Weir in PNG

I thought I should add a couple things to our blog before it become Adrienne's by default!

I do not usually come into new situations with heavy expectations of how things are going to be or how they should be. Call it a gift, but I can willfully empty my brain of these sorts of things. It makes transitions into new situations much easier. This time was VERY different. As soon as we got to Raleigh-Durham International Airport and I smelled the jet-fuel, I found myself whisked back to my childhood days here in PNG. While I had a cerebral understanding that things were not going to be exactly the same, the eyes of my heart were looking back to all those days with expectations of my childhood paradise.

The rigors of travel mostly deadened my sense of a grand arrival, and we stepped off the airplane onto PNG soil with little more than a sigh of relief! Interestingly enough, 18 years later, there was still something very familiar about everything around me. I remembered the sounds and sights, but mostly the smells. Enough of my surrounding was just as I remembered, that I found myself pointing out the most innocuous things to my wife and explaining them as if they were going to change the course of our whole life in the next minute or two! She obliged me by acting interested!

In any event, we've been here for about a week and a half now, and my view has not changed much since the first impression. I feel kind of at home here. And while I have the additional responsibilities of a wife and son, I am encouraged at the smooth transition! Adrienne has been a wonder. Her excitement at being here is a joy and relief to me. She and Ben are having fun, and that is fun for me!

Obviously we are still riding the newness and excitement of all of this! I can only hope that our posts continue in this positive mood! But you can be assured that things are going to get tougher in short order! We'll keep you posted...