Thanks for your patience with us (and the blog and email) as we transition yet again to a new place. We are back in Ukarumpa now after three weeks in Tararan, which is in the Morobe Province on the eastern side of Papua New Guinea. God blessed us with a wonderful host family and village, and we learned a ton, so thank you for all your prayers!

Retired pastor Luke Bair and his wife were our "Papa" and "Mama" during our stay in Tararan. All of their family adopted us instantly with the warmest hospitality, so we all got sisters, a brother, in-laws, nieces, nephews, and plenty more from day one. They were all so kind and gracious with us (especially when it came to language learning); it was truly humbling!

I would say that our primary purpose in spending this time in Tararan was for language learning and cultural acquisition, but the most beneficial thing about our time there was falling in love with the people. We were adopted into this Papua New Guinean family, and now in a sense, we are Papua New Guinean ourselves. We have a new perspective and heart for this land that we are so thankful for as we set out in our ministry here.

Please bear with us now as we attempt to smash three incredible weeks into a relative handful of pictures and videos.

Beautiful Faces

The kids took great delight in getting dirty whenever possible.

Banner and Papa

Lazo enjoys the swing. I think that we brought this rope for a clothesline, but this seemed like a much more practical use.

Millie loved playing with Mary. This was after Mary went and got a wig so that her hair would look more like Millie's.

Nori and Lazo at the market.

Bath time for Millie took on a new form.

Much time was spent talking and making bilums (traditional Papua New Guinea bags) together.

Millie and Jenny show up at the dance with the same outfit on...

Hanging out with Jenny and Auntie Suzanne at the primary school that they teach at.

I love the anachronism of this photo.

John had the privilege of leading devotions on the last day of school.

We also got to answer questions about life in America, which Nori and Millie were excited to jump in on.

UNO was always a hit.

Nori took great joy in carrying Mary around whenever she would let her.

About to leave for church with Papa

Even though Papa was retired, that didn't stop him from stepping in and preaching when he was needed.

Whenever we had to go farther than a walk, we rode on a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle). In the areas that we've been to, these are the main transportation if you don't walk or own your own car (which is rare—even old cars are expensive here). There may be a select few people in PNG that own a fleet of PMVs, but most of these are owner operated, and each one unique (many are named, like boats). Sometimes they look like this Toyota Coaster bus.

Riding in the back of a PMV with Auntie Suzanne.

Banner and Leony (our niece!) riding in the back of another PMV, this time a pick-up truck.

The fence didn't stop Auntie Belinda from buying the girls a meri blaus at the Main Market in Lae while we waited outside for a PMV.

Kristi and Ree.

In Mempangnaron for the day with our tambu (in-law), Daniel, and susa (sister), Suzanne. This is where their home and garden was, but they were very gracious to stay close to us at Mama & Papa's in Tararan for much of the time we were there.

Besties: Millie and Mary.

We took a PMV to "Clean Water" which was this swimming hole about 15 minutes away. There were about 30 of us that went—all of them our family!

Auntie Belinda and Millie

Waiting for the church bell to ring with Papa again.

Mama (or bubu meri to her grandkids) with Millie and Mary before church.

Enni (who gave me a beautiful bilum the first time that we met!) and Nori at church.

I love this picture of Suzanne!

Mama with her nieces and grandkids.

Nori joined Aunie Niwe and others singing in front of church. This song is in Wampar which is the tok ples (or local language) of Tararan.

Beautiful Places

The Kassam Pass descends from the Eastern Highlands down into the Markham Valley. These video clips don't do it justice, but they are better than pictures and hopefully give you a bit of a feel for the magnitude of what God created here.

These are just a few pics from the car on the way to the Markham Valley.

Sometimes the pavement ends and begins again spontaneously.

More pics from the car...

Michael and Banner going to get firewood.

It's a bit of a walk to get firewood, but the scenery is breathtaking!

According to Papa, this is pretty much what Tararan looked like when they first moved there when he was younger. They planted all of the trees and gardens that define the village now. The papaya, coconut, mango, cocoa, and banana trees (just to name a few) are everywhere; the transformation was astounding.

I don't think that Daniel ever got tired, it was amazing.

Banner and Uncle Daniel looking for deeper water so that we can get cleaned up after a hard day's work.

