Here we are at the end of our first full week in Papua New Guinea, and we seem to be fitting in quite well. For the most part our time was spent getting our bags unpacked and settling into our apartment. Oh, and sweating. Lots and lots of sweating. Jet lag hasn’t been that bad. We stopped in Japan for a few days, and that seems to have helped. But either way you look at it we still spent 27 hours sitting in a plane. Why don’t missionary families get bumped up to business or first?
We have rented a fully furnished apartment, which we are grateful for. While it won’t be featured in Architecture Weekly, its way better than we expected. The front room, which is our kitchen/dining/living room, is long and bright, with windows that open out onto a veranda. We are on the second floor and can catch the occasional breeze off the ocean which is a short walk away. There’s electricity from a generator pretty much all day. In fact, we have all the conveniences we had back in the States. Well, maybe not all the conveniences, but we do have a fridge, a stove with an oven, a washing machine, ceiling fans (Thank you Lord!) and…Tah Dah INDOOR PLUMBING! That’s more than we can say about our first NTM house. I guess the only difference is that our stove runs on propane, and our water, all of it, comes from the roof. We drink, cook, and clean with rain water. Every time it rains, (which has been everyday lately, Forrest Gump rain) the gutters along our roof carry water to a large steel tank next to the house. I don’t know how many gallons it holds, but you could easily sink a small car inside it. From there, the water is pumped back up to a much smaller tank on our roof. Thankfully, this is done with the flip of a switch. I love electricity! Once in the small roof tank, gravity does the rest of the work and so, when you turn a faucet, fill a tub, or flush a toilet, there’s the H2O!
Now while it remains to be debated whether or not the rain falling on New Guinea is cleaner than the water in your $3 bottle, there is no debate as to the cleanliness of my new roof, its gutters, or whatever vile things might currently be taking up residence inside our water tank. So any water that will be passing down our throats goes through a big filter on our kitchen counter. Word to the wise, if you come to visit, keep your mouth closed in the shower.
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