Wednesday, January 14, 2009

This morning I got up late... it's still holidays here... and while we were finishing our breakfast there was a timid knock on the front door. I went to the locked door and opened it to find a young man standing there looking rather nervous. I stepped outside and shook his clammy hand and asked him what was up? "Um, Ice, she's, um, her body is weak today so she won't, um, be able to work. Maybe tomorrow," he stammered never really looking at my face while fidgeting nervously. I asked him if he was Ice's boyfriend. "Yes," he proudly replied. So I told him my name and asked him his. I can't quite remember it, it's a Papuan name for sure. I thought this whole exchange rather cute as a month ago he told Ice that he was too scared to come and talk to me.
Yesterday Ritha and her sister talked again with their mother about things. It didn't go well. The mom, I am loath to call her that but I don't know her name, threatened Violetta with a knife.... I really don't understand how a mother can be like this. Whenever Ritha sees her mom coming, she brings her girls to the neighbours. She doesn't want them to hear the stuff that comes out of their grandmother's mouth. On Sunday Ritha's mom had come to see me and tell me that I should not expect Ritha to work the next day and to tell my neighbours that Violetta wouldn't be working either as Violetta has a big problem with someone and they needed to solve it. I had to restrain myself from saying anything. I can't get involved. I told Ritha that her mother had come by and it was news to her. She told me that she had told her mother that she had no right to be involved in their lives now as she hadn't even raised them herself. Both Ritha and Violetta have lived with other families from a young age. Her mother responded by saying that she would get Ritha fired from her job. Quite laughable really, we love Ritha and so does the other couple she works for and we would do anything to help her. Shows you how out of touch her mother is.... Please keep praying that this ridiculous situation would be peaceably resolved.

Today we had a dark and dreary day. The temp, as you can see, plunged to a mere 25.5 C. So what do you do on a day like that?


You make tortillas and play with Lego!

4 comments:

Tamara Jansen said...

THose are some pretty amazing looking Tortillas! But, pardon my complete ignorance, isn't 25 quite warm? Or are you on some special Papuan degree measurement :)

Erica Feunekes said...

The temperature around here is normally 30 and up. So when it is 25, people start putting on toques and jackets... I'm not kidding you... We just put on pants or move around a lot... I think we are going to freeze when we go "home" to Canada next December....

Janet said...

Hey Erica...When we were in Costa Rica a couple weeks ago, the temperature on the one day was 'only' 26 and the owner of the resort commented that he was so cold that he was going to get his parka...go figure - we were quite comfortable lounging around the pool in much less than a parka! It's interesting how one's body adjusts to the climate. Even Ian and Nadia, when they returned from PNG for a visit in the summer of 2006, were wearing long sleeves and pants at the campground while the rest of us were sweating in shorts and a t-shirt!
Well,(brace yourself)it was -30 here yesterday and I went on an outdoor field trip with the grade oners...now even I was wearing a parka!
Thinking of you!

Doulanic said...

wow - only 25 degrees eh? Life must be rough!!! :-)

Hey - I saw your christmas card at Aubrey and Jane's ...... now, I have a great big bulletin board with pics of all our friends, and you're not on there. Any way we could sneak one off ya? :-)