Stuff we ate

Papa tells the story of spearing the pig. If you were wondering what Tok Pisin sounds like, here you go!

Kristi had been praying for a pig pretty much for the whole of POC and on the night before our last day in village a wild pig wandered in... God sent the pig :) here are some photos of the prep, we cooked it inside bamboo.

The ends were stuffed tight with banana leaves.

Oh, the anticipation!

And it's done! Suzanne breaks the bamboo open so that we can feast.

I'm continually amazed at what is still around and being used from World War 2. I'm not sure what this thing was manufactured for, but I can guarantee you that it has been a grill for most of its life.

The world's largest pot of cooking bananas!

Some bananas around here are smaller, but these were just as big as they look. I was impressed to see some family members with 6-10 of these on their plate (along with other food!). I would compare the cooking bananas I've had to the flavor of a potato more than anything else.

Not your average chicken leg...

This is roasted mumut, also known as bandicoot. It's a large rat-like marsupial thing. Pretty much all dark meat. Kristi said yay; John said nay.

Trying cacao beans fresh off the tree. One large pod has a ton off beans encased in this sweet white stuff that you can suck off the beans. The beans themselves are pretty bitter though. Quite a few steps away from chocolate.

Kristi found this strainer spoon and thought it would be great for village living because of its size... many a friend from POC (and myself included, I'm sure) made fun of her saying it was a kitty litter scoop. She made me take a picture of this one in a store in Lae that actually had pictures proving it was indeed a pasta scooper!

Stuff we made

I started carving this whatnot out of a coconut shell and Papa ended up making a cool little mask.

It's amazing all the things that you can make from the coconut palms. The crowns were always a hit.

Sometimes you have to build things that aren't that glamorous, but very necessary. Daniel and Papa taught me how to build a liklik haus (a.k.a. an outhouse).

I took this picture for my good friends at Guthmann Construction. My tambu, Daniel, built this house for his family. Not one piece of wood in this bush house was straight or the same size (which is indicative of every bush house in PNG), but the finished product was astoundingly straight, square, and strong. And with no power tools! Nails seem to be more common now, but traditionally they would have tied everything together with rope made from a certain grass or vine.

Auntie Suzanne and Auntie Niwe teach Millie how to skin cooking bananas with a pig bone scraper, and cut beans with a super sharp knife, respectively.

And Mama stands by to offer encouragement and gumballs at a moments notice.

Kristi greasing coconuts.

So we were startled one night by a crash at our family's church next door. Michael and I quickly ran over to investigate (I took my bush knife just in case, which everyone apparently thought was hilarious, but you can't be too safe). Mysteriously, this wooden crucifix fell and broke. Fortunately, I brought some Gorilla Glue, and Michael and I were honored to be tasked with repairing Jesus.

Michael's skills were many, and these boats made from Sago palms were an instant hit.

Squeezing the bags that came with our water filter got old fast. Thank goodness for my engineering degree, LOL!

This tree falling down was the beginning of the coolest thing that I had the opportunity to make during our time in Tararan. Papa taught me how to make a kundu, which is the traditional drum of Papua New Guinea. I was the first person in his family that he had passed this skill down to!!!

My kundu was made out of "Susu" wood, which is typically used for this task. Susu literally means "milk" which made sense to me when I broke a limb off and it started bleeding (what looked like) milk. It was great to be doing this with a professional like Papa because there were a few other trees that I thought looked like good options, but he would reply "That tree is too hard" or "No, that tree is for posts".

What tools did we use? That's right, hand tools!

Fire is traditionally used to "carve" the middle out of the kundu. We did the majority of our boring with knives (because we had some good ones and it goes faster), but sometimes fire is the only thing used to make the hole.

This is the kundu pailai (literally, "drum lizard") skin that one of Papa's nephews graciously gave us for my drum. These are always used for the drum head. I was really hoping that I would have a chance to go hunting for one of these giant lizards, but I was very thankful that Nalau had an extra skin from a lizard that he previously caught. I put the hammer next to the skin so that you can get a feel for the size of this thing.

Papa uses (what I think is) Rosewood sap for adhesive for the kundu pailai skin.

Pictures of the finished kundu to come!...

