Can you make me 6 uteruses?!?!

Well as a continuation to my previous post I'll update you all on our trip to Madang with Ann and anything else we've been doing since she's been out.  We headed to the ocean city of Madang for 1 week.  We spent 4 nights in our NTM guesthouse and 3 nights at the Jais Aben Resort.  It was a wonderful time of relaxation and just visiting.  We did a lot of swimming while at the resort in both the swimming pools and the ocean.  The kids loved the small beach area at Jais Aben and even though there are some dangers to be aware of (ie. stone fish), we were able to truly enjoy it!  Clinton & I did some snorkeling and I must say that I almost panicked a few times.  Looking under the water and seeing the coral freaked me out a bit but after I got used to it I really enjoyed it!  The coral and the fish we saw were so amazing...my favorite was the electric blue starfish.  Our second day of snorkeling we got stung by jellyfish though we didn't know what had happened until we got out of the water and saw all the jellyfish in the shallow end.  I was a little concerned but we took some benadryl and a few hours later we were a-ok! :)  Even Ann put on the goggles and stuck her face in the water in the shallow end to see some of the fish.  And if you know Ann, you know that was a huge feat for her! :)  The weather was extremely hot and humid (too much so for my taste) but we kept the air conditioning on most of the time and so we were quite comfortable.
The airplane we flew in and out on was quite small, though the ride was surprisingly smooth!  The aerial view was fantastic to see the mountains and the valleys and the tribal locations.
Ann has been busy cooking us all our favorite meals and basically just spoiling us all rotten!  The kids are constantly hanging on her or sitting on her or playing with her...and she doesn't seem to mind! :)  How we've missed grandma!  Tayah wants to keep her until we go back to Canada next summer.  Aowyn has practically lived on grandma's hip since she got here and I'm not sure she'll remember how to walk once grandma goes home! :) 
Tayah has been homeschooled this year and the kindergarten teacher invited her into the class for 3 days one week to experience the classroom  and prepare her a bit for next year grade 1 as she will be going to school.  Tayah loved the experience though she did complain of the long days (will she ever need some time to adjust to full days in grade 1!).  She had to do some testing to see if she was ready for grade 1 and she did really well.
This past week I "inherited" another  ministry here on center.  I am now the "bossman" for the mission barrel.  The  mission barrel is a room where missionaries can drop off items that they no longer need or want (ie. clothes, electronics, household items, etc.- kind of like a selfhelp).  All missionaries are allowed to visit the mission barrel at any time and take whatever items they want, no cost.  It's a wonderful blessing to many out here and Clinton & I have used it many times.  Our kids love visiting the mission barrel to hunt for new treasures (toys).  Now I am in charge of organizing the new items that come in.  So far it's been fun! (though quite time consuming at times).
Now for the story that inspired my title for this blog... :)
I was asking one of my national friends if she would make a few bilums (crochet bags) for my mother-in-law to bring home for her grandchildren.  Instead of saying "...bilum long pikini..." (bilum FOR children), I said, "...bilum bilong pikini..." (which means uterus!).  I had just asked her if she would make me 6 uteruses!  I realized my mistake almost immediately and we both laughed for quite awhile over my language mistake :).
We have also taken Ann to the market here in Goroka and it was so muddy that day that we had very muddy feet for the rest of our time shopping.  I believe it constitutes a cultural experience! :)
Our visit with Ann has been so fantastic, and unfortunately the time is coming to an end in just under 2 weeks.  We're all really going to miss her...sniff sniff!
Well I should sign this post off as well, thank you for reading and following our journey and adventures out here in PNG.  Blessings to you all! 

Love, Clinton & Rolanda

Catch-up time!

Well folks, friends & family,
It's been a long dry spell for my blogging and I'm truly sorry! It seems that whenever I'm "in the mood" to blog, our internet connection fails or something else comes up.  So tonight, sit back and let me catch you up on the going ons of the Friesen family out yonder in PNG. :)
I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that I am currently the school nurse out here for our mission school (NCA- Numonohi Christian Academy).  In any case, I'm in charge of keeping the school lice free which means I check all the elementary kids' hair at the beginning of each term.  So our final term started in the beginning of April which meant lice check time! :)  I head off to school with my personal sized bottle of hand sanitizer and my hair in a bun.  I'm always a little nervous at first as I really don't like lice, but after the first few critters scurry across my fingers I get braver!  I have the do or die attitude with lice...if you show yourself I will catch you and squish you and then that child is sent home with a note to treat for headlice and how to prevent re-occurrence, etc.  Often times the children who have lice are the ones who live in one of the nearby villages and attend our school and it's so hard to control lice in those kids.  Part of the reason is that they live in such close proximity to other kids/adults with lice who are not being treated and the other part is that lice is ultimately a part of life for many of the village folk.  You'll often see them sitting and visiting with each other while picking through a child's hair and pulling out the lice and nits.  In any case, after I'm done head checking, I do a thorough washing of myself and I always have the heebeejeebies for the next day or two.  (And of course, I'm always convinced I have lice too!) :)
We celebrated Easter a little different than usual this year.  We still had an easter egg hunt for the kiddos, but there was no gatherings or church supper.  We did have some friends over for supper and had a great time with them.  The day after Easter, Clinton was able to go golfing for the first time since we'd been out here.  He had a great time with a few other guys and actually won the game by a small margin! (all while using quite outdated golfclubs!)  What a pro eh? :)  A unique thing about golfing out here though is that you have to use a national caddy and you pay them 10 kina (about $5) and a bottle of coke.  Clinton's caddy was a girl and he said she had an amazing eye for following where he hit is golfball...even when he thought it was in the complete other direction, she would find it!
April 23rd we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary!  Yay for us eh? :)  We were able to go out for dinner to Goroka to a restaurant called "The Pacific Gardens" which is a really nice restaurant out here.  We were actually able to go out ALONE as in we had a friend babysit for us, I believe that was probably our 2nd date since coming out here 10 months ago. 
On April 27th Tayah participated in the NCA field day.  It was so much fun!  Clinton got the day off so we were able to walk around to the various events and watch Tayah participate in different games such as:   sack race, 2 legged race, 50 meter race, jump rope, beanbag toss, obstacle course and some other group games.  Tayah placed 3rd in the beanbag toss and got a certificate...she was so pleased! (as were her parents ;))  An unexpected medivac landed one of our bush missionaries in the middle of our races via helicopter.  As the landscape is very hilly/mountainous out here, the only flat area for our helicopter to land is on our soccer field so our  missionary who was ill had quite the reception with all the students and parents watching his arrival.  (poor guy!)  He's doing great now though!  Turned out to be a pretty nasty case of Dengue Fever.
The end of April brought about the most exciting even for us so far...Grandma arrived!! :)  For all of you who prayed for her flights...thanks!  She had no unexpected delays, no baggage fees, all her baggage made it out here and she made it here to PNG in one piece with her sanity still intact! :)  We were all soooo excited to see her come out of the gate...the kids were squealing (oh wait, that was probably me!), but in any case, it was a great reunion. :)  Our time with her has been going by far too fast, but we are enjoying each moment and are loving just being able to "hang out" just like back home.
If you want to read more about our adventures together with Ann then keep reading on to the next post, but I'm gonna cut this one off for now as it is already quite long! 

 Me enjoying my Ketchup chips and minieggs from home!

 Grandma baking with the girls on her first day in PNG!

 Tayah in the sack race

 Tayah winning 3rd place in the beanbag toss!

God bless!