Hating on Yogurt

On my list of thing I miss about America, buying yogurt at a store is close to the top. It never occurred to me that I might have to make my own yogurt when I got to the mission field. The job of making yogurt is tedious and I literally hate it, so I thought I would share it with you. Tedious things make wonderful blog topics, right! This, of course, is just one way to make it. My friends make it in other ways but all of them are just as time consuming.

First you have to find a few clean jars about the same size. These are plentiful since we (missionaries) have a hard time getting rid of anything...even used wrapping paper. The jars and jar lids are then sterilized by pouring boiling water over them.

Now it's time to make the yogurt. Hopefully I remembered to keep the yogurt starter from my last batch. Some people open the first jar, take some yogurt out, and freeze it as the starter. This is what we would try to do. I have heard many clever ways to preserve yogurt starter (yes, we do talk about things like this on a regular basis). If you don't remember to keep the starter you have to beg some off a friend. If their starter is old your yogurt may be more sour than you are use to or not set properly. Taking the yogurt starter, I mix milk and water (checking the water temp because that makes a huge difference). The mixture is then poured into the jars (that have been emptied of the boiling water) and each jar is tightly sealed. If they are not tightly sealed then water will seep in creating a soupy mess. Trust me, it's really annoying to spend this much time and then realize you messed it all up because the jar tops weren't on tight enough.

The jars are then placed in a giant metal pot and water is poured to the top of the jar. This is actually trickier than it looks. The water has to be a certain temperature and, for some reason, I can NEVER get it just right. People have told me that the water has to be "dishwater hot" or "hot enough that you can still stand your hand being in it". What does that mean? When I was living in the village I was teased for having sensitive fingers and hands. They said this while pulling hot sweat potatoes out of the fire with their bear hands. I laughed and said, "Just because my hands/fingers still have feeling does not make them sensitive". All that to say, I rarely got the water to an adequate temperature.

Finally the pot is wrapped in thick heavy towels. I have heard of people putting the pot in the oven but this has never been practical for me. The heavy towels create an insulation for the pot. This then sits for many hours, often over night, so the yogurt can set. After all this work, hopefully you have four jars of yogurt. I was lucky if I could get yogurt that came out smooth and not clumpy. When I used this method it was often clumpy. Granted, it still tasted like yogurt, but what a pain. This is why I am hating on yogurt. This is also why I daydream about walking into a grocery store and buying 10 containers or yogurt!

A few weeks ago I was invited on a trip to Lae for vacation. Lae is a good size town in Papua New Guinea with stores, a swimming pool, and restaurants (and other things of course but these are the most appealing to me)! While there, I saw this EasiYo for sale and I had to get it. A YOGURT MAKER, HELLO! I brought it home with me and made a batch. This is what you do. First you sterilize the jar and red lid. Then you pour the mix packed (ahhh the convenience) in the jar with water to the top and shake. Finally you pour boiling water into the thermos, put the jar inside the thermos  and hours later...smooth and glorious yogurt! Forget the towels, temperatures and stress...I got an Easiyo!

Friends...enjoy your store bought yogurt. Eat it and think about me!

Thanksgiving Service in the village

The Thanksgiving Service

In 2009 the people living in the Ukarumpa Village (near our center) had some terrible things happen, resulting in many of their huts being burnt down and a few people being killed. During that time Ukarumpa Center assisted them, prayed with them, helped them in what ever way they could.

Last year Ukarumpa Village, out of thanks to the Lord and to our community for their assistant, brought a bunch of garden goods and gifts to our meeting house. We rejoiced together in the way the Lord had spared them and encouraged them during that time.

This year, on Sunday August 12^th, our community was invited to visit the village and have a joint Thanksgiving Service. Deciding to go, I packed my water, TP, bible, and hand sanitizer and walked out the door to find a rainy and dreary morning. My roommate and I went anyways, meeting other people from our community as we walked. On our way we came to a “bridge”. I say “bridge” because it is WELL worn. It must have been some kind of Car Bridge back in the day but today it is hardly a walking bridge. Many meters over the rushing river pay a bunch of wooden boards suspected half-hazard by chain tethers. On the wooden boards lay metal plates that could possibly have been used during World War II.