Wild Animals

A baby bandicoot, so cute!

It's still hard to see, even in the video, but this spider's head looked like shiny solid gold.

Again, the picture doesn't do this spider justice, but it's about the size of the palm of your hand. There were quite a few of these in our liklik haus. We asked Papa if they were poisonous and he said simply "Sometimes men die."

"Boss" hog.

Apparently there are a bunch of spiders here...

Simba kept the rats away and was much adored for it.

The chickens and pigs roamed free and kept the yard clean. Papa and Mama had the friendliest and cleanest pigs that I've ever seen.

Meet Lesman (translates "lazy man"). He received a lot of fanfare from Nori and John (despite the fact that he pooped down John's shirt three times!)

Other incredible moments were seeing wild parrots flying around from time to time.

The ants here are quite fascinating. If you step on a spider or bug, there are little tiny ants that will carry the carcass off and clean up the scene in under a minute. These tree ants were always working together to accomplish daring feats on limbs and the clotheslines.

Wild Plants

According to Wiki, these are present in many States across the US, but I've never seen them before. The kids (and adults) had lots of fun with these.

The inside of these flowers looked just like corn kernels.

One of the many times that Michael scaled a coconut tree like it was nothing.

This crazy looking thing is a cacao tree (where chocolate comes from). The bean pods grow directly on the trunk and limbs. Cacao is a major crop in the Markham Valley where we were.

Not sure what these are, but we have bought some in the market recently. If you know, please comment!

This is God's Gatorade: kulau. It's just a young coconut really, but the water inside is sweet, refreshing, and full of electrolytes. Coconuts don't grow so well in the highlands, and these will only stay fresh a few days after being picked, so kulau is one of the many treats that you can only enjoy in the lowlands.

Somebody could market these as "Banana Bites"

What is attacking this tree?

Orchids!

You will frequently see orchids making their homes among the branches of all sorts of trees around PNG. God is so creative!

Michael snagging some more kulau for us.

Again, I wish I knew the name of this flower. So beautiful!!! Feel free to comment if you know!

Sing sings

Sing sings are held in PNG to celebrate all sorts of things: weddings, Bible dedications, and even going off to war, to name a few. Each village has there own dances, decorations, and songs. Twice, we had the great opportunity to join our Tararan family and learn their sing sing traditions. They seemed to love that we wanted to take part in these with them, and we loved being a part of their cultural heritage in this way.

Just another Tararan family...

The Romitos were just a walk away on the other side of Tararan. We had a lot of fun joining them for our first sing sing. Papa said that it was just a little sing sing, but I think that it was more like a sing sing lesson, which we surely needed.

Nori, Bailey, and Tara.

Big Tararan family photo :)

Tony, Mattias (Papa's nephew), and John.

Enni paints Kristi's face and Anna paints Millie's face,

Mary joins in the fun.

Nori with Auntie Niwe and Mary.

John with Jerry (his "brata" or brother), and with Nalau and Mattias (Papa's nephews). All with kundus in hand.

Farewell, Family!

Worship time before our last dinner together.

Kristi, Nori, and Millie with Enni, Auntie Suzanne, and her daughters, Leony and Panina.

Yali gives Kristi a meri blaus (one of many!).

Our family was incredibly generous from the inside out.

Our family showered us with many gifts before we left; it was truly humbling.

Banner shows off his PNG flare here too.

John with Ariki and many others. Ariki and his family were close family friends and he was also one of the teachers at the primary school with Suzanne.

Auntie Belinda made the trip back from Lae to be with us one last time.

The kids miss Michael so much!

Kristi with Cathy and Norene (Papa's granddaughter and daughter-in-law via Jerry). Cathy and her husband are expecting their first child very soon. This picture was taken shortly after they told us that they were going to name the baby Nori if it's a girl, or Banner if it's a boy!

In PNG there really aren't aunts and uncles like in America. Instead, for example, your dad's younger brother would be your "little dad". Likewise, you would be a grandchild to your grandmother's brother or sister. An incredible result of this family structure is that there are no orphanages in PNG (from what I've heard...). Aunts and Uncles take care of their nieces and nephews like their own children.

All that to say, this is a picture of John with his grand kids, Mary and Paul. So cute!