Here's the highlights of my trips to Hagen and Madang.

First, my trip to Hagen. At the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) annual conference I was the teacher of the senior primary class, which was roughly 8-10 year olds. I had them for about 10 hours in all over the 4 days. We ran it like a vacation bible school with a combination of singing, lessons, crafts, and games. The theme was Faith and Trust. They had given me some Sunday school type materials to go from. I brought costumes from our prop closet at the primary school and we acted out the Bible stories of Abraham, Elijah, David, Esther, Nehemiah, Gideon, and a few New Testament stories. I taught them a song that has all the names of the Old Testament books in order to the tune of Did you ever see a Lassie.

During the times when we didn't have class we had a great time with the single MAF people. We went out to eat at the two nicest places in town. Also they had the projection equipment from showing the Jesus Film and used it to project movies onto the wall. I saw October Sky a second time - it was nice seeing it on a bigger "screen".

Now for the trip to Madang. I went with my housemate Christiane. We had a great time, but there were quite a few things that reminded us that we are living in "The Land of the Unexpected" (a slogan for the PNG tourism industry). We had to do a lot of waiting around. One day we were joining a guided tour out to an island, but the guide never showed up. Another day we tried to catch a ride on a boat, but none came.

But most of our experiences were good. We were staying right near the centre of town, so we could walk to the market, the shopping district, and the place where public boats shuttle to the nearest island for about 20 cents each way. We couldn't walk around after dark, though, so our first night, the 4th of July, was a little bit disappointing.

Some of the best times were snorkelling. We went to four different beaches and saw countless kinds of fish and coral. There is a really neat big blue starfish that was one of my favorites. We also saw a sunken plane from WWII. At one of the beaches was a rock about 20 feet up that some of us jumped off. The Papua New Guineans thought that was pretty funny. They were watching us everywhere we went, everything we did.

We also had our first experiences with the public transportation system. We wanted to go to a wildlife sanctuary. There was a PMV (public motor vehicle) that usually went on that road, but it didn't have any passengers, so it made the trip especially for us. It cost a little bit more, but that was OK. There were 6 Papua New Guinean men who went along with Christiane and me. They stopped halfway there at market and bought betelnut, which is a very common stimulant here. So there we were going down the road with a bunch of guys who were chewing betelnut and spitting out the red juice, smoking, and playing Reggae music on the radio. The wildlife sanctuary didn't have much wildlife, but it was pretty and still a worthwhile trip.

We were able to ride home with some German Lutherans who were down there for a conference. They are from the nearest town, Kainantu, which is about 7 kilometers from Ukarumpa. I was the only one who didn't speak German. That's a rare experience for me, since English is such a dominant language around here. I learned a few new words and it inspired me to want to learn more.

Well, that's the story of my vacation. Now it's back to normal life. I'm trying to combat that letdown feeling that comes after such a big trip. Two more weeks before school starts - lots to do.