our first two weeks in the tribe: the final post :)

Thanks for staying with me through all of these pictures (prepare yourselves for lots in this post!)  This is the final "episode" about our recent time in Maliyali...it's been really great to be able to share it with all of you back home! 

So...the Maliyali people.  Wow.  They truly were SO amazing to us!  They spent so much time and energy to prepare for our coming (clearing land for the helipad, building us each a house!)...and their hard work and helpfulness did not stop there...

First of all, the guys (like some of the leader-guys, plus random other men and boys) built this makeshift shelter out in front of our bush houses.  They committed to sleep under that shelter every night (while our families stayed in there, and also throughout housebuilding), to watch over us and make sure we were safe!  Such sacrifice, so humbling.  

When we planned this two week trip into Maliyali, we envisioned it to be very different than how it ended up being!  We had envisioned us just being more by ourselves, and maybe as families we would hike to visit peoples' houses, etc.  But what actually happened--everyone came to us!  There were always lots of people around, even though their houses are a good hike away.  I really hope that will continue when we actually move into the tribe, because it will be much easier for me and Emily to learn the language if there are ladies right outside our house!

Something else we didn't expect was the intentionality and the motivation of the people.  Sam (the council) had plans every day, projects that they all worked on.  Nathan and David spent many hours talking to the guys, making plans for our housebuilding, etc.  (By the way, the only way our husbands can communicate with these guys is in the national language.  Most of the men in Maliyali know Tok Pisin to some degree.  Among themselves, they ONLY use the Maliyali language, and someday we will only use that, too.  But for now, we need to use the national language.  It's a barrier because it isn't their heart language, and there are frequent misunderstandings...but at least it's a way to communicate for now!)

On day number two, Nathan and David walked us over to our future house plots!  Emily and I both really loved the locations that they had chosen, so it was settled!  Sam told our husbands that lots of men would be there the next day to clear the land.

Standing in the area that will someday (soon!) be our house!

This began the work for the next few days.  Clearing land is hard work with just axes and machetes!  Kaine spent a lot of time up there with Nathan, which was so neat to see...

We were so proud of him!  I told him, "Kaine!  How awesome is it that you are helping to clear the land for our house??"  So cool.  He chopped down a couple of small trees by himself!  (barefoot, yikes!)

After the land for both houses was cleared, the next job was to level out the ground.  It's pretty hilly there!

Emily and I are seriously SO proud of our men.  They are both such hard workers and they have such a heart for the Lord and the Maliyali people.  So thankful for our husbands!

One day while Kaine was up working with Nathan, one of the young Maliyali boys shot a bird with his slingshot.  He gave it to Kaine...lol!  Kaine came to show it to me, but we were like, what do we do with it?  So Kaine gave it back to him and told him thank you for letting him see it:)  And then...about an hour later, they brought it back to us...cooked!  We all tried it at dinner that night--it kind of tasted like bland roast beef.

Meanwhile, you might be wondering how our other kids kept busy...

They spent a ton of time together!  These two...so funny.  Our kids and the Rimestad kids are becoming kind of like siblings!  They act like it, anyway :)

Louise loved chasing the baby pigs around...poor Lou, she never could catch them :)

Once again, Daisy and Calvin found the mud pit...lol.  They were sure having fun in that mud!  Want to know how Emily and I felt about it?

Lol.  We had to accept dirty kids as part of our normal life there!  Even though we didn't always like it, lol!  (I love you Emily :)  )

The kids' new friend, Jerikai, taught our kids how to paint themselves with a red plant.  It doesn't wash off very easily, either!  But lol, what else was new?  

Kaine connected with this boy, Antonias.  He is a sweet kid!  He made bows and arrows for our kids, and taught Kaine how to do it.

Something that occupied a lot of our kids' time...fire!  Kaine was thrilled for the chance to make fires whenever he wanted, and cook sweet potatoes whenever he felt like it.  Totally his thing!

While the men worked on clearing land, the women would prepare food.  Emily and I and the kids would sit with them and help them...and learn bits of language!

Actually, it was pretty awesome--we got quite a bit of language!  Even though we haven't "officially" started learning the language, we got quite a bit of data and recordings from them.  We got lots of noun lists like the one below, and PE's (practical expressions), too!

