A few months ago, I was asked to be a sponsor for the senior retreat (March 19th through 23rd).
Every year, the seniors get to spend the money they have been raising during high school to go to the beach. We aren’t talking just any beach…..they get to go to a beach in the South Pacific! The kids here (in my opinion) have to grow up much quicker in certain areas of their lives. Friends are always coming and going to and from the mission field. Once they graduate, they will all scatter literally all over the world to attend college. Some of the kids who end up in America may see each other again, but there are some who live places where it is just highly unlikely that their paths will cross anytime soon. I cannot imagine just how many “good-byes” they have had to make in their short 17 years, but I am guessing it is more than I have had to make (by a long shot). So, this senior trip is a big deal. It is a time for the class to relax and enjoy each other and to make memories that they will carry with them forever.
So….on to the trip. I am going to get a CD with all the pictures from everyone who went. Since this senior class has an amazing photographer (seriously, these kids are all so talented), I only took a few pictures here and there. I am not even sure they are worth sharing because they would be out of context without the rest. So, I will post more pictures when I get the CD.
Saturday morning, we met at the High School around 7:30am. We boarded a Coaster Bus (seats about 28) and headed off to Madang. One thing you should know…..traveling in PNG is stressful. It’s rainy season, will the road be there or washed away? The coaster bus does not have 4WD, will it make it up the mountains. What happens if we break down? Will we be held up?
Halfway through the drive, the bus DID break down! Our driver realized that we only have 2nd and 3rd gears. After pushing the bus once, we realized that we would not be able to do this for the remaining mountains. One of the sponsors on the trip (Jeff) is an aircraft mechanic. After talking to someone from our AutoShop here in Ukarumpa, he was able to find the bolt that was missing. One of the kids had AMERICAN duct tape. We were able to “fix” the coaster bus with the duct tape and then continue on. While we waited, my wonderful husband called the local police and had a Guard Dog truck come out and sit with us while we worked on the bus. I guess there are perks to being the Security man’s wife. J
During this stop, I made my first impression on these girls. I was going to the bathroom (yes in the bush/jungle)…..when I was walking back to the road, I managed to stab myself with a stick. Blood started trickling down my leg. Classic. Then, we sat down to take a group girls picture. When I went to stand up, I ripped my pants on the wall that we were sitting on. Nice. We all had a few good laughs at my expense……and I soon realized that this was going to be a good trip. You just can’t make up the stuff that happens when you are around me. I love to make a fool of myself…..and I was off to a pretty good start.
One thing (on a side note) that I realized that I miss from America: music in vehicles. We plugged in an iPod to the coaster bus and listened to music the whole way to Madang. This might sound silly, but I think I almost cried I miss music in cars that much. I know….therapy is in my future, right? J
Saturday afternoon we arrived at Jais Aben resort (wait until you see the pictures…..breath-taking!). That night we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant in town. There are not many options of places to eact here in country. You literally have to travel to a big town like Madang if you want to see a restaurant. Even then, you are never sure if the workers will be on strike or if a certain dish will be available. All part of living in the “land of the unexpected”.
Saturday night we all went night swimming in the ocean. There is this pontoon in the water and we were all trying to knock each other off.
Sunday we went to a place called Rempi. Think camping meet island paradise. It is this little house right on the water. The house is like a camping cabin, but the views are spectacular and the snorkeling is the best I have found in PNG yet. It was here that there is a HUGE tree that you can jump out of. It is one of those things that you do once a or twice a year because it is so high and really scary. One of my other good friends (Deb) and her husband (Chris) were sponsors on this trip. I think I would follow Deb anywhere. Seriously. She is just one of those amazing friends who has been everywhere, tried everything, is beautiful but amazing humble and non-intimidating to be around. She’s Australian and used to mountain climb. She said that jumping out of this tree still gives her butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it.
