Great Joy in Small Packages

The joys of receiving a package from our daughter!   Brightens the whole day.

Ron & Karen

A Day In The Life

I wonder if you are interested in the rhythm of our days here?

4:00-4:30 AM             Get up to face the day, very much the same as in the USA.

4:30 AM                      Our daily prayers

Coffee and catch some news on Al-Jazeera.  It is very interesting to get the 

news from a perspective other than that given in the USA.

5:30 AM or so            Water is turned on. 

We were asked if we could drink the water from the tap.  Gigi & Max, our children, gave us a water filter to use while here and we are very thankful!

The top container is water from the tap first thing in the morning.  You can see why we prefer to filter.  One of our acquaintances here, a native Papua New Guinean

                       

6:00 AM                      Morning prayer, The Divine Office, in the Cathedral

                                    Sunrise 

6:30 AM                      Morning Mass, Cathedral

On Wednesday morning we have the option of attending morning Mass for Caritas School at 7:40AM or evening Mass at 5PM in the Cathedral.

7:00 AM or so            Breakfast and more news

                                    Laundry I try to do one load a day, small wash machine and hang dry

Sweep and dust – this could be done every five minutes and there would still be dust

everywhere!

8:00 AM on                Begin the work day

Ron usually meets with his crew and goes over their work day and then spends the rest of the morning supervising, planning, etc.  Ron is learning to understand the workers’ Pisin and picking up some words.

I usually begin working on various projects which are all computer based at this time.  I am working from our home for many reasons and I visit Chancery Office several times throughout the day with questions or to practice my Pisin. 

9:30-10:15 AM           Water is off for the day

10:00–10:30 AM         Sr. Lomero, one of the Caritas (SCG) sisters, comes to the house for about an hour to

                                     practice her English. 

These sisters are from Korea and oversee the Caritas Secondary Technical School which is in its 2^nd year and has over 200 students.  This spring they opened their first dormitory to roughly 60 girls.   At first, I thought I should have a ‘plan’ for these visits but I have learned that she loves to talk and is not shy about learning, so I usually let her pick the subject of the day and help her with pronunciation, grammar and meanings.  This works out very well. 

I have learned some of the history of the Caritas Sisters, founded by the Salesians, as well as about Sr. Lomero’s family, how the sisters are now part of her family, her decision to accept the posting to PNG, and, of course, Korean politics.

Noon                            Belo.  Lunch

1:00 PM or so             The afternoon is much like the morning except MUCH HOTTER!

4:00 – 5:00 PM           End of work day.

4:30 PM or so             Water is turned on for the evening.

5:00 PM                      All stores and the market close.

Two days a week, Deacon to be Boniface comes for our lessons in Pisin.  We also are blessed that he shares about PNG culture, about the different tribes located in West New Britain and some of the traditions from his tribe.  We have also heard about his family and his call to the priesthood.   At some time during the evening, we say the Evening Prayers of the Divine Office in our home.

6:00 PM                      Sunset

Bedtime varies but is usually early.  If there is no event at the Cathedral the grounds become very quiet.  Many evenings we listen to the choir practice or just the sounds of the families around us. 

           

9:15-10:00 PM            Water goes off for the night

If you wonder, Ron and I are lucky in that our housing has a TV and cable.  The cable company is the same company we get our telephone and internet through, not very reliable, and and all are expensive.  Telephone and internet are not purchased monthly like at home; rather, you purchase the number of megabytes you want for the number of days you hope it will last.  I usually top up for 1 month at 1.2 – 5 GB at K68 – K110, roughly $21.28-$34.42, and still have not made it through the month!  Because of this, we have found a spot, Liamo Reef Club, that offers free Wi-Fi and have started trying to spend part of Saturday or Sunday there.  We have heard there are one or two others, so we will be trying those out as well.

As always, we continue to be thankful for those in the USA who pray for us and support us in so many ways.  You are in our prayers as well.

O, Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

Feasts and Work

Last weekend we celebrated Corpus Christi.  As with most of the masses here, the crowd was huge and the procession outstanding! 

Friday, June 8th, we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and I spent the morning at Caritas Secondary School for the celebration of the 1-year anniversary in Kimbe Diocese.  Mass followed by presentations of poetry, drama and dance by the students.  It is always fun to be with these girls but today I have no pictures to share.

Priscilla is one of our next-door neighbors.  She is 14 months old and one of the ladies of the Diocese told me she is considered the Diocese Baby.  She is adorable and every time she sees us she comes running with her arms open wide to be picked up and receive hugs.  If our door is open she comes in to visit, which sometimes makes her mother a bit uncomfortable, but the good thing is that she is easy to find.  

On Tuesday of this week, Ron took me to two of the parishes he will be working with on building or maintenance projects.  The first was Mai, the Catechist School where they will be building a chapel.  The grounds are beautiful! 

My Chauffeur

Below is one of the pieces of artwork in the main building which is drawn by Fr. Yarek.    

Jesus, I Trust in You

We then travelled on to Silanga parish where Ron took some measurements for work to be done on a convent to convert it to a duplex for some of the Health Care workers whose homes were damaged in the earthquake.  The drive was lovely but long and the road, the New Britain Highway, is very bumpy.

The bottom pictures overlook one of the palm oil groves along the highway.

Ron and his crew are also busy working on getting the Cathedral grounds ready for construction to begin in July.  The Cathedral roof will be raised and repaired, and some pre-construction work done so that, when funds are available, changes can be made on the interior.  Bishop Bill is meeting with artists in the States for interior art as well.  Today, they worked on pulling down needless light poles, the one pictured below took out an electrical line when it came down.  This was right outside our front door.  

Once construction begins, the vehicle entry in front of our house (actually about 10’ from our front window) will be closed off and the area in front of the Cathedral will become more of a garden setting once construction is finished. 

My projects for the Diocese are more behind the scenes and very tedious.  I must keep reminding myself that Papua New Guinea time is not the same as the US!  If someone says they will get you the information immediately, it might mean 1 week or 6 weeks, who knows for sure?  But, everyone has the best of intentions and part of the problem here is me, in that I still think like an American!  People I have visited with who were Peace Corps Volunteers and past Lay Mission-Helpers assure me this is normal in any country.