Today is sightseeing day. Steve decided to stay with his daughter, Charity, today. They and some of the other missionaries, along with a national man, are going to hike up a mountain near the station. The rest of us, along with Tim and another missionary, Justin and his 7 year old daughter, Amber Joy, are all going shopping in Hagen and then to a mountainside resort near Hagen. After a rather bouncy ride swerving back and forth on the road to avoid the largest potholes we arrived in busy Hagen. We went back to the grocery/general store of Best Buy. Inside was, of course, the food part of the store but there is also a separate small area of general goods. Most of us bought something cold to drink and we even had ice creams bars. Bethany was outside the store with her parents near some sidewalk peddlers when she started feeling weak. She leaned against Cheryl and the next thing we knew was she was fainting. She was lowered to the ground where she recovered. It did draw a little crowd. But, thankfully we were near the cars so as soon as she was able she stood and we all got back into the cars. She’s never fainted before so it’s still unknown why. Perhaps the heat, maybe a little dehydration. We’ll keep a close watch on her. Because it was nearly 11 a.m. and we have a reservation at the resort we bypassed the open market area for shopping. Perhaps on the return trip. Our road up to Rondon Ridge resort was all dirt and rocky. We went up the mountain about 2000 ft with lots a little farms all along the way. Turning into a gated area the road suddenly became just a one way narrow tree lined road which suddenly opened up to a large circular parking area and a big lodge. There are guest houses on the site which rent for about 700 kina ($200-250) per night. Walking into the lobby of the guest house we are greeted with large floor to ceiling windows that overlook the entire valley and Hagen. It is beautiful! We spent a couple of hours there enjoying the view and resting on the patio. We also took a short walk to a very dense forest area where there are several different kinds of orchids growing. We didn’t see many of them so I assume this is off-season. At the end of the walk was a nice little waterfall. We also ate lunch at the resort. We had a choice of fish or steak. Guess which one I had!? Shortly after lunch was over we loaded back into the cars and drove back down the mountain to Hagen. Because of the lateness of the day and the length of time it will take us to get back to Kudjip Tim decided to forgo the market shopping time. Arriving back in Kudjip and the mission station around 4 p.m. it was time to get busy on supper prep. We have a very temperamental stove/oven. It’s gas but none of the burners start without using a match on them. And, then one has to hopefully hold the knob “just right” after the burner is lit or else it will not stay on when you release your hold. Usually the oven will light immediately without a match but to keep in lit one must put a wooden spoon in the door to keep it ajar just a bit for at least 5 minutes. Tonight we are having sloppy joes and oven baked fries. No problem cooking the sloppy joes once I got the burner to stay lit but this time the oven was the problem. No matter what I did it wouldn’t stay lit. So, plan B – fry all those potatoes. But, we only have one nice big skillet and a couple of really little ones. It just was taking awhile. Dinner is supposed to be at 6 p.m. but at 7 we went ahead and had devotions. We finally ate after devotions –about 7:30ish. Then Charity and Tim had planned for us to watch a video called “First Contact” about the white man first coming to PNG. After several false starts with the video that was on the computer Tim finally ran home to get another copy of it. We finished it about 10 p.m. As soon as it was over everyone took off to bed super quick. Very tiring day.
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