So, some of you have been asking, "When is Garth going to write?" Well, here goes. I hope you're not disappointed, cuz Rachel has been doing such a great job. Let's give it up for Rach.
Friday morning...another trip. Today we were scheduled to be picked up by a taxi at 8:00am and drive to Jayapura (about an hour away) to do the next step in getting our one year visas. Before we left, we were treated to a new Sophiism. Sophie looked at Rachel and said, "Mom, are you gonna die soon?" Sophie, do you know something about this trip that we don't?
We were told that we would have a bigger car than the one that took us to Vanimo because we wanted to do some shopping for the dorm while we were in Jayapura and we would need cargo space for bringing it home. Guess who came to pick us up? That's right...the same guy who took us to Vanimo. I'm beginning to think that this guy doesn't know that the car has any gears higher than 2nd. He will be driving about 45mph in 2nd gear! And the curvy roads, oofta! With all these trips we have been keeping the motion sickness medicine companies in business. Buy some stock. Let me try to describe the journey for you. Have you ever been on a roller-coaster? Have you ever been on an old wooden roller-coaster? Imagine being on one of those for an hour...with other roller-coasters passing you and honking and spewing gas fumes at you. But, we are getting used to it. Emma kept her breakfast to herself this time and Cale is beginning to think this is what we are going to do every day.
We met Pak Flipus at the Immigration office at about 9:30. He is the go-between for the school in regards to government matters. He had all our paperwork ready for u
s to sign. After the signatures came the fun part - fingerprinting. I went first. They inked me up and had me press on two different papers. I looked around the office and noticed that there was nothing for me to wipe my hands with. Good thing we've had children and I have a wife who comes prepared. What did we ever do before we had wipes? Cale was after me and he did remarkably well. He actually thought it was pretty cool. "Mom and Dad WANT me to get my hands dirty?" It was at this point in the game that I thought it probably wasn't the best idea to dress Cale in white that day. His clothes actually came through unscathed.
After the Immigration office we headed over to the police station for more fingerprinting and profiling. We got inked up again and this time they had us sit next to them as they looked at us and wrote dow
n a description of what we looked like (i.e. hair color, eye color). They even asked Wyatt if he had ears (maybe his hair is getting a little long). And Indonesia now has on record that I have a tattoo. I think that info took Pak Flipus by surprise. After all this we were very hot, tired, and hungry. Cale was way past naptime, so we decided to go to the KFC, eat lunch and head home. We weren't going to go shopping, especially since we didn't have any room in the vehicle for the food. Next time you're in town we'll take you to the KFC. It's really nice. They even serve your food on nice porcelain plates. And the french fries...pretty good.
I've always thought of myself as a person who is open to change. I've done my fair share of changing in life. I tell people that I was born on the West coast, raised on the East coast, and I ended up in the middle. Now God has me on the other side of the world. Sometimes it all seems so surreal. But as we've been over here we've had to be very flexible (you've probably noticed that in Rachel's previous writings). And God keeps flexing us. This past week's adventures have expanded my comfort zone even more. And hopefully, as my comfort zone expands, God will be able to use me more.
Thanks for praying,
Garth for the fam.
Friday morning...another trip. Today we were scheduled to be picked up by a taxi at 8:00am and drive to Jayapura (about an hour away) to do the next step in getting our one year visas. Before we left, we were treated to a new Sophiism. Sophie looked at Rachel and said, "Mom, are you gonna die soon?" Sophie, do you know something about this trip that we don't?
We were told that we would have a bigger car than the one that took us to Vanimo because we wanted to do some shopping for the dorm while we were in Jayapura and we would need cargo space for bringing it home. Guess who came to pick us up? That's right...the same guy who took us to Vanimo. I'm beginning to think that this guy doesn't know that the car has any gears higher than 2nd. He will be driving about 45mph in 2nd gear! And the curvy roads, oofta! With all these trips we have been keeping the motion sickness medicine companies in business. Buy some stock. Let me try to describe the journey for you. Have you ever been on a roller-coaster? Have you ever been on an old wooden roller-coaster? Imagine being on one of those for an hour...with other roller-coasters passing you and honking and spewing gas fumes at you. But, we are getting used to it. Emma kept her breakfast to herself this time and Cale is beginning to think this is what we are going to do every day.
We met Pak Flipus at the Immigration office at about 9:30. He is the go-between for the school in regards to government matters. He had all our paperwork ready for u
s to sign. After the signatures came the fun part - fingerprinting. I went first. They inked me up and had me press on two different papers. I looked around the office and noticed that there was nothing for me to wipe my hands with. Good thing we've had children and I have a wife who comes prepared. What did we ever do before we had wipes? Cale was after me and he did remarkably well. He actually thought it was pretty cool. "Mom and Dad WANT me to get my hands dirty?" It was at this point in the game that I thought it probably wasn't the best idea to dress Cale in white that day. His clothes actually came through unscathed.After the Immigration office we headed over to the police station for more fingerprinting and profiling. We got inked up again and this time they had us sit next to them as they looked at us and wrote dow
n a description of what we looked like (i.e. hair color, eye color). They even asked Wyatt if he had ears (maybe his hair is getting a little long). And Indonesia now has on record that I have a tattoo. I think that info took Pak Flipus by surprise. After all this we were very hot, tired, and hungry. Cale was way past naptime, so we decided to go to the KFC, eat lunch and head home. We weren't going to go shopping, especially since we didn't have any room in the vehicle for the food. Next time you're in town we'll take you to the KFC. It's really nice. They even serve your food on nice porcelain plates. And the french fries...pretty good.I've always thought of myself as a person who is open to change. I've done my fair share of changing in life. I tell people that I was born on the West coast, raised on the East coast, and I ended up in the middle. Now God has me on the other side of the world. Sometimes it all seems so surreal. But as we've been over here we've had to be very flexible (you've probably noticed that in Rachel's previous writings). And God keeps flexing us. This past week's adventures have expanded my comfort zone even more. And hopefully, as my comfort zone expands, God will be able to use me more.
Thanks for praying,
Garth for the fam.
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