Halle was out with her notebook one day...asking the kids how to say lots of things.  She did that back in Madang, too, when we were learning Tok Pisin...I'm so proud of that girl :) 

It was really amazing to get to know the women.  Talk about some hard working mamas!

I look so huge compared to my friend Adame!  I look like I'm pushing her over, too lol!  This woman is pretty much the only woman there who knows Tok Pisin.  The other ladies can understand it, but they can't speak it very well.  So Emily and I spent a lot of time with her, because we could actually talk to her!

This woman is Miriam.  She's really amazing--she has four kids who definitely keep her busy.  Her husband is not living there right now, but I'm not sure why.  She helped me and Emily SO MUCH!

We loved the adorable kids too!  

It's so exciting to think of these sweet babies as the future Maliyali church.

One night, Sam came to us and told us that they killed a chicken and his wife wanted to cook it for us.  This was close to dark, and we knew that it would take at least a couple of hours to prepare and cook the chicken!  It was so sweet of them and incredibly generous, even though it wasn't the time of day we would choose to eat a meal like that!  They also decided to kill a pig while they were at it, and they cooked it in the ground with hot rocks.  Seriously, this was an incredibly generous thing for them to do for us.

We watched them cook the pig...

And when it was all done cooking, they brought it over to us.  At this point, all the kids were sound asleep...we told them we'd save some meat for them :)  So...we had a late night date!  Definitely a different meal that we would normally eat on a date!

Ugh...such a goof :)  They cooked the WHOLE chicken!

The evenings were absolutely GORGEOUS.  Our guys were done working, the weather was absolutely perfect, and of course the scenery is amazing.  It was a really relaxing time of day for us!

To be honest, the last few days that we were there were LONG.  We had a stomach bug hit our team--first, Emily got sick.  The next night, Nathan got it.  And the next night, Daisy got it!  (cleaning up puke in a tent is not fun!)  Thankfully the rest of us were spared.  But at this point, with the sickness, and being dirty, the kids not having a routine, and all of us not sleeping great...us ladies and kids were very excited to go back to Wewak.  Bush living is just plain tiring.  When we go back to Maliyali to live there, we will have a house-- with more privacy, and a few conveniences...so that we can live life (homeschooling, learning the Maliyali language...)  This bush camping trip was not always easy, but wow it was SO worth it!

On February 1, the helicopter came back!  We were happy to see it...but also very sad.  The plan was for us ladies and kids to return to Wewak--but our husbands to stay in Maliyali.  The plan was for them to stay the WHOLE month of February (*tears!*)  Two other men flew in on the helicopter to join our husbands, and this month is dedicated to them (with the Maliyali guys) milling lumber for our houses.


If you could have seen our departure...it was crazy.  The helicopter landed, but Mike (our pilot) doesn't turn it off, and we have to keep things moving (helicopters are not cheap! )  So we were saying goodbyes to the Maliyali people, and rushing down to the heli, and the dads were helping the kids buckle up while trying to hug and say goodbye...we have to yell to hear each other.  Calvin and Daisy were both sobbing, saying goodbye to their daddies.  And their tears started Layla and Halle crying, and of course me and Emily were tearful...sigh.  It was rough.  

waving goodbye

Mike shuttled us back to Yifki, and the airplane was waiting for us!  Kaine got to ride shotgun on the way back to Wewak, so he was pretty excited about that :) 

So now, it's February 11.  Our guys (along with those two other guys who came--Brian and Jan Peter) have had a couple of weeks of INTENSE work.  They have been texting us little bits--at first, milling was slow and overwhelming and very VERY muddy.  They weren't able to find big enough trees to mill, and some that they were finding had spots of rot on them.  They were a bit discouraged at first, but these past few days have been so much better!  So much better, in fact, it looks like they are going to get to come back to Wewak early!! (shhh...don't tell our kids!  We are going to try and surprise them!)  The plan will be for them to come back to Wewak, and we have our area conference here in a couple of weeks.  After that, they will go back in to Maliyali mid-March, to continue with milling and/or starting to build our houses!

Wow, I cannot wait to see Nathan.  We miss him so much!  

Thank you all so much for traveling this journey with us!  Just by reading these posts, we feel like you guys are connected and a part of our lives in Maliyali!  I know I've said it before, but it's just so huge and true that I need to say it again--we could NOT do this without all of you!  Thank you!