Montezuma's Revenge: Part 1

OK, on Thursday Hannah and I left the house here in Jayapura at 8:00.  We we're picked up by a car outside our house and driven an hour and a half to the PNG border.   At the border there was much confusion, as nobody spoke the other person's language.  We ended up waiting outside the immigration office for an hour waiting for the immigration guy to get out of bed or something and come to the freakin' office.   When he got there he took us into a small room where everyone had to survey our passports several times before we finally got our stamps and were able to walk a fair distance to the checkpoint on the PNG side, where we did the same thing, only much faster.   The car that was arranged for us to take us from the PNG border to the hotel didn't show up, so luckily a friendly Papuan who spoke English got us a ride in a bus for 10 Kina (4 dollars) a piece.   The drive of this bus was very friendly!  Once we crossed into Papua New Guinea it was like the people became magically very friendly.   I love the Papuans!  The ride to the hotel in Vanimo was scenic.  Little elevated huts thatched with palm fronds everywhere, people bathing in streams, and so on.   Also, no trash accumulation on the roads! (Jayapura has small amounts of trash everywhere.)  Our hotel was really a motel, and just across the street was the Indonesian consulate where we had our work visas processed, and then a short way down the road was a large lagoon.   Hannah and I checked in, ate some pretty good food at the motel restaurant, and then went for a swim in the lagoon.  Very nice!   Other than journeying to PNG from Indonesia, our trip was pretty uneventful.  More people speak English in PNG, which was a nice break, because there are still a lot of Christian missionaries there.   All the children was passed on the road said "'afternoon!"  We also bought some very unusual but delicious ice cream there!   Mmm!

Friday we arrived home in the afternoon, rested, then went in to school.  We received more in class training.   Yesterday we loafed around the house until about 1:00, and then Hannah and I took various taxis and such to a place inland called Santani.  There we met Louise (teacher at EF) and she took us on a hike up the mountain through the jungle.   Wild banana trees, wild pineapples, wild cassava, wild papaya, mangoes… wild everything!  Yay!  On the way back we got lost, and spent an extra half an hour getting unlost, but we made it.   Today we've been relaxing, and are now at the internet café in the evening (supposed to be faster, but it's not).  I'm writing this in Microsoft word, while I repeatedly load blogger until it decided to load the little login frame in the corner.   Ack!

On Thursday of this week I will be taking over Daniel's classes full time.  It should go well.   Wish me luck!  More to tell, but no time left.  Will fill you in later.

-Nick