January 30. It has been a long day. Our flight was planned for first thing this morning, but due to bad weather, it was some time after noon.
Woke up this morning to rain, fog, and chilly winds. The weather was bad all over the country. New Tribes said they would call us back whenever the weather opened up enough for them to make their flights.
The people did come and work on the airstrip this morning as they had said they would, although they did not do as much work as they had said they would to keep the airstrip from washing out so easily.
After cleaning up the kitchen, I finished checking the rest of the Pidgin songs. Now I just need to get the corrections put in the file.
The rest of the morning, I sorted through all the boxes of school books, picked out what will be needed for the three students who will be having school at the house, and organized the rest and labeled the boxes. Then we will put some notices out about school books for sale. (Oh, I think there are still two or three boxes in the guest room that I will need to go through when we get back.)
By then it was lunch time. What shall we eat? There wasn’t much left in the house. We had to open up our town box to get out the bread and peanut butter. I also warmed up a can of pumpkin soup, and a can of baked beans to put on some bread.
Was just about finished cleaning everything up in the kitchen (didn’t get the dishes washed though), and was planning to take a little nap, when we heard the whir of the chopper blades. Oh, oh! They had never called us (or maybe they couldn’t get through on the phone). We dashed around getting everything ready to go out, turning off the gas and the water, locking doors…. Can’t remember if we shut the kitchen windows or not. If we didn’t, things may be pretty wet when we get home.
Philemon came out to Goroka with us. He has been waiting and waiting to hear whether or not he has been accepted into nurse’s training somewhere, but hasn’t heard yet. So thought it might be better to go and check. We had to stop at another village just up the river valley to pick up a couple more passengers. The chopper left Philemon and us at Obura and picked up two more passengers for Goroka. Then an NTM plane which had made a flight to Menyamya, and was going back to Goroka empty, picked us up at Obura and brought us to Goroka.
It was late in the afternoon before we got into the CRMF house we are staying in (Turtles’ old house). I was very hungry and tired. We had to go down to Papindo to get something to eat for supper. Got some deer meat, noodles, and spaghetti sauce, and had spaghetti for supper. The dear meat finally got done enough to eat. It certainly tasted good.
After supper, I got my clothes put away. Then got pictures put into the computer. And now I am very sleepy.
“22It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” Lamentations 3:22-26
January 31. Didn’t get to bed too early last night as I had hoped. The evening just went too fast. And then I didn’t sleep very good. There was only a single sheet and single blanket on the bed — not enough to cover both of us — and I got cold. I finally got up and found another blanket and slept better after that.
This morning, after breakfast and quiet time, we went over to the main office to see about getting a vehicle to use for the day for shopping. We had to sit and wait a while, as the one in charge was busy. Finally got off to town for shopping — stopped first at Papindo. Then to the post office — praise the Lord for two more packages.