Resurrection Cookies and Emergency Flight

Making "Resurrection Cookies" at Ladies Fellowship

On Saturday morning (Mar. 27) I took part in the Ladies Fellowship with the women from church.  Suellyn (MAF) led a devotional based on the Easter story while we mixed ingredients to make Resurrection Cookies.  It was a unique way to remember the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us at the cross.  (You might want to try this recipe with your kids.  Look up "Resurrection Cookies" on the internet.)  These women cook their meals over an open fire and don't own ovens or electric mixers so they were amazed at what happens to egg whites when they're beaten!

Emergency Flight to Duramin

Later that afternoon, a radio call came in about a woman in a nearby village who was in need of medical help.  She had delivered twins that morning.  One of the babies hadn't survived and the mother was retaining the placenta and losing a lot of blood.  We "happened" (one of God's happy "coincidences") to have a doctor here at the Telefomin clinic who just arrived last week, so Dale & Keith took him along and made the 15 minute flight to the village of Duramin.  After stabilizing the patient they tried to make her as comfortable as possible on the floor of the Twin Otter for the flight to Telefomin.  Upon arriving here they loaded her in the back of the Ute (small truck) for the extremely bumpy 5-minute drive to the clinic where she is receiving care.

Along with the patient came the woman's husband and several other relatives to help care for the woman.  Of course, the tiny baby girl, not yet named, came along with Mama too -- all cozy and snug in a "bilum" (woven bag).

What a privilege to be a part of preserving precious God-given life!

Shopping, snakes and snorkeling

On Thursday, February 18 we hopped on the MAF Caravan, on our way to the MAF base in Goroka where Dale would be helping out with the flying while some of their pilots are away.  But before we could fly to Goroka we had to spend the weekend in Mt. Hagen until the Monday morning flight would take us to Goroka. While in the town of Mt. Hagen (MAF's main base) we took the opportunity to do a big grocery shop to stock our pantry for the next few months (which we stored in someone's spare bedroom until we could take our cases of groceries back with us to Telefomin on our way back, 3 weeks later.)

All day Saturday and Sunday Arianna was running a pretty high fever which had us a little concerned. So on Monday morning when we piled into the MAF Twin Otter for our flight to Goroka we were anxious to visit the clinic at the New Tribes base, which is just a 20 minute drive from the town of Goroka, to get her checked out. Dr. Bud (from Pennsylvania) concluded that her white blood cell count was very high and that she had a bacterial infection which was quickly remedied by a course of antibiotics. We were grateful that God placed us in Goroka just when we needed medical care.

In Goroka we had the pleasure of getting to know the other MAF families - Greg & Jacquie Falland-Will (from Australia) and Richard & Susan Ebel (from Alberta). The kids were fascinated by Josh Ebel's collection of critters -- especially the snake!

Since Goroka is not far from the coast, we also took the chance to spend a few days relaxing in Madang where we did a lot of swimming and snorkeling.

On Tuesday morning we flew from Madang back to Hagen where Dale helped with the flying program on Wednesday and then we were up bright and early Thursday morning (March 11) for the weekly MAF flight on the Twin Otter back to Telefomin.  Happy to be home!

(Will post a few more photos on Flickr, link is on the right hand side of this page.)

Scott's Birthday Party!

Valentine's Day also happened to be Scott's Birthday! This year his party was unique in many ways. This was the first year he had an outdoor "summer" party. We put out the word to the neighborhood kids on Saturday afternoon that we would have a party Sunday afternoon. Well, shortly after we arrived home from church the kids started coming! We had about 20 kids (including ours) in the backyard where we played a bunch of games (Dodge Ball, Flying Dutchmen, What's the time Mr. Wolf, Pass the Parcel and a Treasure Hunt) and ended with a "Nintendo" shaped cake!

Birthdays aren't really celebrated much here so the kids had a blast! When we asked them which games they liked the best they declared, "the Lolly games!" (Lollies are candies.) It was a good chance to interact with some of the kids in the neighborhood.

For more party photos click the Flickr link on the top right hand side of this page.

