WestKal part 2

Here comes part 2 of our trip to the big island. It is basically going to be a picture dump...here we go!

We spent a lot of time on airplanes these past two weeks. Alia made friends quickly, even got this guy to give her both his cellphone and his electronic game thingy.

 IT WAS HOT! Hydrating was very important!

Alia learned that she loves dogs or as she calls them 'Wuwu'

One day, after it had rained during the night we went on a trip to a village and the roads looked like rivers - made for some bumpy driving

The village was only accessible by a hanging bridge

 There are so many rivers here

They are used for fishing, bathing, laundry washing, gold mining etc.

A lot of people live in long houses - it is exactly what is sounds like, a very long house with many 'apartments'

not much privacy, but always somebody to hang out with. This house was about 300 meters long.

Alia and this little cutie were born only one week apart

we got to watch some very talented people work on crafts like basket making and bead work

 One day we went to a river about an hour away to send off a co-worker who is working 4 hours up river in a village with Bible translation

One of the bridges along the way

 Our tyre on the way back, about 45 min away from the spare tyre

We had to wait until someone was kind enough to bring us that spare tyre

 What better place to wait than a little shop that sells cold drinks?

 and lots of kids to play with Alia

 Another day we went to the market and bought food because a friend wanted to show us how to make a local dish

 Alia got to help, too, pounding the spices

 The daughter of our friend had just had a baby - so small, so cute

 After it had cooled down one afternoon we went for a walk in the jungle

 beautiful creation

we found the river and Erlend walked on it :-)

our feet looked like that afterward

Please pray for us as we now have to decide where to move soon!

WestKal part 1

During the last few weeks we have been traveling a lot, so much that we have found an answer to that very difficult question which tortures so many people in our profession. 

Where is home?

Well, for us, home seems to be where our suitcases are!

Since this latest trip was a long one, I will make this into at least 2 posts, so stay tuned for part two - coming to a computer or cellphone or ipad near you soon! :-)

The first week we spent in a bigger city at a conference with the whole team that works for our organization on this island. It was a really good time to get more information about this possible future place of ministry for us.

Two of our good friends are house sitting for us right now while we are gone. Those friends parents happen to live in the city we were visiting, so they invited us over for lunch.

 But lunch was a much too humble title for the feast we were served. I think there were about 5 main courses! Very yummy, too!

The lady of the house also showed us one of the traditional ways to cook rice - in bamboo

They took us to a place near their house - the equator!

 Alia and Erlend in different hemispheres 

 There is a myth that if you put an egg on the equator it will stand up straight  

Erlend tried - it did not work!

Just a cute one of Alia - so glad that our friend Kristine came on this trip for many reasons, one of them being that we have a lot of cool pictures now. Almost all of the ones I posted were taken by her.

Stay tuned for the next post about when we went interior!

Alia update

Since this week was nothing but studying, sickness and sleep deprivation I thought it was a good time to do an Alia-update instead of writing about how tiring our lives are right now (seriously, though, prayer for health and Alia sleeping more than 2 hours at a time during the night would be appreciated).

I do realize that a post like this is not interesting for everybody, really, it is mostly for her grandmothers :-)

We are headed out for another trip on monday and this will be the first time we are traveling with a fully, by herself walking child - exciting!

Alia has made huge progress in several areas of development, such as motor, language and social skills. The only (hm, what is the opposite of progress? con-gress, haha, get it?) area where she has gone backwards is the sleeping department.

 she enjoys more and more hanging out with other kids 

(also likes to give them kisses which is not always well received)

she is still handling (or maybe even enjoying) all the attention she gets because of her skin color)

has started to smile for the camera

her interest in motorbikes is increasing more and more

 loves walking around, can do it by herself now!

being culturally appropriate and practicing her squatting

 has started to enjoy playgrounds

usually has her mouth open when concentrating on a task at hand :-)

She is saying a few words (in 3 different languages), one of which is supposed to be "bitte" which means please in German. It comes out as 'titte' - if you don't know why this is funny, ask a German friend :-).

more traveling

Last week I, Erlend, went on a trip to a different island again. Anne and Alia stayed home, because it wasn't really a small-child-friendly trip.

 As you can see by the shadow in this picture, this place is quite close to the equator.

After flying commercially to the island, we had to use our organizations helicopter to get out to the village in the mountains. Why do you ask? Because the terrain is so rough there that 5 minutes in the helicopter covers the same distance as one whole days walking if you're in good shape.

 Here is the village where we stayed for 5 days. It is one of the older works, the missionaries moved in in the late 70's, so there's already been a church for a while and the missionaries have moved back out because they are no longer needed there. We attended their church conference where representatives from churches in different villages, but same tribe, met to study God's Word.

I went there with my friend Daniel, and this is the house where we stayed. 

And this is the room we stayed in. If you're wondering, yes, we slept on the floor with only two mats to lay on, but since they were so thin, it felt like sleeping right on the floor.

It was quite exhausting. Every morning when we got up, it felt like we'd got no rest at all.

Here's a picture from one of the meetings. This church has about 400 members and is one of the best Biblically functioning churches I have ever seen. These peoples understanding of Biblical truth and their heart for missions among their own people was just amazing!

This church alone has 40 missionaries in other locations at the moment.

At this conference people attended from a church in another village that used to be at war with the one we were in. Two of the guys were joking about how they would have tried to kill each other just a few years earlier. It is really nice to see how the Gospel not only saves us from our sin, but also sets us free from things in life. 

Me and one of the guys in the village. Because he's got problems with his legs, and can't walk without walking sticks, he makes a living by selling stuff like the hat he's wearing. Its made of the skin of some animal that I have never heard of before...

This country has a lot of coast line, so when we got out of the village, we went to the beach for some snorkeling. Is was awesome, if felt like diving in the finding Nemo movie or something