Home Again

"What do you consider home?" It's a question that we're often asked, and I've had different answers throught the years. I used to tell the kids that home is wherever we can be together. I sometimes say that when we're traveling between PNG and the USA that home is whichever country we are heading toward at the moment. I think that familiarity is also a part of the answer--home is where you know your way around, where you see familiar sights, use familiar things. I use whichever definition is most applicable at the moment.

So, we're home. To the PNG home. I think it was the fastest trip for us yet. The layovers were relatively brief, and no over-nights. I kept my watch on Mountain Standard Time until we got here. We left Boise at about 6:15 Thursday evening, arrived at Kudjip at about 1:00 Saturday morning on my watch. Of course, when we arrived here it was about 5:00 Saturday evening local time. About 31 hours elapsed.

All of our kids were there to see us off. Veteran missionaries have told us (usually in response to our question) that leaving your loved ones doesn't get any easier with practice, and they are right. However, the love of our PNG family takes some of the edge off of the separation.

Jeff and Susan Myers picked us up at the airport. Sam's close friend Stanley and his little brother Agu came to the airport on their own to meet us, and rode back to Kudjip with us and the Myets. As we drove up the road to the gate of the station, we started seeing familiar faces, and began waving to friends.

Inside the station (at the "circle" for those of you who are familiar with the place) we started meeting missionaries. We shook a few hands through the car windows, then drove on down the road toward our house. When we got to the tennis court, there was a crowd gathered on the road, so we got out and started hugging, shaking hands and marveling over how much kids have grown in 4 months.

We slowly worked our way to our house. There were 2 welcome signs on our house, and "Welcome Back Home" spelled out on the steps in flowers (the work of Esther Tausi). I had to take pictures before our friends could carry our suitcases into the house!

The house was just as we left it; it had not been used by volunteer doctors or other visitors while we were away, but had been cleaned a few days ago. It was past 6 before we were alone. My first priority was a shower and clean clothes, then we walked down to the house of Stephanie Doenges for supper. An old tradition here is a "meal list" of dinner invitations for the last 4 days before leaving or the first 4 days after returning, so that we don't have to worry about major meal preparation during that time. We enjoyed supper with Steph, then staggered home to bed.

I'll leave the photos of the signs fairly large so that you can read them. Sorry that I was too sleepy and dull to remember to take a picture with Steph.

It's now Monday morning (I was wide awake at 4 AM!) and I'm getting ready for my first day back at the hospital. That is, after all, the reason we're here. This evening I'll report on my first day of work.

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