When we came closer to the bridge my roommate and I chose to wait for the group ahead to get across successfully. They were taking great caution where as we figured, if we walked across quickly we would not have to think about the rushing water, the extreme height, the wobbly bridge with no hand rails, and the slippery metal plates. As our friends crossed foot over foot more guests arrived and began talking about their fears of crossing. Finally we crossed and didn’t look back. Let me just add, this is not a bridge where you can look at your feet and not look down. Each metal plate has round holes all over it making your stomach churn.

On the other side we walked the half mile or so to the village and was greeted by smiling faces of villagers, employees, friends, and others from our community. After shaking hands we settled on a woven mat under a large blue tarp held up by smartly crafted bamboo poles. Time passed as more visitors and villagers joined the festivities. One older lady didn’t have a seat so I convinced her to share our mat with us. She was a sweet old lady, likely a grandmother of many in the village. She held my hand tight and talked about what was happening and pointed out each of her children and grandchildren.

The service began with singing. We sang songs in Tok Pisin, English, and the village language of Gazup (I didn’t sing but the village people did and it was beautiful.). How honored God must feel when his people join together as one and lift his name up. Our community children sang some songs and so did the village Sunday school class. The service was long but God honoring. At the end each village clan (family) brought garden items and gave them as a tithe/offering to the Lord. What a wonderful picture of giving of what you have. Even little children held a head of lettuce or some carrots to offer to the Lord.

I am grateful I was able to share this day of Thanksgiving with the people of Ukarumpa village and many from my community. Though I was not here during the events that preceded, I am grateful that I can participate in the thanksgiving of God’s provision and protection.

Would You Rather

On Wednesday I welcomed my students to their new classroom (we have a year round school system). I showed them around the classroom, explained the rules and behaviour system, showed them their desk and toured the campus. Since Kindergarten and First grade are on the other side of the school campus, we had to make sure they knew were the bathrooms were and so forth. Over break we made a big switcheroo. The second grade classroom was moved into the fifth grade, the fifth grade was moved to a spare classroom, and all our stuff was shifted. This way second grade would have more space for the age of the students.  The change threw students off the first day of school.

The first few days I try to get to know my students a bit. They usually tire quickly and need more breaks. So after working real hard on some phonics and writing assignments we took a break and did a “getting to know you” activity.

I took them to the back of the room and had them stand in the middle. I explained the rules of the game Would You Rather. The teachers had played this game the day before when we met together, so I thought it might be interesting to see how my second graders would respond to similar questions. I told them that they should move to the side that they would rather do/be, talk to the other people on that side, and then we would share.

The first question was: Would you rather have the ability to fly or to be invisible? They separated and began to talk. That was the fun part! I love hearing kids share with each other. When I was teaching Kindergarten this game would have never worked. Little children don’t know how to work together yet, or to discuss or reason as a team. Afterward they shared their answers. The children who would rather fly would like to be high in the air and go real fast. The children who would rather be invisible thought it would be fun to play tag and no one could find you.

Then I asked: Would you rather be really small or really big? Everyone went to the really small side. My favourite answer came from one of my out-of-the-box boys. He said that he wanted to be able to sit on a flies back! Gotta love kids and how their minds work.

My final question was this: Would you rather know about God but not tell anyone or not know about God and tell everyone? This one got them thinking. The majority of the kids moved to the side where they know about him but don’t share him. Four children went to the side where they don’t know about him, but still tell about him.

I asked the one side, “Why would you want to know about him but not tell anyone?”

One little girl said that sometimes people don’t want to hear about God and so they get mad and might even hurt you. Another child said that the Bible tells us to know about God and believe in him. One little boy said that if he knew about God then he could go to heaven.

