Date: 21st September 2015
Dear Pastor, Church, and Supporters;
(1 Timothy 6:10) “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Continued from last report… having returned from Lae, to Mt. Hagen.
Our shopping and packing was not much different than it has been for me in Malawi, Mozambique for many years. A few things are different but at the end of the day it comes out to mostly basic needs taking priority.
One of the issues we have been facing has been rain, yes that may come to you as a surprise, but also me, having spent my younger years at a mission station where we averaged four hundred inches a year, and now for the past three months we have not had any rain with the exceptions of a few days in-between. However, being three degrees from the equator it does not take long for things to dry up. The mud has turned to dust, the coolness of the mountain rains, has changed to hot humid weather, threatening to rain, but no rain.
Therefore we have been forced to buy bottled water for drinking, our cooking and bathing water has become a chore using some of the natives to carry water from mountain streams, which have not dried up.
In Malawi this would not be strange nor talked about for the seasons there go nine months without rain, and three with rain, all know this and it is a way of life, however here in PNG, with rain every day, several times a day and all night, it is a constant topic, talked about everywhere one goes.
There are not many options with food when most of the shopping involves non-perishables, and no fridge or freezer to put things in. Rice becomes a base, and other food types are worked around that. We have managed to obtain fresh veggies from the Mt. Hagen local market, which is one of the best fresh food markets in the country.
All the food has to be organized and then packed in carton boxes and taped to try and keep the dust out and off the food. This poses another problem, “heat”, and the drive from Mt. Hagen to Nogoli, or Tanggi Mission Station is no less then seven hours but many times takes eight to ten hours. That is a long time for fresh food to be secured in a box.
The food is only one part of the packing; there are our backpacks, medical packs, the drinking water, cleaning supplies for the kitchen and clothes. We have items we have to purchase to try and make life a little easier in the house, meaning, the old wood stove in the house at Tanggi has seen its best days and smokes a lot. I had packed a two-burner gas stove from Malawi, and we managed to get that out of the container the last trip, taking it to Mt. Hagen. I bought a small gas cylinder and refitted the connections in order that we might have something to cook with, without dealing with a smoky kitchen, all this takes up space in packing a vehicle.
Then there are hardware items, such as shovels, axes, nails etc. which, become absolutes in our life here now. Last, but not least is the toolbox, the life I live and the work I do in the countries I do it in mandates a tool box with various tools.
There have been many times in the past years in Malawi, and Mozambique, and years ago, here in PNG when I have had to work on the vehicle. Not only tools have I put at the top of the packing list, but also spare parts, i.e., fuel, oil, air filters, gear oil, engine oil, spare fuses, relays, spare hose pipe, with assortment of hose clamps. Many things I have learned in Africa, which has assisted me in life on the mission field. Nothing gets thrown away; old tyres are cut down to make rubber strips for strapping and tying cargo.
The vehicle was packed up the day before, as we would be leaving early in the morning, At 0400 hrs. We set off for our journey to the Nogoli mission station. Heavy fog was our biggest challenge in the early morning hours, driving through the mountains. The going was slow, as we had a heavy load; visibility was reduced to within the first fifty feet.
By day break we had managed to travel over one of the larger mountain passes and the fog had burned off making driving much easier. Through the morning hours, we carried on without any mishaps, and as the day wore on it was one mountain after another, a constant cycle of gear change. Diesel engines work on compression and have much more torque at low speed then petrol engines; therefore it is imperative to keep the engine rpms up especially with a heavy load and small engine. The gearing is relied upon more than engine power.
Bye and bye we arrived at the Nogoli mission station, as I have stated before over the years what we now call ‘development’ has slowly come into this country bringing with it the ‘wild west’ effect as though it were. With the strength of the Tribe, and no accountability, every man does that which is right in his own eyes.
The house has been stripped of everything, leaving only a Skelton of a house. We set up our tent inside, as there are no doors, no windows, and no middle partitions. Simply a roof, a floor and walls, the house was originally built on posts elevated twelve feet from the ground level.
The rest of the day we spent getting the house clean, with the lack of rain and the main gravel road close to the mission station and house, the dust has become quite profound. We washed with buckets of water, mops, and brooms several times over. It did not take long to dry, as Nogoli is quite low in elevation and hot enough to grow coconuts.
Our tent home was set up in our home and we settled in for the evening. The next couple days I conducted men’s meetings and worked on the schedule for the Bible Conference. Pastor Andi (Andy) and I spent much time in preparation for the food, which would be needed for those coming to attend.
It is a different generation now that we are working with here in PNG, and those who have been exposed to the oil and gas companies no longer want to live the life they did in past generations. The ‘White man’ has brought some good and a lot of bad to this country… “The love of money is the root of all evil”.
A hog that would have fetched two or three hundred dollars in 2011 when we were here last will now fetch fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars.
Things were in order for the Conference and I would drive to the Tanggi mission station to preach at the Tanggi Baptist Church on Sunday, following I had some jobs to do from Monday to Tuesday, which on Wednesday I would take some of the older pastors with me in the vehicle to Nogoli for the Bible conference.
Again I had a load, some cargo, some of our baggage, and then the passengers. The Land Rover can seat five in the cabin and then we usually secure all the light cargo on the rooftop carrier, and put the heavier cargo in the bed of the vehicle and then fit whom we can in the bed as well. I estimated that we had about a ton of weight when we were strapped in and ready to depart for Nogoli.
The roads here are hard on everything, the vehicle takes a beating, passengers take a beating and the cargo gets beat up. If one does not know how to secure cargo, and placement of cargo then by the time you get to where you are going you may find things broken, damaged, fallen out along the way etc. Therefore the packing, tying and securing takes time and thought relative to the road conditions being travelled over.
Much of the gravel roads here are peppered with grapefruit size stones, besides the potholes, and the corrugation. We departed in a good time though not the usual (0400 hrs.) and after two and a half hours we arrived at Nogoli.
To be continued…
Missionary Peter A Halliman