We were kept busy in village living with washing clothes, dishes, and cooking.
Franscisa and Somal helped us a lot with laundry and dishes. They seemed to have unending energy.
This was my kitchen; I made flour tortillas for the first time while we were in village living. 
Leif is watching the fish cook on the fire. I didn't realize it was so easy. We never cleaned the fish, just threw them on the fire and picked off the meat.
We had the opportunity to observe a traditional church wedding of Robert and Donna. Despite their traditional costumes, the ceremony itself was very similiar to our weddings back home. They said their vows, exchanged rings, had the blessings from the parents, and the signing of the registry. 
We waited all afternoon for the ceremony to start. It didn't get started until dark. We were so happy though to see another family from our orientation course who also were at the wedding feast. It was great to visit with them in our own language and share experiences. The ceremony was actually a ceremony of reconciliation between the two family lines of the bride and groom, because they had gone off without their parent's permission. Gifts of bananas, other foods from their gardens, live chickens and a live pig were brought to the groom's family, and both family lines shook hands. 
Underneath this pile of food stuffs, lies a live pig. After we ate( it was probably around 8pm,) we started on our way home. We were exhausted and had an hour to walk yet in the dark. I really didn't think we'd make it home. Tia had to be carried on Doug's shoulders part of the way. Walking for Papua New Guineans, is such a way of life, and they have endless energy, but at times we felt like we had reached our limits.
One Sunday, we all got up ready to go to church in our village, but Robert told us we were going somewhere else. We understood him to say we were going to another church in a village a ways away. Imagine our surprise when he pulls out a live chicken out of his bag. We had no idea he was carrying a chicken. As it turns out we walked an hour to another village (the kids taking turns carrying the chicken), where we did go to church, but the chicken was for a wedding ceremony from someone in Donna's family line. 
Have you heard the song in the musical of Oliver Twist, when Oliver asks for some more food? He says, "Please, Sir, I want some more . . " Everytime we see this picture, Tia reminds us of the orphans in Oliver Twist. As you can see it was so hard to keep clean. She was absolutely filthy most of the time. She is posing for the picture here though, and we had plenty to eat, even though it was different than we were used to.
Noah's 7th birthday was spent in the village. I'm sure it's one he won't forget. Instead of cake, I made cinnamon rolls in the drum oven over the fire. 
Noah holding up his miniature garamut (signal drum). 
