Okay so the walk we took last Monday could hardly be classified as “mountain climbing”…not even really as “hiking”. More like…a meandering walk along the equivalent of a logging road that runs along the ridge of a mountain. But it was amazingly beautiful! The steep sides of the mountains moved the trees quickly out of line of site of the valleys below and the other mountains beyond all viewed through light fog! Absolutely stunning in places! At the summit we met up with relatives of the national friend who had walked with us. They lived up there. It seemed you could see forever! But, as the woman pointed out, there was no water up on the mountain. The river we could see far below was their source of water. They used to carry their laundry and buckets down to the river to bathe, wash clothes, and fill containers of water to bring back up to their house on top of the very steep hill! I say “used to” because she explained that her husband had dug out a sort of holding tank for rain water so that now they mostly used that.
Nothing changes your perspective like a different vantage point! From where we stood we see could our houses, and the hills around the center that we always think so “big” and difficult looked flat as a pancake from up there! And seeing the size and steepness of the mountain those families had to climb, made my own little hilltop home with its water tanks very, very convenient!
I also realized that I have begun to think of PNG as what I can see every day from the center. As silly as it sounds, PNG is much bigger than what I see every day! And more beautiful with each new view of it I see! PNG is called “the Land of the Unexpected” and “the Last Frontier”. Both fit it so well! It is truly a beautiful land where you always see something you’ve never seen before! That’s the adventure of living here…who will I meet today? What will I see today that I’ve never seen before? And so the adventure continues!