Mission Project Day 1: Arriving in Port Moresby

Greetings from Port Moresby!

Today marks the first of 4 trips that I will take between now and the end of September - with only a week between each one (at home in New Zealand).  I will be here in Papua New Guinea until June 26th.  On Saturday June 15th we are taking about 12 UPNG students on a mission trip to a local village - it will be very exciting and stretchering for them!  I'll write more on that in a day or two.

I arrived here in Port Moresby on Tuesday, June 11th - after 7 hours (including the layover in Brisbane) - but I don't remember much of the flight because I kept falling asleep.  Despite my daughter's efforts to get me to pack early the night before my flight, I only had 35 minutes sleep that night (had to get up @ 2:30 am to catch the shuttle for my 6:45 am departure) - so most of the flight is a blur.  Here is a picture of my airplane... but I didn't take it because I was sleepy :-)

When I arrived in Port Moresby, I actually got through Immigration rather quickly (in 45 minutes instead of over an hour).  I don’t have a multiple entry visa, so I have to stand in a separate line for people paying for a visa on arrival.  The hall where we have to wait is gorgeous!  One wall (the wall I stand closest to) is lined with large paintings of people’s faces in their traditional dress & face paintings.  There are about 12 of them of men& women of varying ages, and they really capture the heart and personality of the people.  I’ve been wanting to take pictures to show people, but cameras & phones are not allowed.  Maybe someone snuck some photos & put them online – that’s not illegal, to look online J.  I’d check, but my Internet here is intermittent and very slow – if you find some photos (Jacksons airport, Port Moresby), please let me know!

Today went a bit quicker because the Immigration officer who usually processes the new visas was doing a different queue.  We think that this man enjoys “interrogating” the visitors because he often asks very strange questions, more than any of the other officers – and despite his deep questioning, I have never seen him turn anyone away - so our line actually went smooth.  

But at Customs, the man looked at my 3 bags (I had nothing to declare that was on their form) and said that I needed to have it all x-rayed – I was worried about how the 400 JESUS Film DVDs in one of my bags would look.  After the x-ray, another man sent me over to an agent to look through everything.  This man wanted to see my grey bag first and when he asked, I told him that it contained 100 magazines (Worldwide Challenge, Nov-12 issue).  I asked if he wanted to look at them, and he gave me a knife to open the magazine box that was inside my bag.  I explained that the article was about our ministry and some of my friends were in it, so I was bringing them some extras.  He was very impressed with the magazine when he saw it and I said, “would you like to keep one?” (It never occurred to me until later that I was probably bribing him – I didn't mean to, honest!!!).  But it worked, because after that he let me leave without looking at my other bags (& the 400 DVDs).

Eva, our PNG team leader (George's wife), picked me up yesterday at the airport.  It was wonderful to be picked up because so many times I have to walk over to the domestic airport (the only "official" taxi stand) and catch one that probably doesn't have a meter (last time my driver tried to charge me more than double the normal rate... until I threatened to get out and catch another taxi).  Anyway, Eva arrived just as I was walking out (great timing), and she took me to the MAPANG Missionary Home - sounds like it's for "old"missionaries :-).  We talked as she drove, and for about 45 minutes at MAPANG before she had to go pick up her daughter, Gail, from high school.  We had such a good chat about how things were going getting ready for the mission project on Saturday.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), I meet the staff all morning - that's always a highlight of my visit!