Wednesday, November 20

We continue to work toward getting our house and our yard back into shape after being absent for more than two years. Aaron has been rebuilding the rain tank stands for the two smaller tanks on the front of our house. He was able to salvage enough good timber from the old stands to get the smaller stand rebuilt and stained yesterday. This morning, Katherine climbed inside the empty tank to clean it out from all of the “gifts” small children have been leaving inside while the tanks have been underneath our house.

Aaron got the tank set up and ready for action before he left for the workday at Fly Harbour School and a visit with Gesu about the translation workshop next week. The only way to communicate with people around here is to go find them! He headed out mid-morning with a hat on his head and bush knife in his hand in anticipation of being home by supper. After he left, I watched a huge, dark cloud build behind our house (between Marulaon Village and the school), and Olivia hurried to bring our clothes off the outside line and move them to underneath our house to dry. The girls and I began working on lunch, and around noon, a sopping wet husband walked through the door. Surprise!

One day, we will understand the timing of things like workdays. Seems like this is a cultural thing we just can’t quite figure out without asking lots and lots of questions. Aaron walked all the way to the school and didn’t see anyone working in our village’s area. So he kept walking to Baison Village, but couldn’t find Gesu. Then he came back to the school, where there was still nobody from Marulaon Village, so he decided to walk home. When he had almost reached home, he began discovering some of our friends on their way to work. And then he got caught in the pouring rain. So the afternoon plans changed into typing the handwriting translation of the gospel of John and putting it into a digital format.