January - February 1995

Dear Brethren & Friends;

Greetings in the name of the Lord!

After finalizing the sale of the business December 1st we were busy, packing, hauling, heaving and cleaning. We took off for a week over Christmas in the caravan (13' trailer) and just slouched out. The day we set up the caravan it was real windy and I got some sand in my eyes while setting up the awning. So for the following week I wore glasses as I scratched my eyes and got an infection. Things are back to normal now. On January 2nd the congregation had a going away "wake" for us. We can only describe it as such because that was what it felt like. It is sad to be leaving after almost 9 years of living there.

The ship which was to carry our car and containers to PNG had been scheduled to load on the 7th of January (we were leaving January 8th.) The ship was rescheduled for January 18th giving us a few more days for packing. Just as well! We had hoped to ship the car in one of the containers but decided it wasn't going to fit with everything else we still had sitting in the house. %en still thinking of the car, I built a shelf in the upper half of the container and loaded it with some of the lighter items. Opening the door one morning I was greeted with half of the shelf down because some of the chains had broken. (If the car had been in it would have broken the windshield.) I packed the final items from the house in the container. (This one was sitting in our back yard.) Because of our driveway and the turning area behind the house, in between the mandarin, grapefruit and orange trees, the container company was limited to the size truck that they could use. The one they used was not big enough. I had to unload about half of the container. The truck then took the container to their storage area 5 miles away and I hired a Hertz truck, loaded it with the stuff out of the container and took it to the container and reloaded the container. This was all on January 5th & 6th. So much for just putting our feet up the last few days.

The first thing that has to be asked is, What have we gotten ourselves back into?

TOUCHDOWN PNG 1995
We left Auckland January 8th 54kg overweight but they did not even blink. We flew on an Airbus 300, which had very little leg room and had smoking allowed. The smoking section was at the back next to the toilets, yes you had to walk through a haze of smoke to We also had a group of ugly Kiwis who felt it was their given duty to drink the bar dry and be obnoxious. My letter to the editor was published !

We landed in Port Moresby 51/2 hours later. 90 degrees and dry. (Well the area is dry, but within milliseconds of walking off the plane we were dripping with sweat.) No problem with my visa. Kathy's was another story. She was suppose to have an ongoing ticket as she is only on a visitor visa. They were very sympathetic but rules are rules. After lengthy explanations (in the customs/baggage collection hall where the temperature was about IOOF and relief was only possible because of 85-95 overhead fans) as to why Kathy did not have a dependent visa we were allowed to clear customs and check in for our flight to Lae (1 hour later). I had to go out and get some of the brethren there in Port Moresby to come back in and verify who we were and to have a talk by migration that we had to produce an on-going ticket for Kathy within 7 days. Migration is holding Kathy's passport and will release it when the brethren bring a ticket for Kathy and migration has sighted it.

We called migration yesterday and found out that we can get her visa in Honiara 1st and back to PNG April 9th.

Back to the travel log: After getting outside of the customs hall we stood outside (in the 95F degree cool, at least we had a fresh breeze) and took in the sights, noise and smells of PNG again until our plane was called. We knew we were back on PNG time when even with a boarding pass in hand we had to wait 15 minutes in line to board a 120 passenger F28 airplane.
A forty minute flight over the mountains and through several plane dropping storm clouds and we landed at Nadzab Airport (20km from Lae city). 87 degrees and compounded humid! We were met by the Mesas and some other brethren. There was rain all around us. We loaded all the bags and drove back into town. We unloaded all our gear into the small two bedroom house (the size of our old living room and one bedroom) on the church property. The phone has not been fixed, even though PTC (Post & Telecommunication Corporation) has looked at it several times and assured Nancy that they would be out here yesterday to fix it, WRONG!

If we ever forgot what humidity was we have remembered very quickly. Anything and everything that is left out suddenly becomes a sponge. Water beads form around salt granules, water sweats off of glasses, the toilet tissue feels as it it was dipped in the water and hung back up, tissues suddenly have no will to stand up out of the box and they hang limply over the box edge like a pathetic wilted leaf of lettuce, newspapers have no snap and any, I mean all paper, has the feel of beer blotters on a busy bar. Saltine crackers and nacho chips do not have a snap, crackle or crisp in a whole case. (For you to understand you would need to open a bag of saltines or nacho chips and fill the bag with water, drain the bag wait about 15 minutes and then try to enjoy your snack! Try to dip out some salsa sauce on one of those limp "chips".) This is in addition to every pore of your body sending out rivets of sweat. Mildew is a way of life and even though our house walls were scrubbed down before we got here we can literally watch it come back. Oh, it's good to be back! We will never be dry again! (Kathy says she may have dry times between 2 am-5.30am) Daytime temperature is 88-97, nighttime it cools down to 75-80.

