Ants, Aunts,and Sister

Ants, Aunts, and Sister

 

 

So, I sent out an email update with some things that have been going on so far in my 10 days away from Illinois.  It seemed to long for a blog post, so please email me if you want to be on the email list.  Ill mainly do blog posts I think, but I will send out a letter about once a month too. 

So, the fun things I’ve noticed about PNG so far:

Bugs, there does seem to be a lot of them, but really they aren’t too bad unless they are in your food (no I’ve not intentionally eaten a bug…yet) The fun part is watching my roommate Gina try to do anything and everything to avoid them!  All our fruit is tucked away in the fridge for the most part now, except for some passion fruit.  We had a fun episode of fruit flies invasion, seems they wanted our awesome fruit as much as us!  The ants keep coming in under our door, with its half inch gap, they have no trouble along with the cockroaches.  Gina found one in the cupboard!  I’ve found them in the bathroom!  I got over any fear of bugs in El Paso, so it’s a blessing to just know the food is protected in Tupperware and its packaging, and just leave the rest alone!  Door gap is fixed by towels, and we are just glad we have some to spare. 

Aunt- Seems I’ve got about 15 new nieces and nephews now as all the Mission Kids (MK) call all those on station who are not their parents Aunt or Uncle.  It’s also a cultural thing here as PNGians call all older relatives, close friends Aunt/Uncle too.  It is wonderful to be called Aunt Staci as only my nephew Logan calls me that, or sometimes my honorary nephews Jon, Jonah, and Joshua Z.  I’m missing all my boys, but the kids around here are great and  so sweat too.  The teens gave us our first tour of the station, and call us to come play ping pong, basketball or watch movies.  We went to youth group on Tuesday and had a blast playing Spoons.  Seems like I might also read to the Elementary kids a few times a week when I’m not teaching to help out the Elementary school teacher.  Should be a great time! 

Sister Staci- is what my title at the College of Nursing is.  Sister means nurse, but kinda makes you feel like a nun!  (Something I really don’t want to be, but occasionally it does feel like it! J) I’m enjoying working one on one with the 8 or so tutors (haha, another English word that PNGians change the meaning of- it means instructor, not helper or one on one coach!)  I share an office with Serah, who is also my next door neighbor.  I live on Stiner Street at the station, and Sister Stiner was one of the first missionary nurses to come to PNG and help with the college it seems.  All the tutors live on this street in flats/duplex’s.  The most of the other Missionaries live on Ramsey street, which is the cross road of my street, so we are all pretty close together here.  There are kids and dogs and people about all the time, part of the charm of this place.  Kids still play outside, not on x-boxes and while you wouldn’t want to pet some of the dogs, it’s nice to see them around anyway!  The other tutors have been very helpful in getting my lessons prepared, but there are some cultural differences for sure.  Eye contact is not maintained for long, and they are all very soft spoken, I’m the loud one!  Something’s do not change though, as today we all got out our Digicel’s (mobile phone company) and shared our numbers!  There are a lot of male nurses here, and I will have a lot of male students it seems.  Nursing is still a more female dominated profession here, but it’s a good paying job and many men become nurses as well.  The other tutors I know so far are Jason, Moses, Grace, Noreen, Kolly, Dare, and Ali.  Jason got me laughing at as he introduced Ali to me, as I had met Jason first.  Jason then walked away, singing “Prince Ali, Ali a babwa…. Strong as ten regular men…’’. The song from Aladdin!  Seems Disney gets just about everywhere too!  I am the only “white-skinned” tutor, which also has its own set of challenges.  I’m learning some Pidgin and everyone speaks English, so it really works out just fine.  I start teaching on Tuesday the 22^nd and will be teaching every 3 hours on Tuesday’s and 7 on Thursdays.  Please pray for me on those day!!!  Serah and others have said, “Don’t worry, they are first year students, they won’t know if you get it right or not!”  My fears exactly!!!  Oh, Help me get it right!  I sooo want the students to have a good experience, and I’ve got many good ideas, just got to get them out!

We did physicals for some of the students on Wednesday and it was nice to meet some of the girls.  They looked even more scared than I did on my first day of nursing school and that was pretty scared!  I was only an hour and a half away from home.  Some of these students are away from home for the first time, and home is many hours of bad roads, or small plane rides away.  Some might not be able to call home frequently like I could, but all have no idea what they are getting into!  Just like me in 2000!  One thing is for sure, God is here, with me and with these students and we have a great year of discovery ahead of us. 

And the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:7