PNG Milne Bay Day 4: "Moving Day!"

Today we moved to our new home at the SIL base housing...with a great sense of relief.  (Cold water bucket baths such as we had at the expensive place, are not a favourite with me...and I didn't pack my beloved metal bucket in which to heat the water...but isn't the heart-shaped dipper-bucket cute?) 

The move was not without it's challenges, though.  

I don't know where the cultural value of time efficiency sits on your list of priorities, but it seems that mine is closer to the top than on the list of some folks here. I guess it depends if your goal is to live life as you find it, or to accomplish tasks.

 We packed our bags and set them on the porch.  Dan went to the main office to pay our bill.  He wanted to use a credit card.  Uh,oh.  It seems that the machine for swiping the credit card was in town.  So, Dan came and sat on the porch while someone went into town to get the machine.  Then, when they returned, Dan went again to pay, but none of his cards worked.  So he came back to our porch and waited for someone to go with him into town so he could withdraw money and pay in cash.  He went, returned and paid, and then we called for a taxi.  The guy said, "5 minutes."  All this time rain is pouring down.  Half and hour later, Dan tries the taxi guy again and he doesn't answer.  Finally, Greg came to us in another taxi and we all went to our new place.  Whew!

We bought an umbrella today!

Also, we now have twelve foam mattresses purchased and stored at the church, ready for the students.  We'll cart them over to the Nazarene Transit House on Sunday for use in the bunk beds. (The plywood base on the beds looked pretty hard.)