Category: Things You Don't Want a Picture of...

Just a short note today, I was reminded again of the different kind of life that we live here in PNG when I was printing a test for my AP Calculus class...

My first clue that something was amiss was a strange, almost summer- backyard grilling smell. When that smell grew stronger and the test pages began apppearing with baked on pieces of cockroach, I was jolted back to the present. This is the third time this year that a 2" long bug has made its home in my printer.

Here are a few recent reminders that we are not ' in Kansas anymore.'

• The power went out four times this morning.
• We drink all our millk from a box or from powder.
• We shiver when the thermometer drops below 80 degrees (and we are at 5,000 feet)
• A large insect has taken up residence in the tree just outside our bedroom window. Nate had to go out in the middle of the night last night to throw rocks up in a tree to stop it from singing out for a mate (Timex isn't the first with the idea for that annoying alarm clock beeeeep, God beat them to it by a couple thousand years).
• Our kids associate standing by the computer with talking to grandparents.
• I helped a local friend with his hospital bills by buying some artifacts from him. Now he is going to show how happy he is with me by killing a pig and giving me a leg (literally: whole pig's leg buried with hot stones for an afternoon).
• I'm happy about the pig's leg.
• The ham we get here tastes of fish because that is what the store-bought pork meat is fattened by...

Anyway, thanks for praying for us! We truly are blessed by you all.

Nate for the fam