Thursday, October 25, 2007

PNG Missionary Stories







A few days ago I invited the Halls for dinner tonight and decided to have a few couples over afterwards for dessert. Three couples had accepted the invitation and so preparation for tonight was my assignment for today.

My day was spent mostly in the kitchen....after getting the spaghetti sauce put together I baked cookies for tonight (turned out to be a good thing!) Then I made French Bread..........it ended up looking pale and pitiful but actually tasted fine.....then the day's disaster was the Butter Bundt Cake I baked. I had gotten on the internet to find a cake recipe that included the ingredients I had in the house. I have lots of excuses such as altitude, oven isn't calibrated, the pan wasn't really non stick! Anyway when I turned it over to take it out of the pan it totally fell apart. CRUMBS.........1/2 in and 1/2 out of the pan. So I cut what was left in the pan and ended up with about 10 pieces of cake. I believe everyone that wanted any had a piece. No one raved but were gracious and said it was good.........these women have lived in the bush and I'm sure have experienced lots worse! (See picture of group.) Jan took the pic and Patrick had already taken the kids home. It was a very enjoyable evening with lots of stories of their experiences through the years! We certainly have a new admiration and respect for their life and work.

Duff spent his day fixing used (donated) computers. I think he is loving it! Although everything moves slowly! The piece of equipment we mentioned last night that he was hoping to set up did not come in (true to PNG form.... some snafu.)

We are including 2 pictures, one of the Hall kids eating Sugar Fruit which we stopped and bought on the side of the road coming back from Ukarumpa. This fruit looks like an orange on the outside but is filled with this slimy looking, sorta green yuk ....I won't say what it looks like but it is really gross! Now I had to try it at least! So rather than handle it as the kids do Jan wanted to feed it to me...with a spoon(2nd pic) . It actually tasted like the inside of a grape with seeds that you could chew...the kids just swallow they said.

Well....we only have 3 more days here and I know I am going to miss it, however, we are looking forward to 6 days in New Zealand and then getting home to our family & friends!
Our best to all,
Mary and Jim

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've had some of that green yukkie
stuff myself. Before you leave PNG, you must have at least one bucket shower. So glad Duffie is feeling better. Hard to believe
that your 4 week stay is almost
over. We look forward to your
first hand report.

Gail & Jon

Anonymous said...

I still marvel at the power and speed of the Internet! Thanks, so much, for sharing with us your high adventure. You certainly have my admiration and good wishes....and my prayers for continued good health, safety, and great fun!

I'm glad that Jim is better.

My love to you both,

Gerald K.