Duncalfes Online - A Letter Home

A Letter Home: 5th January 2009

Dear All,

I'm not quite sure where to start after two very busy, but thoroughly enjoyable weeks in Telefomin.

The flying went well. I was finishing off some training with Chris Bubb who recently did his command endorsement (i.e. becoming a captain after flying as a first officer), doing his 50 hour check and getting him ready for his Airline Transport Pilot flight test with the CAA. Both went well, and the ATP flight test was done by me, under the supervision of the CAA inspector, which validated the testing officer approval I have. I'm not sure who was most relieved at the end, Chris or myself.

Christmas and the New Year obviously gave some great opportunities for socialising with the families based out there, Keith & Suellyn Maag with their three girls, and Chris and Narelle Bubb with their two sons and one daughter. On Boxing Day we were joined by one of the doctors from Rumginae with his family, coming to Telefomin for a holiday and time out of the lowlands heat. In total there were nine children under the age of 8.

Christmas lunch started with getting together at about 11:30 and went on until latish afternoon, which worked well for Nicki and me going back to our house to try phoning family. The series of social activity was also a good opportunity for me to brew some ginger beer, the first time for a while. 7 litres of ginger beer take more drinking than I'm capable of by myself (Nicki doesn't usually drink it and with no boys around, that leaves me), but it went down very well in the bigger gathering.

Church services were somewhat non-standard. There was nothing on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, but a service between 6 and 9 p.m. on Christmas Day evening. We didn't attend this one as it was another time to ring home, and the decision was validated by heavy rain which would have made the walk to the church somewhat unpleasant. There was a service on Boxing Day morning, which we did get to, albeit late (a bit more catching up with family first), and later in the day everybody got together for a barbecue.

A real delight of Telefomin is that when you go out for a walk it is completely safe, whereas around Hagen you always have to be aware that somebody might have greater need of your camera/money/whatever than you do. Additionally you don't end up with an entourage of kids accompanying you, so it is just a really nice walk out.

The first walk was quite adventurous, literally cutting our way through the bush (or at least Keith was, as he had the bush knife) to find a couple of caves up to the north of the airstrip. I'd heard that these caves existed but never had the chance to see them before. I was under the impression that there was a path to them, and at some point there had been, but currently it is very overgrown.

The first cave is quite small and has a fast flowing stream coming out of it. Just inside the cave entrance, which you have to reach by climbing up over some moss covered rocks, you can look underneath a rock overhang into a second chamber which has a small waterfall tumbling down into it.

Reaching the second cave, which is much larger, involved a steep climb up the side of the valley. At some point in the past the first entrance chamber has collapsed, opening the way into the very much larger inner ones, which run for some distance and which I didn't explore very far. There are some massive stalactites hanging down from the ceiling, of the big bulky variety than the slim type. I'll put some photos on our webpage in due course (don't expect anything for a few days at least).

As we walked back Keith remarked that there are probably only a few expats who've ever visited the caves, and in view of the decreasing number in the country, there are not likely to be a huge number more.

The second walk was on New Year's Day, setting off fairly early (8:30) to avoid the heat of the day, everybody, including all the children (one in a backpack carrier) walked down to a small, fast-flowing river I suppose about an hour's walk away. In actual horizontal distance it wasn't all that far, but speed was obviously not great with nine young children alongside.

We had a break on the far side of the river having crossed it on an interesting wooden bridge. The horizontal supports were three large logs, which are beginning to show signs of deteriorating in the warm, wet environment. These have been covered by horizontal slats, quite a few of which are missing and others are loose. Either side there are supports of vines, reinforced by steel cable which also, in theory, support the whole structure. I say "in theory" because on one side both supporting cables are slack and not doing anything for bridge security. It sounds worse than it was to cross, but it is really in need of some repairs.

In the evening there was a progressive meal arranged by the ladies to celebrate Nicki's birthday. It's not very often that something special is done like that for Nicki, so it was particularly nice. A delicious soup at the Bubbs', an excellent barrimundi fish dish at the Maags' and chocolate cake and coffee at the Priests'.

What other things come to mind? When it's raining huge numbers of moths congregate around outside lights with a staggering variety of forms, colours, patterns and varieties.

There are different birds around: Long Tailed Shrikes, Buff Banded Rails and White Rumped Robins inhabit the garden. Oh, I cut the grass in the garden one day, a job I don't have to do in Hagen as a workman is employed for that task; it's a job I enjoy doing and it was easy to see where I'd been as the grass was so long.

Night skies in Telefomin are often spectacularly clear, and the sunsets beforehand frequently with lovely oranges and pinks, both are uncommon in Hagen.

So it's been a good time and we were sorry to have to come home on Friday, though Misty and Cal were pleased to see us. This coming week will be mostly spent in the office catching up. I can't enjoy myself that much for two weeks without coming down to earth eventually.

It was a really good service at church this morning.

Sometimes, most times if I'm honest, a two and a half hour service would leave us drained and wondering what we could recall that was inspirational or genuine worship.

This time, however, the service centred on some really exciting opportunities that have come up through a youth convention held at a remote community to the north west of Mount Hagen. The area has been dogged with serious fighting for the last five or so years, but as a result of the gospel being preached and people responding, there really does seem to be an opportunity for things to change. That really is Good News.

Hope you have a really good week.

Michael

please enable browser's Javascript to use the Hit Counter tool.
Powered by