First day back at Bu'u

What was my first day back at Bu’u like? Lots of variety. Praise that we got in after last week’s turnback! There were some clouds around, but the Bu’u strip was perfectly clear.

Lots of people around to meet the plane, and no shortage of volunteers to help us get the re-pack boxes down from the airstrip to our porch.

My first good look at the house and I saw cockroach egg cases everywhere I looked—on the floor, glued to the drop covers we threw over the furniture, on the inside of the covers we draped over the bookcases. And when I opened kitchen drawers half the time a gigantic cockroach or two would scurry away. Roach dirt (lots) in all the drawers and all through the tea towels I store in one of them. The other nasty surprise was ant nests, also in drawers—so far 2 in kitchen drawers and 3 in clothes drawers. Mortein—our version of Raid—is being used liberally!

We are so thankful and relieved that the fridge is running, the water system works, and the solar power works! Our Big 3, without which life here in Bu’u would not be very nice.

Piles of boxes all around the living room and kitchen. We call them re-packs because that’s what we do: we get boxes emptied by store employees and re-pack them for the flight to Bu’u. Amid trying to clean up the house and deal with 4 dogs, we are opening the re-packs one by one. And oh yes, the leaking cans on my storage room shelves: ( The Bu’u climate is not conducive to food storage; this time there have been several massive leaks from burst cans. I’ve already tossed out 5 or so blackened and corroded cans and spent and hour cleaning up the blackened section of floor that they dripped on.

Dinner tonight was pasta with jarred spaghetti sauce and real parm—yay!— that I found in Lae. No shower tonight, a huge storm is moving around the valley, lots of thunder and lightning. We’re both exhausted, it’s been a long day and we’re heading for bed, but first we sit down to pray—much thanksgiving, but also some important petitions to unload before His throne. What would we do without the mercy and grace to help that we find there?