What do you do on a beautiful sunny day when the fire hose needs testing?  Slip 'n Slide!

Janie and I were happy to sit this one out and get some cuddles instead.

Insects of the Month

The last few months have produced more bugs and insects than usual around my place.  As always, my camera's never very far away when I find something new.  If you're a spider hater don't worry...you're safe for this post.

   You often see headdresses and necklaces in town made out of the shells of these beetles.

This butterfly was pretty beat up, but beautiful nonetheless.  Wish I could have gotten the whole blue wingspan. 

 

 I couldn't help laughing at this guy.  I've never seen a beetle with a nose!

I love the "heart" on this beetle's shell.

Thrifting into 32

 Nothing says "birthday" like a day of 2nd handing, so most of the Interface staff ladies helped me celebrate by rooting through clothes all day.  I ran up to the gate to have it open for the truck and had a few minutes to enjoy the view while I waited.  The scenery here makes me thank the Lord almost daily for allowing me to work and live in a place like this.

 I opened the back door to jump in the truck and had to laugh.  The kids are driven 20 minutes to school each day and us ladies decided to squish in with them on the way to town.  I'm still not sure how we fit 18 of us in there.  A bunch of ladies desperate for shopping are capable of anything I guess.

One of our favorite thrift stores, aptly named Hamamas (Happy).  With prices as cheap as they are here (like 50 cents for a shirt or $2.50 for jeans) it's easy to go overboard, but it's fun to find nice clothes when the nearest mall is a 1 1/2 hour flight away.

 

 Levi wasn't as happy as we were about this whole shopping thing.

On the way home we passed hundreds of kids walking along the highway on their way home from school.  Most of these kids are carrying shovels for some kind of work they had to do at school.  Some days you'll see them each carrying a fence post, other days bunches of dried roofing grass.

Party in PNG

My co-worker and good friend, Janie, is a master party planner and always makes my birthday special each year.  You can always tell she's in secret planning mode by the sly questions she asks weeks beforehand like, "So, what's your favorite dessert?" 

Black Forest Cake and Mocha Cheesecake...Birthday cakes don't get any better than this.

 I happened to be sick on my birthday so I got the kids to blow out the candles for me.  And yes, the hat was amazing. 

 One of the things I look forward to each year is our three German interns singing the German birthday song (far more unique than North America's really creative "Happy Birthday to you...").  Jonny, Diemo and Marco belted out a new one I hadn't heard before.

Interface Staff 2012 (minus a couple) - my family away from family.