Settling in time

Well for those of you who I haven't contacted yet, which would be pretty much everyone except Mum and Dad, I have safely arrived in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea.

I think I have now traveled in the smallest plane I will ever travel in, a Cessna 206, maximum capacity 5 passengers. I was in the co-pilot seat so had a wonderful view of the clouds and occasional river and rolling hills that make up the PNG eastern highlands. I had to be careful not to stretch my legs too straight as there were some foot pedals down there and I didn't really want to send the plane in an uncontrollable spin or anything. The flight was around 1 3/4 hours and the plane actually felt reasonably safe, it didn't bounce around too much.

On arriving in Ukarumpa I was met at the airstrip by my department bosses and Tony and Martha Hinton, the fellowship family that was assigned to show me around. Tony is a fellow kiwi although he has spent about 10 years in the UK and another 10 years in the US so his accent is a little confused at times.

There is a sign up sheet in the post office here with all the new people on it, where people sign up to have the newbies over for dinner or lunch. So far I have been out for dinner 3 times and lunch 4 times, so I am getting to know people pretty quickly. There are a bunch of young people here and the ones I have met so far have been great fun to be around and very welcoming.

On Saturday night there was a contemporary worship time with a really good worship band playing a good mix of songs. I would have to say it was one of the best worship bands I have seen. The music on Sunday morning was a little less to my liking, although they say if you don't like the style of service here, come back next week because it will be totally different, so I will have to see what it is like next week. I had a chat with one of the worship leaders and he sounded keen to get me involved in his team. There are so many good musicians over here, I guess I won't be playing quite as often as I was in Vancouver.

I haven't gone for a walk with my camera yet so don't have many photos yet, and the ones I do have are still on my camera so they will have to wait for the next posting. I was a little concerned for a while that I wouldn't be able to post pictures on my blog as I have to pay 30 cents per Mb for web usage. Fortunately that charge is only for incoming traffic, so I can post pictures for free! I will have to limit my web browsing though so probably won't be playing any of Dan's I hate Monday games for a while.

And that's all I have to say today. Check back in a few days and I may have more to say.