This is just about the strangest insect I've come across yet here.  It was about the size of a finger, but looks like it could hold it's own in battle.   

Kaikai, Kaukau, and other things you'll find at a Mumu

We always enjoy having a Mumu made for our students during each program at Interface (www.ntm.org/interface) .  It's a great way for them to experience a huge part of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) culture (a Mumu is a meal cooked for celebrations or special occasions, and works like a big underground steamcooker), and see how their taste buds (and stomaches) do with food cooked in dirt and banana leaves. :)  'Kaukau' (sweet potato) is the main food staple of the Highlands and a mumu is always filled with all different kinds.  'Kaikai' just means 'food'...and in a Mumu this could be anything from kaukau and cabbage, to lamb flaps (the cheapest form of meat in PNG), ferns and pumpkin leaves.

While waiting for the Mumu to cook I spent some time with Janet who decided to wear the bag I'm making as a hat.  I love their sense of humor!

Sik Mun...a cultural experience





A "Sik Mun" is, well...it's like a "coming of age" ceremony for young women who have experienced their first, in English, "Sick Month."  Not exactly something we would share with the entire neighborhood, but here in Papua New Guinea it's a huge cause for celebration.
Want to find out more?  Click here!

Janet & Mopo

Janet and her husband are two of a small group of believers in the village outside our campus.  They recently "adopted" Mopo (pictured here with Janet) - "adopted" meaning Mopo's family wasn't taking care of her properly so Janet took her away when she noticed her crying by herself in the coffee garden one day.  The family, as far as I know, hasn't asked for Mopo (her new name) back and have consented to this, and Mopo is now the happiest little girl!  This isn't the "norm" for adoption here, but it's very common for a woman who has no kids or can't have kids to ask for one of her sister's children to raise as her own.  I couldn't imagine giving up a child simply because one of my siblings wanted one, but this is such a normal way of life here in our area.  What is normal, anyway?  What is acceptable?   These things often change from culture to culture.  Makes you think, doesn't it? 

INTERFACE Staff and Student Pics...

We've had these 11 students (one couldn't make the pictures) at our campus for 3 weeks now.  Just two more weeks and they'll be flying back to their homes in the US - with a changed perspective on their lives and missions, we hope!

And here's us staff!  A couple more weeks and some of these will be heading back home, too.  Our staff is always changing as the Lord brings people through Interface, and there are always goodbyes to be said...one of the hardest things about being a missionary.  But then God brings new people here to serve and they become just as much a part of the family as those who left. 



"Slinging" in the Rain...

Our gate is open during the day for villagers to come visit and fill up their water jugs.  It was a wet day for this lady.  Notice the baby's feet sticking out of the sling on her head? 

in the neighborhood

THEY'VE ARRIVED!!  Our May / June team of Interface students has been here for a week now, and they've already been exposed to so much since walking through these bars at the airport just a few days ago!  Today we all took a walk around the village outside our gates.  Take a look!

This guy is selling his ripe coffee cherries cheap to someone else who'll dry them and sell them for more in town.

I'd never noticed how bananas grow UP!

Shelled coffee drying in the sun. 

I don't know about you, but I've never seen pigs cuddle before. :0)

The village gardens are HUGE.  Imagine gardening acres of this by hand. 

A bug in a banana tree...how fitting for this blog. :0)



Cherry pickin'

It's coffee season once again in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.  Coffee is a huge source of income here and the villagers are kept busy going to their coffee gardens and picking the ripe coffee "cherries." 

 

you fill bags with the picked cherries...or in my case you attempt to fill up bags.  I worked for hours and only got about 1/2 a bag.  No wonder coffee is so expensive.





the coffee cherries are then shelled to get 2 coffee beans inside.  These beans are then dried on huge tarps in the sun.  You can always tell it's coffee season by the stench of rotting coffee skins everywhere.  The dried coffee beans are then sold to factories in town that roast the beans and seperate them into grades to be packaged, sold and exported.





Kuela and I had just finished picking coffee for several hours and were taking a breather after lugging it (in the bags on our heads...PNG style) up from the garden.

This little pig went to market...

I live about 45 minutes from our closest town of Goroka, so we always take full advantage of the huge fruit and veggie market whenever we're there.   The ladies who live in the village next to our campus come to market their vegetables to us every monday, but the selection isn't always the greatest so we enjoy the variety in town.  We just have to remember to bring our mud shoes along. :0) 

 

a garden friend

No matter how many times I've ripped this web down this guy keeps coming back.  By his sheer determination he's earned the right to stay.