Back to the travel log: Sunday night after everything calmed down (about 7:00) Kathy and I took stock of the situation. You soon find out how reliant we become on some of the conveniences in life: no microwave, no phone, no toaster, a regular mattress, no pillows - (what NO PILLOWS, we might have to leave). I rolled up my robe and Kathy rolled up her jacket and agreed that we might be able to get through one night without proper pillows. We no more than went to bed when 'Noah 11" started up. We had over 4 hours of steady rain (over 5 inches) and a spectacular lightening and thunder storm. (Which Phil's dog next door accompanied with howling and barking everytime the lightning and thunder occurred.)

Monday morning we awoke to sunshine and a menagerie of animal sounds; Phil's dog, Nancy's parrot, numerous rainforest birds, flying foxes returning to roost in the overhead trees, dogs across the stream behind the house, Wesley's chickens across the stream and the many households coming to life around us and the multitude of trucks and busses traveling up the highway about 100 meters away, honking, braking, starting and just making their falling apart noises while weaving through the potholes.

We went to town, checked mail (had a box full, even some junk mail). Opened up accounts at the bank. Went shopping for: pillows, air tight storage containers (heaps in our boxes coming); food, etc.

Tuesday morning: telephone people did not come Monday as promised, maybe today. After eating Kathy & I took a bus to town. (Waited 30 minutes for one to come.) Stopped off at a Chinese shop and met Derrick Wong the owner who meets with the English speaking congregation. Checked mail, nothing. Sent Kathy's ticket for Vanuatu down to Port Moresby to be sighted by immigration so she can get her passport back. No electricity at the post office, had to wait in line for 30 minutes to register the letter. Bought a cheap sheet to use as a table cloth. Went to the police station only to find out that the drivers license division is on the other side of the Post Office. (which is 3-4 blocks from the heart of town) So we decided not to use up all our day and save something for tomorrow. We then went to the French bakery for today's bread and back to the bus stop and caught a bus back to the house (about 6 miles).

Arrived back home only to have the electricity go off just as we set down to cool off under the overhead fans. Having noted a marching stream of red ants on the screen wire of the verandah I sprayed them dead. Jab came by and we talked for a while until the power came back on. The phone man is here but he has to run new lines from the road junction. He worked for an hour and said that he will be back first thing Wednesday to hook us up.

Wednesday: Jim Free got his phone working but the guy did not do ours (don't want to do everything in one day). Kathy and I went down and got our driver's licenses. It only took 55 minutes. Ten years ago they cost 15 Kina ($20 USD) for three years, now they are 30 Kina.

Now Thursday: the radio is calling for showers but with the humidity at about 200% who needs the rain. I have finally chased the phone line fault myself and have put a jumper wire until PTC comes out and fixes it correctly. (as of Feb 9th they have not come)
Jab's computer went down. Will have to wait until the containers arrive and then I will have the phone number in Wichita Kansas to order another chip and get another computer out of the container. (It is an Laser 128 - Apple 11 compatible.)

CULTURE STRESS TIME
January 16th: Here it has been a full week since we arrived. We spend most mornings just getting to town on the bus, checking the state of the cobwebs in our mail box, buying food for the day and getting back to the house. At some point in every day we have a running battle with ants. We have two basis kinds of ants here: large red ants and wee small black ants. The red ants are highly visible, tenacious and ever present in long flowing lines along the branches of bushes and along the eves of the houses. The little black ants are even more tenacious and would try the patience of a dead man. These are the type of little rascals that found their way into my cereal last year when I was here. Wherever anything has been spilled, left out or just there, the little black rascals appear. As fast as we spray they come from somewhere else. On Friday I followed a trail from the front door jamb, up the wall to the ceiling beam, along the full length of the beam to the kitchen wall, down the wall, over the towel rack, up the sink top into and under the laminated top. Spray, spray, spray! What are they doing in my contract lens case? They are into the toothpaste, I didn't know they had teeth. Get out of my toilet bag! Get off of Kathy's dresser top! What are they doing on the toilet paper? What, let a few ants bother us? Ha, where is the fire? Forget the spray, Give me a flame thrower - I'll burn these little suckers out!

