A short one

This update is going to be on the shorter side because I'm still not feeling as well as I should. My fever hasn't gotten back up to 102 degrees again, but last night it was just over 100. Since it went back up, I went and checked with Joan to get her input and she said I should have a blood test done to make sure there's nothing crazy wrong with me. So my blood should be being read as I write, and I'll know this afternoon if I have some kind of super evil disease. So please be praying AGAINST evil diseases and FOR the rapid return of my health. RAPID return.
In addition, Janine and I share a nasty cough, but hers has cost her a portion of her voice, so be praying that that's defeated as well.

After training yesterday we went and ate leftovers at Joan's, followed by a quick trip to the hypermarket for breakfast supplies. I have this fondness for exploring international grocery stores that I think must be a little bit on the odd side. In Kenya, I was obsessed with Nakumatt. In Australia, there was this store called Coles that I loved. There's something just kind of intriguing about wandering the aisles of the store and noticing the items that are so similar to those found at home, and examining products that you've never seen before. Perhaps I am just totally insane, and this is a total possibility, or maybe I'm just a little unique (Grace says she likes wandering foreign grocery stores too!).

We relaxed for the afternoon and got ready to head to Jayapura. Jayapura is the administrative capital of the island (if I'm remembering the information that Wally gave us correctly). And when we were driving there, as you round a bend you can see the lights of the city and it truly looks like a city. I think we were all struck by that.

But before we got to Jayapura, we stopped at Invasion Beach. This beach has huge rusted out tanks from WWII set up on cement pedestals. Apparently they used to simply stick out of the beach, but in the past couple of years people have decided to dig them out and pay them proper dues (or something like that). What was kind of hilarious is that as we drove up to the beach, the tanks seemed to kind of just fit in! They didn't stand out at all--you looked and kind of just thought to yourself, "oh look, there's a rusted out tank on a cement pedestal in the middle of the beach" as though it was something one sees everyday. Which it obviously is not. So we took the requisite photos near the tanks, on the beach, and Annika teased us by suggesting that this was the "snorkeling" beach we'd be visiting in Saturday (this would not have boded well for that adventure since there were crashed boats on the beach and trash floating at the water's edge). A look of panic crossed Janine's face, but when Annika broke into a huge grin, she let out a sigh of relief and a little chuckle.

Some random dude approached Grace and wanted to know where she was from and how long she would be here. And when he got up to leave, he mentioned something about giving her his address...which she politely refused. It was ridiculous since she was obviously a very available female, what with the pregnant belly and all!! :)

We stopped at a little row of souvenir shops and wandered through them for a while. While there are lots of cool things (little bags made from bark that has been converted into string and then woven and paintings on bark, etc), I was really trying to get things that people would find uses for and not think were incredibly random or not so useful. Grace did buy a gourd for Atticus...What is a gourd, you may ask? And why did she purchase one for Atticus? Well, in many of the interior tribes, a "gourd" is what the men wear. And it's all that they wear, so it merely covers up a man's...private parts. Some of them are designed to be "roomy" so that things like money can be stored in there. How multi-functional, right? :)

So we continued on the winding, twisting road to get to Jayapura. We made it to the restaurant which was little more than a hole in the wall (I wouldn't have known there was a dining room except that Wally pointed us inside). We got to select our fish to be grilled and brought to the table, and it was all served with a helping of rice, a bowl of soup, and tons of various spices for the fish. This fish may have been the most delicious fish I have ever eaten. There were few bones, and the taste was just superb. When you poured the soup broth over chunks of fish and rice and ate it all together, it was a simply divine experience. I don't know what spices they used to cook the fish--the taste wasn't strong--but it was more than satisfactory. And the servings were huge; almost no one ate more than half what they were served.

They also had this cool lemon basil at the table that smelled amazing and was great for cutting through grease on the fingers. We each had little dipping bowls to cleanse our fingers (since some of us were eating with them) and we added this herb to the bowls to give a lovely fragrance, and help keep the fingers clean. I also got to have an unsweetened iced tea to drink and it was SOOOO good! I'd really missed iced tea, since I used to drink it so much in the US. It was a great treat.

After dinner, Joan and Wally went to get haircuts (how funny, right? Haircuts at 8pm?) and we went to check out this particular street known for selling pearls and gold of good quality and price. None of us was too interested in the gold (what can I say--we're cheap!) but when we came across some pearls and heard their prices, we were ready to buy, haha! Unfortunately, in one of the stores we were ready to make some purchases with the man at the counter who had given us fairly decent prices, when a woman from the back came out and doubled the prices. We left that store pretty quickly because that was just not acceptable behavior.

We walked on and came across another store with a decent collection of pearls and they had even better prices! I'm not going to tell you what the price was because some of you might be getting these as souvenirs, haha! But Liz, Grace and I each bought 5+ necklaces...and Janine bought one. It was pretty entertaining because she sat there debating between two necklaces and ended up getting only the one. But the little shopkeepers were so kind and so helpful, and tried to understand our meager hand motions, even though we had a translator with us (Annika).

By the end of the pearl adventure (and it was a long one, as we sat there inspecting stand after strand), we were sweaty, soggy, and exhausted. We climbed back into the car ready to head home, but Joan discovered that we had found an excellent price and went and did some shopping of her own. And from what I hear, she put the three of us to shame in her purchases!

Today was the second to last day of training, and it's exciting because we can definitely see the way in which the teachers have opened up to us, and to each other. Grace did a pictorial input about clouds, Janine did the narrative (which the teachers were really excited about--they saw a lot of potential for their classrooms and asked questions about how to make it usable in their context. Then I started the expert groups, calling people up by number. We did groups one and two today, and while some of the teachers were doing those with me, I had them working in groups on creating a "Here, There" poem (Tina and Juliet, you will remember the "soggy monsoons in the fields" line from one of these). By the end of the training, every group had created AT LEAST one poem and taught their expert group information to the rest of their table group. I feel good about how it went, and we'll finish them tomorrow, and then do a class-wide process grid. It should be good, as long as I'm well enough to actually be in the class at 8am tomorrow. I'll need lots of sleep tonight.

So it looks like my suggestion that this would be a short entry was a total lie, so I apologize. But if you know me, you know that I'm a talker...and this plays out in my blogging as well.

I really can't believe that tomorrow is our last day of training. It's gone by so quickly! I hope to have happy stories to share with you tomorrow as well...