On the Road

by Forrest and Laura

This weekend, we had to opportunity to see more of the "real Papua New Guinea" beyond the gates of Ukarumpa. We were able to join several missionaries from Ukarumpa on the two hour drive from Ukarumpa to the town of Goroka. The following pictures show some of the things we saw along the road!

While the entire road from Kainantu to Goroka is paved, paved is sometimes a loose term! In the mountains, half of the road would occasionally be closed due to the road eroding or being blocked by debris. You never know how long the road has been that way, or when it will be fixed. You also never know which side of the road will be blocked, so it can be an interesting guessing game for the driver!

Even though Ukarumpa is in the highlands, the landscape became even more mountainous as we drove to Goroka. The people who live in this area have gardens in these high mountains, and sometimes have to walk hours just to reach them.

We saw many villages along the way. Many of them are positioned close to the road so the people have access to PMVs (public transportation) or can sell goods to people walking or driving by.

Some villages have rectangular houses, but the round houses seen in this picture are the traditional highlands style.

In the town of Goroka, many people were out selling food or crafts, such as the bilums hanging on the fence in this picture.

Our final destination was the Goroka airport. This picture shows the entire airport - a small metal-roofed building with one short runway behind it. Security here is one man who stands in the doorway and decides who to let in!

And that's the quick tour of Goroka...now it's time for the two hour ride back home! Yes, on the same road...because it's the only one.

A Quick Trip Into Town

By Forrest and Laura

Here at Ukarumpa they have an on-site store which stocks many items that are needed by the missionaries working here. They have all the staples needed to maintain a healthy diet.

But there are some things that can’t be purchased and a trip into the town of Kainantu is in order. It is a trip of about 8 kilometers (almost 5 miles) by road. The road is part dirt and partly paved. Road conditions vary between almost impassable to pretty good. There are two bridges that cross the Ba’e River and both of them can be OK to cross if someone hasn’t removed any of the metal plates which form the road surface.

Once in town you need to decide your order of shopping and move around town accordingly. Kainantu has all of the services that you would require to go about daily life. Do you need groceries? Then go to Papindo. Do you need hardware? Then go to Papindo. Do you need clothing? Yes, you can get them at Papindo or another store like this "All in One Stoa,"

but you have another choice. They have an open air market with all sorts of vegetables, clothing

and fresh chicken. You can’t get chicken any fresher than one that’s walking around.

Do you have alluvial gold to sell? Or coffee beans or peanuts? There are buyers here for those things. If you are really having a bad day then you can even stop by the coffin shop and get a coffin decorated to order.

Although our trip into town was an experience that most can only see in pictures I hope you can get a little bit of a feel for it through this blog entry.

Middle of Nowhere

by Sara's sister Laura and dad Forrest

We've arrived in the middle of nowhere - Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea! Believe it or not, Sara has already been living and working here for almost two years. We (Sara's sister Laura and dad Forrest) were excited to have the opportunity to visit Sara for about a month. Our trip has already been an eye-opening experience!

After many hours of flying from Pennsylvania, we landed in Port Moresby, the capital city of PNG. We got off one plane and right onto another, much smaller plane. It was just big enough to hold 5 people and most of our luggage! Upon take-off, we could see the city from the air, but that quickly dissolved into a beautiful landscape of green jungle and winding rivers.

As we continued, the terrain became more mountainous - the mountains were sometimes almost as high as our plane! We flew over these gorgeous views for about 2 hours before we caught our first sight of Sara's PNG home, Ukarumpa.

This town of missionaries is sometimes called "Little America" because it is self-supporting. Ukarumpa has a grocery store, open-air market, medical clinic, elementary school, high school, community library, hardware store, gas station, and beyond. Why is it so important that Ukarumpa be self-supporting? Because it really is in the middle of nowhere!

Though we have already been amazed by many things on our trip, experiencing the remoteness of Papua New Guinea is one of the first and most astonishing! To fly for 2 hours at 100 miles per hour and see absolutely nothing but jungle, mountains, and the occasional village of grass huts? That is more remote than any of us from American can imagine! Many of us believe that Susquehanna country is the middle of nowhere, but Dad and I have learned what that can really mean.

Church at Ba'e

Last Sunday I went to a local church in the valley. It was the first time since coming back from my vacation in March that I'd been outside "the fence" (the chain-link and razor-wire fence surrounding Ukarumpa's 0.8 square miles).

It took about 25 minutes to walk to the church, which includes crossing a river. We're in dry season now so it's not too deep, even though the current was still pretty strong.

I really enjoyed visiting this church and meeting the friendly people there. They are a fairly small congregation but will be moving into a new permanent building in the next few weeks and hope to draw in more people from the local community.

The service was all in Tok Pisin, which was good, so I could follow along. There were some songs, testimonies, and a sermon from a visiting pastor.

I would like to go back there to church this week, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. I can't find anyone else from Ukarumpa who's going and probably shouldn't walk out there by myself. Maybe next week...

Here's a picture of the beautiful scenery outside "the fence," taken from right behind the church.

(All pictures courtesy of Jim Kraft)

When Yes Means No

Today I went to the Ukarumpa Kai Bar (a small store selling fast food) for lunch. They usually have chicken quarters, meat pies, sausage rolls, french fries, ice cream and soda.

When I got there, there didn't seem to be any chicken in the warmer, so I asked "Kakaruk i stap?" (Is there chicken?) and the man behind the counter answered "No." So I got a sausage roll and french fries.

While I was slathering BBQ sauce on my fries, I heard the person in line behind me ask "Nogat kakaruk, a?" (There isn't chicken, right?) to which the worker answered "Yes."

This might seem like a contradiction to us, but it's not - it's just a difference in the way people answer questions. When the worker said "yes" he was agreeing- "yes, you are correct - there is no chicken." But in our culture if we ask "There isn't chicken, right?" and get yes for an answer, we'd probably interpret it as "yes, there is chicken."

Confusing, huh!?

Health Update

Although health is something we usually only talk about when there's a problem, I wanted to just take a minute and do the opposite. You haven't heard me complaining or asking for prayer for my health for awhile, and there's a good reason for that!


Last year was tough health-wise with malaria twice, multiple skin infections and stomach bugs, and recovery from my shoulder surgery. Thankfully I've been healthy so far this year (with the exception of a bug in February)!


I'm always encouraged to get cards, emails and comments that remind me people are praying for my health and safety. Thanks!

Training Centre

This year is the first time that TTC is being held in this beautiful new facility, the Ukarumpa Training Centre. (Photo taken from my front yard)

The older training center was more spread and the buildings were not in great condition; early in the morning they were very drafty and cold.

This new facility is still being built, but so far one classroom block (the building on the left) and the dormitory (on the right) have been completed. (The stuff in between is a construction site for some new building.)

Additional classroom blocks and a kitchen/dining hall are on the agenda, but the money isn't there to complete these buildings now.