I then asked the other group, “Why would you want to not know him but still tell people?” They thought about it for a bit and then they said, “God teaches that we should tell others about him.”

Then I began to ask questions. Doesn’t the Bible tell us to know him and make him known? If you don’t know Jesus but yet you are telling people about him, how do you know what you are telling is true? Are you being obedient if you keep the good news to yourself? Would you be leading people astray if you don’t really know what you are telling them?

We talked a little about how we are called to do both. If we know about God we are expected to tell others about him, even if they don’t want to hear, even if we will get hurt or laughed at. We talked a little about Paul and what his life was like.

I then told them that I would rather be in the middle: to know him and make him known to others.

What a wonderful teaching moment God gave me! I am excited to teach my eighteen little ones to go deep into God’s word and to watch their faith and understanding grow.

Bat Lasagna

Bat Lasagna

Today we celebrated my friend Melissa’s 26^th birthday with a fondue party! All 19 friends were asked to bring some item that can either be dipped in a cheese or chocolate fondue. With two AMAZING homemade fondue recipes simmering in crock-pots we gathered around two round tables each with a lazy-susan in the middle. Our stomachs were filled with delicious veggies, breads, fruits, and treats. This was defiantly my favourite party I have had so far! Thanks for giving us a reason to have fun Melissa!

Our table began to have some quite random conversations, which created a great amount of laughter. Of course when one table begins to laugh the other table listens up to see what is going on, but often not at the beginning of conversations. I bet you’ve done this before. So at one point one of the guests said that she remembers her mom only cooking lasagna for her and her siblings when someone had died. When our conversation ceased, a guy from the other table told a story about how he attended a village church and when the service was finished they killed a large amount of bats that had been flying around.

Someone from our table said, “I guess you could make lasagna”. Everyone at our table laughed and so did the other table. After a second I thought about it and realized that we were likely laughing for two different reasons. They were thinking of lasagna made with bat meat and we were thinking that something died so it’s cause to make lasagna.

After explaining why we were laughing we all realized that the idea of bat lasagna was not really that repulsive to any of us, since many of us have actually eaten bat! We laughed again and started telling stories of the challenges of eating bat meat.

Oh… the conversations that arise in Papua New Guinea Funny how our mindsets change with the experiences we have.

The Art of Cleaning Clothes

Yes, there is an art and pending on your “washing” situation it may differ a bit. Here is my experience with washing and drying clothes.

First of, I have to either, make sure I wash my clothes the night before and let them sit in my washer (nope, they don’t mold…cold here at night, mid to low 60’s or so) or wash them when I wake up. Since our washer is “newer” it only takes 45min-1 hour to wash a whole load, oh including the time it takes to fill it with water. Did I mention that the water comes from the river? J Thankfully our washer only shakes our house a little bit so my roommate and I are still able to have a decent conversation…well, if we shut the back door that is.

After the clothes are washed and spun I plunk them into a laundry basket and head to the clothes line behind our house. We share this with our neighbor (since we live in a duplex) so we technically only use two sides.

There is a running joke on the mission field that everyone knows what kind of underwear everyone wears because they are hanging up outside. Though very true, I decided I’d rather keep private as much as I can. I hang some shirts on the smaller part of the line. There are different ways to hang shirts, believe it or not. My roommate hangs them from the shoulders and I hang them from the base upside down.

Always aware that the first sight of rain means a race to pull everything off the line, I make every effort to beat the rain. I shoot for using less clothespins and hang things close together!

I then move to the second shortest line and hang a shirt or skirt on the end and then proceed to hang my undergarments, followed by another shirt or skirt on the end. 

The middle line is where I put the towels, pants, and jackets. That way when the wind blows them they will not hit the near by bushes. The outer lines are used for more shirt, shorts, and skirts.