Kittens and Waterslides

OUR NEW KITTEN
Introducing . . . CASEY the kitten, the latest addition to our family!  No shortage of attention for this cuddly and playful little guy!

A SPLASHING FUN TIME!
On Sunday afternoon we made the 30 minute hike to what is known here as the "Hydro Race" which is a section of the hydro-electric system where the water flows down a narrow concrete channel which doubles as a sort of a waterslide. Sitting on an inflated tube helps protect your swimwear from getting shredded (just ask Scott and Amy!) but the local kids save their clothing by simply sitting on a handful of long, dry grass to protect their bare bottoms!

To see a few more photos click on the Flickr link on the top right hand side of this page.

New Bananas and New Friends

BANANAS!
A highlight this week was to cut down our first bunch of bananas from a banana plant in our backyard.

STAFF SUPPER & WILD ANDCRAZY PING-PONG!

Yesterday evening we enjoyed hosting the Telefomin MAF staff at our house for a farewell supper for Rose, a national lady who has worked with MAF here in Telefomin for the past 18 years. Rose will be missed but her skills and experience will be a huge help at the MAF base in the village of Kiunga where she is moving to.

With Rose leaving the MAF staff here in Telefomin is down to Steven as the only Papua New Guinean on staff now, besides three of us expat families. Steven and his wife, Maris, are our next-door neighbors and he works as the MAF agent here in Tele – reporting weather on the radio, serving as a traffic officer on some flights, preparing manifests, etc.

After a delicious potluck supper of chicken, rice, sausages, macaroni salad, tossed salad, potato bake and fresh pineapple slices we played ping-pong on the home-built table Dale set up in the storage room-turned classroom/ping-pong table room underneath our house. Steven and Rose (national staff) had never played ping-pong before so we had a blast teaching them the game! (At one point Steven and Rose were on the same team, playing doubles, and then passed the ball to each other – kind of like a “set” in volleyball! What a riot!)

Playing ping-pong in our school room (Steven and Rose on the left)

MYSTERIOUS WAYS
We had been in Telefomin just a few days when we realized that Steven was the same man who was our language helper when we went for one week of “bush orientation” when we were in PNG back in 1997! Little did we know back then that 12 years later our children would be playing with his grandchildren next door! God works in mysterious ways!

MAKING NEW FRIENDS
We love living in Telefomin. The climate and countryside is breathtaking and the people are lovely. Our kids have made fast friends with the other children in the community and we are all enjoying growing relationships with the friendly folks of Telefomin.

Christmas preparations

Christmas around here is very quiet! There are 3 or 4 little trade stores (a counter with a few things for sale behind it) where the kids did their Christmas shopping all by themselves. (They told us they had picked out a gift for Daddy but decided on something else when they realized what they were going to buy was a pack of cigarettes!) The girls were delighted to find some little bottles of nail polish at the corner market (a few women sitting on the ground selling miscellaneous items) which they bought each other as Christmas gifts!

This being a less busy holiday season I took the opportunity to do some Christmas baking with the kids this year, which was fun. We made gingersnaps, crunchy little "Paepanate", chocolate crinkle cookies and coconut Christmas cake. The kids also made some salt dough ornaments which they painted and hung on our little Christmas tree to dress it up a little! Although we miss the gatherings and get-togethers with friends and family, we are enjoying a more reflective holiday season this year.

Best wishes to you this Christmas and we wish you a blessed New Year!

The Derksens in PNG.

Moving to Telefomin

The village of Telefomin has been our home now for just over 3 weeks. Telefomin and the other nearby villages are on a plateau surrounded by mountains all around so we are enjoying the change from the prairies of Manitoba! There is one other MAF family here right now (the only other white people here besides us) with 3 girls, ages 2,4 and 6. The people are very friendly and the kids spend much of their time playing with national kids in the neighborhood - climbing trees, making forts, playing soccer, tag, etc. or making fires (burning the dry bush grass). It rains nearly every day but lately we've had less rain, which means the hydro electricity is on only for a couple of hours throughout the day and evening. (We have a back-up generator to make sure our freezer doesn't defrost with 3 months worth of meat all at once!) We are really enjoying living here and feeling more and more at home.