June 23 Tuesday Willie and I did a 5 hour walkabout through a series of villages, including Malala where we stopped at the local high school run by a Catholic nun, who has been there for close to 50 years. She was Willie's teacher when he was at school there and he was quite sure she was from California. I did get to meet her very briefly. She is very spry for her age with a quick mind. Under her monitoring that school has gained a reputation as one of the best in the country and many students board there from other districts for the educational opportunities they have there. But she is not from California, she was originally a mid western girl. We stopped at the local health clinic and waited for a half hour so Willie could get some medicine for his mother, who fell nearly a month ago and is still having difficulty walking. He did get the medication, but the doctors have told the family she really needs to down to Madang and get an xray of the hip to see if there is more going on. I hope she hasn't been suffering with a broken hip for all this time, but it almost sounds like that could be the reality. The bus ride to Madang certainly will not be a comfortable one for her either. Willie took me to a private cove, where the neighboring village wants advice on the feasibility on putting in some beach front bungalows for tourist stays. The setting is amazing, quiet, secluded, a five minute walk from a decent sized village. The cove probably has fantastic snorkeling/scuba possibilities. I think it would be a wonderful place to spend a few days. We talk a lot about the work Willie had done in the government, why he left, his political aspirations for the next elections in 2012, the issues in his province. I think he has the background, experience, knowledge of the people, recognition, connections, etc to get things accomplished if he can successfully run for office. I feel there was a little bit of an ulterior motive in having me on the walkabout, because in each village, they know Willie already and the fact that he is giving a tour to a white man adds to his stature in the community. I am okay with that.

Back at Willie's uncles house, I am presented with two Madang bilums by the family after dinner. It is just another example of the generosity of these people and I again feel inadequate in receiving it as I am not in a real position to reciprocate. Since tomorrow will be an early morning we have our washes and go to bed.

June 24 Wednesday This was a long travel day. Because of the idiosyncrasies of the two airlines in PNG, almost all flights use Pt Moresby as a hub. So even though it would only be a 20 minute flight from Madang over to Rabaul on East New Britain Island, that route does not exist. Instead I have to fly from Madang to Mosbi, then turn right around and fly back across the country out to Rabaul. Thus twenty minutes becomes five and a half hours including the three hour layover in Mosbi. And it also means Willie and I have to get up at 4:30 am to catch an early PMV back to Madang. The PMV ride would only take an hour and a half, but because of all the other passengers and the stops they need to make, that gets stretched to nearly three hours. I made all my connections and arrived in Rabaul at just after 5pm where Terry was waiting for me at the airport. Two more bus rides and about an hour later we were home in the hills of Rabaul. In the town itself you can smell the sulfur and the air has a grey tinge to it. Out in the countryside you would hardly know a volcano is active in the area. Where I am staying is a flat tabletop section of land in the hills. It is large enough and the vegetation high enough that you cannot tell how high you are or how near you are to the ocean. The villages here are made up promarily of people who were evacuated from around the base of the volcano at various points in time. There are still some people living in the shadow of the mountain, but they do so against the wishes of the government and seeing the ash clouds, I can not imagine it is an enviable life.

June 25 Thursday Ever since I arrived here I have been addressed as Uncle Austin by the younger members of Willie's extended family. It is odd and I'm not used to it, but four of my nephews and three nieces went walking around the community this morning. I visited the Napapar SDA school/church partway down the mountain and had a chance to speak to the 7th and 8th graders about the importance of staying in school. The staff of the school wanted to know if I had any connections that could get well drilling equipment to them because they rely on rainwater and their supplies cannot meet the demands they have currently. Later we made an appearance at the Sunnybird SDA school/church and I addressed the student body of 132 again on the importance of education. They have needs in completing additional classrooms and getting some kind of library facility so they kids have more material to read. It is hard to motivate them to read, when they have so little in the way of reading material. It is a challenging problem. I do not think books last very long here because of the moisture/exposure, but there is a desperate need for more books nearly everywhere I have been. The preschool, 1st and 2nd grade children at Sunnybird all sang for me and it was deafening. They had a great time AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS. I was glad we were outside, but had to smile anyway at their enthusiasm.

As we continued exploring, my nieces and nephews took me to several locations with war remains. I saw a few Japanese tunnels, a usable bunker, bomb craters, aircraft engines, various metal parts, air defense cannons, plane propellers, etc. We returned to the family home for a simple lunch and then a few of the boys and I took a series of bus rides to some lookout points to get pictures of the volcano and other landmarks. Even with me paying for the fares of five people it cost less than some of my taxi rides in Moresby. Like in other villages, there is an abundance of food: fresh coconut milk, dried coconut foam (almost like meringue), oranges (green colored but ripe), bananas, a papaya that melted in my mouth, fresh pineapple, peanuts, potatoes, taro, fish, on and on and on.

June 26 Friday: Another early morning: the alarm went off at 4:20 am. I got up finished packing what little still needed to be done and went out where several of the other family members were already up and had breakfast ready for me. By 5:09 we were on the road and got to watch the sunrise as we drove to the airport. Very few vehicles on the road at this time, but the stirrings of humanity in the form of small groups of people walking is omnipresent. They dropped me off at the airport and then Dennis and Max were heading to the docks to catch a boat over to New Ireland Island to do some sawmill work, while the truck headed back to the hills.

I did not get a window seat so I finished my current book, Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. I had seen a film based on one of his other books that I had enjoyed, but I do not think I will be picking up any of his other written work. He has an interesting way of describing things, but this book at least was far too irreverent. I had a sense that reading this triggered a response in me much like most people's to the commentary of Dennis Miller. A quote I did like was: “If There Was Something Else I'd Rather Be Doing, I'd Damn Well Be Doing It” said by Boomer Petway during a discussion of those I'd Rather Be.... bumper stickers and their admission to a compromised life on the part of the bumper sticker owner. One passage that made me think said “While the afterlife concept renders the masses manageable, it renders their masters destructive. A world leader who's convinced that life is merely a trial for the more valuable and authentic afterlife is less hesitant to risk starting a nuclear holocaust. A politician or corporate executive who's expecting the Rapture to arrive on the next flight from Jerusalem is not going to worry much about polluting oceans or destroying forests. Why should he?” Well, while I am sure that sadly this is a real viewpoint of many people, including many professed Christians, and Mr. Robbins is making light of religions on the whole, this could never be the view of a true Christian. I do believe that this world is a training ground, but we are given the command to be good stewards of it while we are here. To the good and faithful servants more responsibility will be given, while to the lazy or bad stewards (who I think would include all who hold the quoted world view) will have their talents removed. That does not sound like a smart plan as a way to get to heaven and by being efficient stewards with the resources of the earth, we can effectively make life now a foretaste of heaven and improve the lives of all people.

I make it to the Friday evening meeting that marks the final night of the revival series. It is a night for baptisms as 46 people take that step and close to 300 more make to request for baptismal classes. There must have been at least 10,000 people there tonight.