WUNDERLI WANDERINGS

Simon was quite taken with this man and his tree bark hat so just had to have a photo with him Got to love these smiles :) A traditional style of cooking food in PNG is called a MUMU.  The meat is prepared and put in a hot pit in the ground with vegetables including potatoes and wrapped in banana leaves. It is a team effort to get everything prepared for the feast. People arriving hoping that everything can fit on the plane.  However, in this case it took two trips so a bit of a juggling act as to what stayed and what went. A gift from one of Simon's passengers     Simon and Luke flew into this airstrip where there is a district "hospital".  They dropped off a man here who was suspected of having typhoid.  This medevac was for a lady who was in a precarious situation in giving birth to her daughter.  Thankfully the baby survived although had some nerve damage to one of its arms   This ai...

  Zara has had a couple of horse riding lessons recently, one of her passions.  These are two of the horses in the neighbouring field who are known to be very inquisitive.     The smile on her face says it all   Some days you just need to laugh like a horse!

Joshua is now in Year 10 and this grade requires him to do a work experience.  He managed to secure one at a car maintenance garage not too far from home.  Good for Mum and Dad as he can bike there :)  His first day included assisting the two mechanics in the service of cars.  He came back smelling of engines but had a good experience on his first day so we were happy to hear that. He reluctantly allowed me to take a photo before he headed off. :)

Joshua and his good friend, Levi, were experimenting with fire, steel wool, a whisk and some rope.  The photos below show the results of their creativity.  I think Joshua singed a bit of his hair in the process but they had a lot of fun.

Since I last updated the blog we have moved house and are finally getting settled.  It is a joy to be in a house that has airflow and where we are not fighting the presence of mould.  We have also emptied all our boxes and feel like we are adjusting to our new "home" in Australia. As I write Simon is preparing for a trip to PNG.  The plan is for him to get checked out and to be able to help out with training there.  The programme in PNG is changing its fleet to Cessna 208's and with Simon's wealth of experience on the Caravan in Uganda he definitely has a head start.  The plan is for him to head there in June for three weeks to get the ball rolling and then we will see what it means in the long run once he figures out the system and the needs of the programme.  This will be an interesting trip for him as it is many years since he has been to the land of his birth.  I wonder what changes he will observe.  I will be sure to post some photos. Nex...

Simon and I recently did trips to visit our MAF Arnhem Land programme in the Northern Territories.  It was great to finally visit this place I had heard so much about.  Simon's project was to help out in the Operations Department and to give some insight where required.  Working in a different culture has its unique challenges and so it was interesting for him to get to know what they were in Arnhem Land.  He was able to give some insight from his time in the Uganda programme and give recommendations where necessary.  We will see what happens next. A week later it was my turn to go up to Arnhem Land.  For me it was in the capacity of HR which is has a broad remit..  It was great to meet many of the families in the programme and get to know them better.  It is quite a multi cultural team and so reminded me a lot of Uganda.  There were folks from the Netherlands, Switzerland, PNG, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, India and more. On...