T.S. Eliot for advent

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For such a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Journey Of The Magi

Neighbourhood Friends

Reuben turns five

Back in August it was five years since Reuben's dramatic, unplanned homebirth. The unplanned part was being at home with four ambulance officers crammed into our little apartment bedroom, Soren asleep in the next room, me howling and laughing as Reuben made his way into the world. He hasn't been in a rush since. He's inherited his father's phlegmaticism and moves through his life at a very leisurely pace. We adore him and wouldn't want him any other way (except when running late). He makes us laugh til we cry. At dinner the other night Soren said: Hey Reuben, push away your icecream and have rotten cabbage. Reuben: Soren, that's sin. If not for the fact that he can't read yet (he's on the way, wandering around the house chanting g-g-g gecko! sh-sh-sh shoe!) I might have thought he'd been reading CS Lewis who said 'We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea. We are far too easily pleased.' My prayer is that he'll know the joy of knowing Jesus as his saviour and friend and of serving Him all his days. 

Masak-masak (again)

Masak-masak = play cooking. 

Agnes prepares the pineapple from our garden.

Malaria

This is what we like to see--a negative result. We've fared pretty well so far--the boys have had it a few times, Autumn once or twice, Phil and I never. The children have never had the strain that hides away in your liver, so they haven't had to deal with recurring bouts or the primaquine treatment to get it out of your system. We don't take preventative medicine anymore, but sleep under nets, test straightaway for symptoms that could mean malaria and have developed an impressive knack for spotting, honing in on and destroying the wretched things (you have to think like a mosquito, our friend advised as we stepped off the plane).

Saturday Solitude


As much as I love and adore my children, one of the tricky things is that one or more of them is ALWAYS THERE and I sometimes crave a bit of blessed silence and space to get my head together, or into a book, or onto a pillow. Mercifully, I have a fearless husband who is willing to take them all away from me from time to time, like on this rainy Saturday...

...and look, he's even smiling, bless him. They're off to the awful mall which the boys love because it has a kind of time zoney place with lots of awful games and they're allowed to play the non-shooting ones.

Soren the Chef

Soren has his own recipe book and loves to use it and surprise us with a 'treat'.

He especially enjoys making the most of the drama of the occasion (applause for his effort is welcome) and always makes sure things look beautiful.

Superheroes

Bible Club

For a few years now I have been taking the children to a neighbourhood mid-week Sunday School connected with the church we used to go to. For a while I was helping with teaching, then I stepped back and was just going to help provide good material, but the lady running it recently and suddenly took her three children to Ambon to live. This was a blow for me as she was one of our neighbours that I counted a friend. I don't have the time or energy to run the group myself at the moment, or train someone else to run it, so for now it has folded. Maybe it's something I'll take up in the future, using Papuan Malay material our team prepares...maybe I will run a Christmas program in the holidays...maybe...but too much going on at the moment. My children were not always enthusiastic about going. It took all my tenacity some weeks to follow through and insist that this was what we were doing, like it or not. Other weeks a thousand other tasks at home beckoned, but it was almost always worth making the effort. This particular week Soren played the part of Big Responsible Brother to perfection.





After some sweet tea and biscuits, time to head home through the mud, cow poo and rain.

Lawn Bowls

Lawn bowls, Papuan-style (they're coconuts).

Grub's Up!

Phil was given these apparently yummy grubs from someone in the village. Even he wasn't game; he gave them to a neighbour who gladly added them to the menu for dinner that night.

A nice spot



The boys' new school is called Hillcrest International because it's on the top of a big hill--a nice walking and picnic spot with views of the lake and town below.

Autumn (almost 2.5)

Ride around Lake Sentani

A while ago Phil joined some others for the day to take a motorbike ride around Lake Sentani. I was a teensy bit jealous. I had my own scooter-style bike until recently (though neither my bike nor I would have been up to this ride). We decided that my riding it wasn't worth the various risks that seem to have been on the increase around town over the last couple of years, so now I just use the car and we rent the bike out to raise some cash for our work here.

Reuben's First Day of School



Looking a little unsure, Reuben finds his locker. At the end of the first week he announced: Good school! There are 10 kids in his class, from Indonesia, Australia, US, Canada and Korea.

Sekolah Papua Harapan


Soren's 1st Grade teacher Dewi came to visit him when he was sick for two weeks and unable to go to school. It wasn't malaria or anything dramatic, just a cough/cold virus thing with fever that lasted a whole week. Soren has now moved to the International School for 2nd Grade; we're glad to still see Dewi at church on Sundays.

Soren's last day at Sekolah Papua Harapan. Mum blubbered her way through the exit parent-teacher interview, grateful for Soren's two years there, and sad that it was coming to an end. Reuben was a bit too young to start Kindergarten there, so rather than holding him back a year, we put him into Kindergarten at the International School.

Al fresco dining


I bought this outdoor setting for about AU$40 and now we actually use our lovely front porch. I like to send Soren and Reuben out there for lunch. Reuben is pretending to be a dog waiting for his supper.


Reuben and Gaby enjoying some of Reuben's 5th birthday cake.

School pick up


Yes indeed, this is the trusty bridge I cross twice daily to pick up Soren from school. There was a detour set up for a while, until someone decided that it was safe enough to use again.

Rainbow Warrior


Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior came to Papua! They weren't protesting, but promoting the beauty of Papua's vast wilderness and the importance of protecting it. Guin's sister Thom and Nic's friend Val, whom we had met in Sydney, was part of the crew and gave us a tour. Cool thing was, cousins Otto and Esther had just been on the very same ship in Sydney a few days before. A strange sensation, having this sudden connection with, but still being so very far from, our family.





Current forest (top) and proposed logging (bottom). Ouch!

Reuben's playgroup

Reuben goes to playgroup a few times a week, 8-10am. Lately I have been staying for the duration, to help him engage and keep it a postive time for him before he heads to the international school in August. 

On this particular morning the children played being at the market. Ibu Esther who runs the group has a never-ending supply of creative play ideas. 



Burning rubbish.

With friends Mel and Mama Kin, who've also been conned by their kids to stay for the morning.

Rambutans

Eureka! Rambutans don't just look fantastic, they're also sweet and delicious.

We have a tree in our yard and apparently this is the first season that it has produced fruit.