Finally, if I am brave, I will lift the clothes line up higher, (because…peanut gallery… I had to lower it being a lady of 5feet 1 1/2 inches.) so the clothes can catch the wind. The other day it was brought to my attention that the hole near the crank is for oil. When oil is put inside, it allows the clothes line to spin around more easily. I pick up my basket, my bag of clothes pins, and walk away quietly praying for sun and the rain to stay away for a few hours.

I remember doing laundry in the village. We only brought a few pairs of clothes to begin with and even then we brought clothes that could make a few different outfits. When we were in great need of clothes we would take the dirty ones down to the river. Our village was fortunate enough to have a nice size river running right through it. We would fill one bucket with water from the river and bring it back over to the side. After transferring our clothes to the bucket of water we would then add some soap. With our hands we would stir the clothes in the soapy water and then choose an item to work on. We were taught to take the item to the river (with our skirts tucked into our shorts might I add. Sorry I don't have a picture for you), throw it on the water, and rub it between our hands. We would then get the items completely wet and then ring it out. If it was not “clean” enough we would do the whole process again. If an item was dirtier than the others it would get a scrub on the broken down tree that laid across the river. I quickly learned that scrubbing would wear my clothes down much quicker so determined that my clothes were "slightly" dirty.

After washing all of our clothing and putting them in the second bucket we would either bathe or return to the village. A clothes line had been assembled for us beside our village house where we hung our clothes. Since it hardly rained the whole five weeks in the village we were fortunate to have dry clothes by the end of the day.

That was the process we went through in the village (note: every village is different).

Hanging up clothes is an art, while driers are a luxury.

Courageous

I watched the movie Courageous tonight with my roommate. Of course, I cried. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. Afterwards my roommate and I were talking about our dads and how thankful we are to have them in our lives. They took the challenge and have continued to live their lives to bring glory to God. I can only hope that men of all ages will stand up, take charge of their family, and lead them the way that Lord desires. Not just because of a movie but because it’s the right thing and the only thing to do. The harder you work to build godly children the more likely they will grow up to be godly men and women, leaders of the next generation, godly moms and dads and spouses. I promise I’ll do my part as I teach them in school, as I am an aunt and an honorary aunt. Let’s be courageous together.

How to light a stove

I went over to a friend's house tonight to play games and some how we began talking about her stove. Since I do not have a picture of how terribly old and run down it is, I will do my best to describe it to you. Unlike our gas stove that lights when the flame hits the gas and is small and fairly new, hers take many steps to work properly. It is big and wide and in great need of repairs...or better yet, replaced. I will explain it to you in steps as she did so nicely. I told her, "I wish I had a video recording of these steps because then maybe someone would feel sorry for you and buy you a newer stove". Here goes:

1. First of all, the knobs are so old that they disintegrate so she bought some new knobs, which apparently do not fit. However, she still keeps them in a peanut jar beside the stove. When she wants to turn it on she has to place a smaller piece of the dial, add the new knob but it's not calibrated correctly so you have to line up the off mark on the knob to the on mark on the stove.
2. To turn the oven on she has to turn the knob to select the temperature but she can not be sure that is the actual temperature she will get.
3. Then she lights the match, being careful that the head of the match does not fly off and land in her hair, on her clothes, or on the floor (Go Paradise matches). Once the match is lit she has to quickly put it at the back of the stove on some sort of "holder".
4. After the match is in place and the temperature is set, she pulls a lever that is inside the stove. This allows the gas to come out.
5. Finally, and let me just say I had to laugh when she said this, she puts her head in the oven and she blows in order for the lit match to ignite the gas.
6. And let me add, if for some reason your match does not stay lit or your gas tank runs out repeat steps 1-5.

I feel sorry for my friend that this, unfortunately, has become normal to her. She was telling us this story with a straight face and we were all thinking, when do you say, "I am not putting up with more. I need a new stove.”

It seems as though the longer you are a missionary, the more you put up with that should really be changed. Sometimes we just need to tell someone in order to see how ridiculous something really is.

To my friend, I hope someone will see this as a problem that is dire need of change and help you out. If not, feel free to bake things at my house!