So, I realized that I just HAD to do this. I knew that it was something I would regret if I chickened out. Also, when Deb said she was going to do it again, I knew that the best person I could have jumped out of the tree with would have been Deb. Like I said, I trust her THAT much. J So, I knew that jumping out of the tree would be easy for me. Most people have the hardest time thinking about the free fall. Not me. I knew the hardest part would be climbing the tree. A lot of these kids here grew up climbing trees. NOT me….I was a city girl! There were two parts that were really hard for me. One part I had to scale the side of the big tree trunk. I got stuck and was able to just change my footing….that helped and turned out to not be too hard afterall. But, there was this one part that was REALLY high…..there was nothing to grab onto above or to the sides of the trunk. I literally had to lean over with my hands and feet on the trunk to walk across it while balancing. Deb saw how I was stuck with fear. She said, “Adrienne, you can do this. It is just three steps across the really grippy bark.” She then started a different talking through the fear technique and looked up and realized I had already walked across. Later she said that she thought she was going to have to talk me through it more….but was surprised to see how quickly I just did it. After that hard part, the rest of easy. I walked out to the ledge of the trunk….and jumped off. I cannot remember how high she said it was……but think REALLY high. It was the kind of jump that you felt like you were free falling. So glad I did it! J
We ate dinner that night at the resort. Afterwards, some kids wanted to night swim again. This time, we all managed to “accidently” flip the pontoon. I can still remember it. The kids we screaming and laughing and carrying on while the pontoon was right side up. Then, when it flipped….there was silence. Everyone knew it was going to be HARD to flip it back. Everyone got really serious……but in the end, they were able to right the wrong. J
Monday was a shopping day. We went into town. Then, that night we went to dinner at Madang Lodge. When we got back that night, I played a game called volleyraquetbeachball. We had this little beach ball in one of the rooms. We turned on the fan and just hit the ball around the room, trying not to let it hit the ground. It was really funny when the ball would hit the fan and then come back twice as fast and hit someone who wasn’t expecting it. Good times. I guess this is one of those moments where you had to be there to appreciate how much fun it was….
Tuesday, Chris and Deb had to leave. It was so sad to see them go…..I am now going to post the e-mail that I wrote to Deb about what happened when she left (that way I don’t have to re-write it all):
“I, too, had such a great time on the trip. You are right….THAT is the trip to go to. The difference was that even when we all stayed up late, we could sleep-in in the morning. I still feel really rested, even though we were up until 4am the last night.
The last day we went to Malolo and to all of our surprise, it was open and secluded. (Malolo is another resort that has a black sand beach….BEAUTIFUL). The chef was surfing so we didn’t have any food, but we could all buy drinks. Also, we had so much pizza leftover from the night before, everyone got at least one piece of that if they wanted it. (I got a Hawaiian piece….score!) J At Malolo, it was pretty relaxed. Everyone just swam or sunbathed or sat on the beach. Some of the guys played football. But, around 2:30pm, the waves picked up. Practically everyone was bodysurfing the waves from that point on. And, if they weren’t body surfing, they were sitting on the beach watching and laughing. I was surprised how big some of the waves were considering we are in PNG. It was a lot of fun. Joel had to make us (even the sponsors) get out of the water.
Mel’s ear was acting up a bit more so Joel set up an appointment with Verna at POC. We dropped the kids off around 4:30pm to get ready for dinner that night at Ocean’s. Then, Scott, Joel, Dylane, Mel, Carissa and I went in the coaster bus up to POC. It was crazy! Scott let us turn the music up and we were all standing and dancing on the ride up and the ride back. Everyone on the mountain probably story-ed about us around the fire that night! At one point, we slapped hands with a group of about 10-15 kids….and they all started chasing the bus! They were all smiles and were dancing and followed us a pretty good distance. Scott was really easy going about the craziness and even stopped at the scenic point so we could dance outside and take pictures with a view.
Ocean’s went well (I still think that Eden is better)….and when we found out they were out of fried ice cream, we all drove over to Eden and ordered 23 fried ice creams.
That night, some people swam and Jeff took a few people to the ocean. During that time, I convinced 5 of the kids to play follow the leader with me. I walked them right through the fountain….but it wasn’t on which was a letdown. Follow the leader was pretty funny…..I had them biting leaves, kissing coconut trees, growling like lions, running through the outside showers , dancing in front of other classmates and other silly things. At one point, there was a trashcan and I pretended to throw up in it. Just imagine 5 kids doing the same right after me.
At midnight, things picked back up. We decided to extend curfew so long as everyone was back at the dorm area. Scott took a nap during all the swimming time. We tried to play volley-racquet-beach-ball again, but there were too many people. We played a few rounds of Duck Duck Goose….which was fun. Then, someone came up with the idea of playing Blind Man’s Bluff. Scott rejoined us at this time. We turned off the lights and the person in the middle had to close their eyes and find someone else in the room. Once they touched someone, they had to guess who it was by only touching the person’s face and hair. I think we had close to 15 people playing this.
The only casualty of the night was Carmin’s bed. Aaron sat on it (just reaching for the beach ball) and it broke! J Oooops.
The ride home was eventful, but all ended well. You’re not going to believe this….but we lost the OTHER bolt….the one that made 2nd and 3rd gear work! Jeff fixed it with duct tape, too. We were in the Finistir (how do you spell that?) mountains again. It didn’t take too long to fix. Then, after we passed the Kasam pass and before Yonki, we were told by a construction man that our tire was low. He was right, so we had to change it. Thankfully, we were right by a place where it was not only flat, but we could also pull off the main road! Praise God! This tire change only took 20 minutes. And, Scott said that the total time for both stops was the same length of time as the stops going to Madang. But, we were driving on fumes for a WHILE. At the end, we thought we would run out of gas. But, we made it to Kainantu and got some there.”
Pictures to come….
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