time here has been spent in the shop maintaining aircraft and my flying has been mostly as a passenger. I was excited to be able to ride along and see what a day as a missionary pilot is like. It was a relatively simple flight out to an island to pick up two translators and bring them back to Ukarumpa. There were no incidents and we were able to sit back and enjoy the beautiful scenery. This is Gavin doing his best where are we pose.

Back to work

I enjoyed another successful people slalom to work today. It proved to be a much better day than yesterday. Yesterday I fought a losing battle against my malaria medication that left me nauseous and out of commission pretty much the whole day. Today I got to go for a flight with Gavin out to Long Island.

F.Y.I.

I have posted a lot recently and I wanted to point out the Archives column on the right in case you have not noticed it. You can browse the different posts by month that don't fit onto this main screen. -->

DHL

At work that last few days I have been working in the Parts room as a Systems Engineer. Or at least that's what I like to call it. I have been writing a lot of little programs on the computer and working with the store guys to streamline the parts management. It has been a blast. I have also become an honorary DHL employee. They run a DHL distribution center out of the hangar which has proved very advantageous to getting shipments in and out of the country more reliably. While it has its own paperwork and logistic headaches, it makes keeping parts for the fleet much more viable. Mr. O and I have a blast working together to keep things running smooth.

Getting to work

Most of the time I take the van to work. Today I got to travel in style with Dan. The road to work is a bumpy mile stretch usually filled with pedestrians. It is sort of a horizontal pedestrian slalom course.

On Top

We made it over the pass and the sun poked through the clouds filling up Ramu valley below us. It was amazing to see the road snaking down the hill to the valley floor. We were very grateful to have made the trip and to have done so safely.

Pot Hole

This was worth a picture. I tried to get Craig to stop next to it but the rest of the passengers would not hear of it. He pulled a little ahead as a compromise and let me get a picture. Down the hole is a cliff dropping away into jungle 1000 feet or so below. You can better appreciate the drop from the next picture.

Ramu

The Ramu valley was spectacular. If you look at a map of PNG, it is the large valley on the north side of the country between the mountains on the coast and the highlands in the middle. Much of the valley is filling up with palm plantations. It was a beautiful place.

Car Wash

We thought about stopping at this car wash but it looked a little busy. You wash cars just like everything else here. Take it down to the river and scrub it.

Buai Market

On the way home we stopped back by the Campbell's POC village to see their market. It consisted mostly of Buai or Beetle Nut. If it was not a narcotic and rotted your teeth, I am sure that it would be really great. Unfortunately, many people here are addicted to it.

Sun - Rain - Sun - Rain

...and then it rained. It does that a lot around here I have noticed. Fortunately, it always clears up again too. Bob and I swam out around the dock in the pouring rain. It was a blast and we didn't even have to shower off the salt water when we got out.

Monkeys

These kids were having a blast climbing high into this tree and flinging themselves out into the water. It looked like fun until this kid went in sideways. I didn't envy the landing.

Snorkeling

Well, you can't go to the ocean in the south pacific without a swim. The water was amazing. Under that dock is a Cessna 210 and it made a great artificial reef. All around it was all sorts of amazing coral. We even found Nemo.

Bats

There were lots of them. I wish I had the time to go out and take lots of pictures of them. All day they would hang from the tops of the trees and fan themselves to keep cool. At dusk and dawn they would literally fill the sky as they set out for the night to find fruit to eat. Many of them had 6 foot wing spans and could even soar for short periods of time. They were spectacular to watch.

Market

In town we visited the market and explored all the fish, artifacts and produce. It was a very large market and it was fun to see all that the people where selling.

Duke

We were greeted at the guest house by Duke. He was a really friendly dog, which is not a desirable characteristic when it comes to guarding. Just two days before we arrived, the managers of the guest house where held up a knife point in town. We were pretty cautious when we went into town.

Madang

Eventually we arrived in Madang. We stayed at the SIL guest house which is near the water and just a little out of town. Madang has a rich history and if you have time for a good read, check out The Coast Watchers. It is about a few GI's in WWII who where trapped here under Japanese occupation warned the allies of enemy attacks. There is a memorial lighthouse dedicated to those men in the center of town.

Big Fern

I love the plants here. It reminds me of the tropical exhibits that my mom and I would visit at the flower and garden show. I am bummed that I am going to miss it this year, but it is pretty neat to see the real thing. Those ferns are big.

Red Vines

On the way down we stopped at the village where the Campbell's recently did their POC (Pacific Oreintation Course). They spent 5 weeks living in this small village. All the people there were very happy to see them. Many of the kids had enjoyed plenty of green vines out in the jungle, but they were a little hesitant to try Stephanies red vines. After a few licks I think they started to like them. :)

Aids

Along the way I saw this sign. Aids is becoming a huge problem in this country. It is spreading very rapidly and some are predicting that in 10 years more than half the country will be infected. SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) is working hard to provide literature to educate the people how to protect themselves. SIL has the unique opportunity to be able to translate small informational books into many languages and make them available to the people. This not only fights aids, but encourages literacy and provides one more opportunity to get God's word into the peoples hands. If you want to know more about aids or what is being done to fight it here let me know and I can send you stats and some of the little books in english.

Ford

We got a real kick out of the road. To be fair it is not all gravel and potholes, well, most of it is. However, here is a nice paved section with a river flowing over it. Now might also be a good time to point out that this is the main road in Papua New Guinea connecting two of the biggest cities in the country.

Freeway (I-5 if you like)

This last weekend we had the priveledge of seeing more of the country with the Campbells and the Boogaards. It was also a mini vacation of sorts to celebrate our time here in PNG being half over. I (Ian) also managed to be sick for most of it. Nevertheless, we had a blast and really enjoyed seeing the north coast of the country, meeting people, and taking pictures. Here are a few.