Continued hospital building.

About 3 weeks ago, we went and looked around the new hospital, it is really coming along.
 
 
 
Even since these pictures, they have one ward almost completely painted. The joiners are busily working on the cabinets and fixtures. Please continue to uplift the building process, the workmen, the money, and all that is involved in this new building.

Quilting with Veronica

Veronica: I am going on 2 weeks vacation.
Gail: O- are you staying here or going to your home place?
V: Staying here.
G: Well that will be nice.
-pause-
V: Yes, I will have lots of free time.
G: That is good.
-long pause-
V: I am just going to be at home, hanging out, around the garden, doing nothing.
G: Okay.
-longer pause-
V: I thought that if you are free, we could make a quilt during my vacation.
G (big light bulb appears above my head) O! Yes! That is why you are telling me about your vacation! Yes, let's do it on Monday.

Culturally, I should have picked up that Vero was hinting at making a quilt and then she wouldn't have had to specifically ask. But it happened anyway and I was eager to do it together.

We talked about color and design and size... she left everything up to me. When I got home, I looked at my stash and found the perfect thing to get a quilt done in a day. When we were in the states, a friend who owns Quilter's Stash in Greeley, CO, had sent me a bunch of fabric and I found large, pre-cut squares just right for Veronica, who had never used a electric sewing machine.

Monday was great, we got started about 10 am, and took a little break for lunch. Vero's 3 year old daughter and Olivia had a fabulous time playing. We quilted until 6pm and she walked home just as the sun was thinking about going down. The quilt finished, under her arm, ready to be put on her bed. We laughed, shared, talked about deep things and talked about nothing and were quiet together. Now that is pretty close to a perfect day.

 
 

Room make over

I am not a fan of Extreme Home Makeover. They are just too extreme. All of the references to people "deserving" a nice house is like a punch to my gut. Does that mean the 5 million people in PNG that live in a grass hut and dirt floors deserve what they have? These Papua New Guinean friends that have minimal health care, no running water, a hole in the ground for a toilet, and a kerosene lamp... who is helping them "get what they deserve in life"? Or does the "deserving" only apply to Americans? The money that is spent on one deserving family in America could give give clean drinking water to a whole area of PNG or pencils to children in school.

Okay, that is all from my soap box today! For a few days, the girls and I have been changing rooms for them. Olivia (3) has been in a room by her self since birth, but all the girls moved in together while Brittany was here. After a family discussion, Allison was chosen to move to the little bedroom on her own.

When the girls came home from school for lunch yesterday, I had them close their eyes and go into their rooms and then I told them to open their eyes (hence feeling like the host of extreme home makeover). Any way, they love their new rooms, and it cost me a total of $10 for artificial flowers and ribbon that we put up in Al's room.


 
Allie's new room, with quilt that I finished yesterday.
 
Emma moved to the top bunk, Olivia moved to the lower bunk and both are excited because it is rearranged.

No, we do not live in a grass hut and cook over fires like most of our PNG friends do here. Our house is a little 3 bedroom, one bathroom, beautiful hard wood floor American style house, and I love it. What do any of us "deserve" while we are here on earth? I get much more from love from God than I could ever deserve! I don't want to make anyone feel guilty for what they have, just to help them realize a heart of gratitude and not of entitlement. This is not what I expected this post to be, but there it is. Leave a comment...

Emma's Birthday party

What a fun time for celebrating! We got up early and started blowing up balloons-45 in all- and cleaning up to get ready for the party.
Emma had delivered the invitations around and planned all the games for the party.
 
Emma's games were:
Horse, Horse, Pony (duck duck goose)
Horse Tag
Mad Horse
Rope a Horse and
Biting Horse (hot potato- but with a toy horse)
 
Emma says: "I had a lot of fun at my horse birthday party. I like that I am older and might be able to ride more rides"

PNG infant name giving ceremony

Today we got to attend a naming of a baby celebration. Allie was sick, I had 20 other things to do, my house was a mess, I needed to pay this person, give a key to this person, be at home by 3:00 for this person, meet this person at 2:00...there just wasn't enough time in my afternoon. But off we headed! Just 10 minutes down the road and were greeted with children running and waving and smiling at us!
 
In PNG, you don't make a baby's name public until a specific ceremony has taken place. They told us today that there are lots of reasons for the naming to be a big deal...
1. Shows love of the baby
2. Can be referred to later in a "see what I did for you" sort of attitude.
3. Gives respect to the person who the baby is named after.
4. Points out character traits that they would like the baby to have of the namesake.
5. Remember who was important in their life and the time of the birth of the baby.
 
So, we sat together, sang, Pastor did a 15 minute welcome speech (which we found funny because it was all family- that would be like an uncle standing up at the family reunion saying "Thanks Grandma from coming up from Richmond and Uncle Jo from Ottawa" and on and on!) Then more songs and I shared a bible verse for the little baby and prayed for her.
 
Then the mom and baby and I went and hid behind the house and waited for them to call out the name of the baby.
When they said "Gail" (the name of the baby) we said "yes" or really "Ooooh" (affirmative reply in pidgin) and came out and accepted the heart and piece of lung from the pig that was killed.

It was really a special time and I was so glad that I didn't let the confusions of life keep me from being a part of this great time culturally.

Farewell to Brittany!

All good things must come to an end...So at the end of our wonderful 2 months, we had to say goodbye to Brittany. It was a treasure to have her with us and pray for God to direct each step of her life.

 

 

 

 

Bilas, thanks for coming and blessing us! We miss you already.

Brittany's quilt

After seeing me help others make a quilt, Brittany and I decided that she needed a quilt!
We left the quilt making until the last week of her stay here and she finished the last stitches the night before she left.
I love it and am proud of her quilting skills!