An entire has passed by????

January - May '09 was spent doing POC!  Boy am I glad that ended!!  I always wanted to be on Gilligan's Island when I was little - it's a lot more fun on t.v. than in real life, in my opinion!

June - August was spent getting settled into my new "staff accomodations".  I vaguely remember a time when I did not share my living quarters with ants, geckos, lizards, and cockroaches.  But, even with these house guests, it's like the Hilton compared to the dorm rooms! 

August-November was the next POC course.  It was fun since several of the incoming students were people I  already knew from Training in Orlando.  Time really flew by as the kids and I went adventuring around Madang!

November - January '10 I had the privilege of teaching and spending time in Ukarumpa

And at the end of January, the newest POC course began.  It is full of a great group of people and kids too!  We have had only 2 days of sun.  This has made for some very wet and slippery hikes!  Little Dan said on the last hike, "I fell over 21 times!"

I'm pretty sure we all "fell over" at least once! 

My First Mumu

Mumu:  1)  something cooked by steaming with heated stones in a native pressure cooking pit, a 

                    method of cooking prevelant in the Highlands

               2)  the earth oven itself

I got to attend my first mumu this morning.  It was great fun!  Yesterday the hole was dug.  This morning about 7:00 am the ladies prepared the food - sweet potatoe, cabbage, carrots, taro, chicken, lamb, beef (they traditionally use a pig but this was a small mumu) pumpkin (squash), corn, and green beans.  Then a fire was built to heat the stones.  Once the wood burned up, the stones fell into the whole and were covered with banana leaves.  The food was then piled on top and covered with more banana leaves, a tarp, and dirt.  The food steamed about 2 hours and at noon we had a delicious meal.

 

 

The Year Continued

August through November was spent as teacher for the following POC Course.  The students had an hour and a half of daily Tok Pisin instruction, two hours of academic studies, followed by two hours of PNG studies which included hiking, swimming, scrap booking, and various field trips...

November to December has been spent up at Ukarumpa in the Highlands teaching 5th grade until the end of the term which was Dec. 14.  It is wonderfully cool here and beautiful with the plethora of flowers, misty mountains, and green valleys! 

I also had the opportunity to visit a couple of pets around here- a Kapul (cuscus) and some cute little sugar gliders which like to hide in their nest.

May thru July was spent recovering from tropical ulcers and malaria as well as moving into my new flat at POC and becoming a staff member.