So much to tell...

Well, it's been only a day or so since i last posted, and yet I feel like there's SO MUCH that i need to catch you all up on.

Since I left off last time, we headed off to a lovely lakeside meal. Joan and Wally had arranged for a boat to meet us at the restaurant, which it had its own dock (yes, it's very own dock). We all climbed into the boat and spent the next half hour touring around the lake, looking at various villages that have been developed in the islands of Lake Sentani. We even passed what Joan informed me was a legalized prostitution village. Apparently, prostitution is socialized here, so as long as the people to the specific locations in which it is legal, there are no repercussions.

All of the houses on the islands are on raised platforms so they hang out away from the shore over the water. All of the people hanging out on their decks waved to us as we motored past, and we all took tons of pictures. The sky was doing amazing things while we were out on the lake--the boat trip was supposed to be a sunset tour, but the clouds prevented us from getting a true sunset view. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and I kept shaking my head at the majesty of God's creation.

When we got back to the dock, it was time for dinner. Joan ordered for us, including a local specialty called papeda. How shall i describe this dish to you...well, let me start with how it's made. It comes from the bark of a particular type of palm tree on the island, and the women work really hard to process it, running water through it and doing all sorts of things until it becomes a sort of gelatinous goop. Sounds appetizing, right? Well, it goes down the throat in a way quite similar to mucous. Yes, you read that correctly: mucous. The papeda doesn't have much of a flavor itself (just its crazy weird texture), but the soup that traditionally accompanies it is delicious. It's a type of fish soup flavored with lemon grass, and it really does taste quite tasty. All four of us got a helping of the papeda and the soup, with assurances that we needn't finish it if we didn't like it. Gracie and I managed to finish our helpings, but Janine and Liz opted for rice and the many other dishes. It was quite a feast: egg foo young, rice, vegetables, sweet and sour shrimp, more fish...there was so much food!! We left that meal more than content, despite the harassment that we all received from the various kinds of insects hanging around.

When we got back to the room, Grace decided to try to get in touch with her family, but to no avail when it came to the use of skype. I gave her my cell phone to try with, but there was nothing on the other end. As a last ditch effort, I gave her a phone card with an international access number. Thankfully, she was eventually able to get through and talk to Jeremy and Atti. Unfortunately, the only thing Atti had to say was "noooooo..." But at least she got to hear their voices.

The next day was Sunday. Time for church! Joan had kindly gone out and gotten us breakfast supplies, so we ate well and were ready for church in plenty of time. We went to the English service that held here at the International School, and it was kind of cool because there were local Indonesians playing the band instruments. Some of the songs were familiar, and others not so much. But the message was pretty good and we finished with enough time to go and get ready for the hike, on which we would meet the 8 students of Sekolah Papua Harapan.

Wally had told us that this was a "light hike," so we put together our backpacks without fear that it would be too much--we were careful to pack water for the hike, since it IS ridiculously hot out here. :) When all was ready and Wally had exchanged his car for a bus, in order to better accomodate the 8 children, one of their teachers, and the 6 of us, we headed off to pick up the students at the Indonesian church. They were dressed in Sunday clothes, but ready for the hike, truly excited (Wally and Joan had packed swim attire for them since the hike involved a river and a waterfall). On the way to the point of origin for the hike, we stopped and grabbed "fast food" to take with us: a ball of rice, topped with vegetables and meat, and wrapped in paper. We examined the food with interest (there are photos to document this as well).

Wally took off toward our starting point and even just getting to the beginning of the hike. Wally was off-roading in a BUS. We crossed a river, drove on an elevated road that was too narrow for our vehicle, and climbed hills that were lined with little more than rocks. But, thankfully, we eventually made it. To the beginning.

As we started off, it was nice, there was a little stream with a gravel path beside it and then less water and more gravel-ly areas. At some point we entered a more tropical jungle region of the hike, and somehow managed to move away from the path that they traditionally traveled. So Wally sent out the children, yes, the children, to find a path back to the water. These kids were incredible. They were ten times as sure-footed as any of us, leaping from rock to rock when eventually we did make it back to the river. They took every opportunity to frolic in the water, playing games with each other. Their litheness put us all to shame.

Especially me. We were moving uphill in a river, climbing over boulders and trying to maintain our balance over slippery spots, without falling into a rock or into the water with all our stuff. I really cannot even describe to you what this "light hike" was like...it was unlike any hike I had ever been on. At some point, I started feeling incredibly dizzy (we hadn't eaten and it was HOT, especially when you factor in the hiking). So we stopped for lunch, and I opted to stay behind with Sonja, the teacher, who was NOT dressed for a hike in her jeans, long-sleeved sweater and snazzy sandals. I don't know how she made it as far as she did.

I sat in the cool water of the river as Sonja made a rather unhappy phone call on her cell and the rest of the group trduged onward. As I sat there, listening to the "alarm clock" sound of the cicada, I noticed the sky growing increasingly dark. The leaves on the trees were rustling intensely, and I heard what sounded like thunder in the distance. Sonja began to look anxious and pulled out an umbrella from her ultra-snazzy purse (that should not have been on a hike). She offered to share it with me, but my feeling was that I was already wet from the river, so what was a little rain? Sonja stood up, guaring our possessions from the rain with her umbrella.

And so it began. At first gently, and soon in torrents. The rain kept coming and coming, and just when I became certain that it could not possibly rain any harder, it did. I sat in the river and looked up to the sky, letting the drops wash over my face. Eventually, the combination of the cold water from the river and the intense amount of rain coming down made me rather chilly. I thought of how incredibly ironic it would be for me to get hypothermia in PAPUA, so I got out of the river and stood on the meager shoreline.

I don't know how long Sonja and I waited for the rest of the group to come back, but it didn't seem like too long. Before we knew it, the kids came bounding from the jungle into the river and the rest of the adults were not too far behind. We grabbed our things to meet up with them on the other side of the river, which was actually a very slow-going process. Wally fell into the water once, with the bag of towles on his back and the camera in there. I was concerned that he was injured, but he was much more worried about the state of Liz's camera! It was fine, and so was he, but he stopped to wring out the water from the towels, which had become unbearably heavy with their exposure to the water.

I, at some point, whacked my shin against a rock and developed a huge goose egg just below my knee. The swelling has gone down, but it's going to be a beauty of a bruise. Janine also came out with a battle wound on her shin, but Liz and Gracie (thank goodness!) managed to come out virtually unscathed. Today our bodies ache, but we survived, and that's a lot! It turned out that they didn't make it to the waterfall because of the storm, and they weren't sure how much light was left in the day (it gets dark here at 6pm +/- 15 minutes or so).

We made it without further incident back to the bus and packed up to leave, exhausted and soaking wet from the storm. We had just enough time to reover and shower before dinner, which was a delicious fish and lobster soup made from fish and lobster that Wally himself had captured. Dinner with the Wileys is always such a pleasure.

After dinner, we took all our supplies up to the classroom in which we would be holding our seminar for the next five days. Despite our exhaustion, we managed to set up the classroom, which meant we would have a little more time in the morning, which was definitely a good thing.

Today was actually our first day of training. It went well (there were about 15 teachers present) and I'll describe it in detail later, but right now I'm feeling quite ill (please pray for my speedy and full recovery!) so I should go and rest.

I have decided to add a new feature to my blog, however, and it's called "lesson of the day."

Today's lesson:
HIKING IS NOT MY THING.

And a bonus lesson:
It is indeed possible to be cold in a tropical climate, even when it's more than 85 degrees outside. LOL!

More to come, hopefully soon...