Kathy says she has trouble sleeping. Could it be the bed it too hard (Kathy can tell you how many coils there are), could be, but not! Too many night noises. Not people but the frogs outside the window, the flying foxes fighting for space in the trees above the house, dogs barking and other strange nocturnal noises. She prefers the rain pelting down on the tin roof. It does cool the place down as well.

16th AM: Had a meeting with all the MBC teachers. Talked about some of the things I would be doing and how best to assist them. Executive meeting scheduled for Sunday 22nd. I am to write out job descriptions for all the teachers and a letter to Andrew Jackson.

PM: Signed up for cable TV hookup. Will have 12 channels including ESPN and CNN. Saw an Export/Import company about helping us clear our car and containers when they arrive February 6th. The Pope is here in PNG. He is in Port Moresby for three days. Coverage of his trip dominates the news and TV here.

We have a dance here that everyone does around sundown everyday. It is performed by hopping on alternate legs while waving one's hands around the legs and feet.. It is called the "Mosquito Hop". It is a very popular and necessary dance performed by locals and foreigners alike. The government quit spraying for mosquitoes several years ago and malaria in very high. So we will have to restart our own spray program. Even though the houses have screens over the windows sometimes one would think that the mosquitoes have learned to pry off the screen and come inside. You sure find out quick if there are any holes in your screens or if you leave a door open. I have since bought a back-pack sprayer for $500 and have begun spraying. It is helping to keep the mosquito population to a controllable level.

I have also re-learned that one does not throw their hands up in the air inside the house. All rooms have ceiling fans which do a severe knuckle rap if you happens to forget and put your hands up. The pain shooting down your arms is a quick reminder.
Melanesian Bible College started Monday, Feb 6th. We are a week late getting started because Lae was without power (on and off for up to 6 hours at a time) when floods in the Markham Valley washed out a power pylon. Then when the electric company went to fix it the land owners would not let them until they were given compensation. This was compensation Elcom had promised when they built the pylon several years ago but never paid. Finally after 8 days a deal was worked out and we have power and water again. (The water pumps didn't work without power so no water either when we were without power.) Just another convenience we take for granted. But where else could people get free defrosting of their refrigerators at least 5 times a day. Silly me, I had bought several choc-covered ice cream bars and some ice cream before the power problem. The ice cream was a thick shake and the bars had to be eaten all at once as they no longer had the ability to stay wrapped around the stick. It was a pathetic sight with all those ice cream bars laying there in the bowl, so I dispatched them with haste.

Just before we came back to PNG the PNG government devalued their currency, the Kina by 12.5%. We are now getting a better exchange rate for our small amount of American dollars but all imported items have risen in value as well. There are an number of things that we did not anticipate having to purchase and the higher than expected prices is going to put a real strain on what we will be able to accomplish. We are hoping to be able to increase an awareness of World Bible School on the local level, but may have to wait.

I will not be teaching in MBC until the third block as my materials are not here yet and Kathy and I will be in Vanuatu all of March, as promised. Therefore in April we should be in full swing. We are hoping to to begin a night class in English at MBC on Tues & Thurs. This will be for credit and available especially for those English speakers who have full time day jobs and can not come to regular MBC classes.

NEW MAILING ADDRESS: Tobey & Kathy Huff
Ph/Fax 675 42-4837              P. 0. Box 409
(after April 6th 42-1264)         Lae, MP Papua New Guinea

We wish to thank you for your support in our labors, especially the prayers that have been offered. This next year looks to be a busy one and we ask for your continued support and prayers. Must close for now. 95 degrees and humid, humid humid!

In Christian service your co-workers for the cause of Christ in the South Pacific,

the Huffs

P.S. Some prices here are mind boggling: Jello pudding mix $2.00 per box; Jello $1.75 a box; Cheerio type cereal over $10.00 per box; 1 litre of milk $1.95; box of Kleenex $2.75; quart of Crisco oil $3.35. We thank the Lord that there is housing available here on the property. Regular housing in Lae runs $800-1600 per WEEK. Resettlement expenses will be about $7,000.00 short of budget as wharf charges were high and materials for an office expansion to house the computers and printing gear are expensive. We had to buy a backpack sprayer for mosquito control. We have to buy a stove for the house we will be moving into when the Lifsey's leave and there is a bit of maintenance which will be required before we can move into the house. We brought a fridge, washing machine, etc in the containers.