Party in Paradise

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-One very large mumu pit.

-One truck load of stones to heat the pit.

-One truck load of firewood to heat the stones.

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-Four pigs.

-Dozens of friends, preparing food, firewood, cooking pit, working all night long.

-60 stalks of cooking bananas.

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-70 chickens.

-Countless sweet potatoes, taro roots, cabbages, greens.

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-Three hundred sixty guests.


All that adds up to one big party!

Sam's "PNG Papa and Mama," Simon and Esther Tausi organized the whole thing. A big group from Esther's home village came down on Thursday.

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Many people from the hospital staff and from the community got involved. Many, many gave chickens, stalks of bananas, and lots of other produce.

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Pastor Robert Kia shared a
few words from scripture. Papa Simon and friend Pastor John gave tearful speeches. Papa Andy did his best to be cheerful--my slogan was "bihain krai, nau amamas" ("cry later, have fun now").

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There were dozens of gifts, including 12 bilums (colorful string bags, very time-consuming hand work), PNG artifacts, and cash ranging from small coins to wads of bills.

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Sam will miss PNG terribly. Many Papua New Guineans will miss him just as much. But their hearts will be warmed by memories of this day.

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Yours and His,
Andy

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Photos:
1. Sam with "PNG Papa and Mama" Simon and Esther Tausi
2. Sam with friends Tukni and Pil (and grandaughter)
3. Just a portion of the food given for the mumu. I counted about 47 stalks of cooking bananas in this pile alone. Many more were given, besides the 20 that we bought
4. Judy, Gail Dooley and summer visitor Britany Hart, peeling sweet potatoes
5. Our friend Meti preparing greens
6. The crew placing hot rocks and the food in the coking pit. The pit was so large that they had to make bamboo "bridges" over it, because they couldn't reach the middle from the edges.
7. Sam and some of the other men cutting up the pork
8. Pastor Robert Kia praying for Sam
9. Sam speaking to the crowd
10. Gola, chief of the Kuma tribe, and Wusik, chief of the Sikang tribe, leading the guests to the food line
11. The crowd going through the serving line
12. Display with photos of Sam