Being as isolated as we are, taking breaks is a really important habit. After 3 months in Kovol our time came for a 2 week break out at our support centre outside Goroka.
Over the years we’ve found that about 3 months in the bush is a good duration to shoot for. While flights in and out of the bush are expensive we find that staying longer starts to reduce our work capacity and resilience. We start to lose track of what we’re there for and become, to put it simply, grumpier. Break is a chance to recharge the batteries.
Break for us means a change of location. Life in the bush sounds very exciting and adventurous, and it is – but we don’t actually go anywhere. Something we noticed back in the UK is how often our scenery changes. We go out and go to the swimming pool, or a cafe, or a playground, or a friend’s house, the church every week, the supermarket etc. etc. There’s a bustle and sense of activity and travel. We don’t get that in Kovol. There’s nowhere to go! A change of location is very exciting. Our children are excited, initially at least, to go to the supermarket in town. We hop in a car and we go places.
We also enjoy a change of pace. Gerdine doesn’t need to think about homeschool for a whole week. After a week goes by, she has to start preparing materials for the next bit of homeschool, so it isn’t a long break, but it is a nice change. Our children get to play with their friends out at Sobega. Oscar has a small pack of boys he plays with for most of the day. We enjoy naps and good food. Being close to the stores and having time on our hands means we can make time for baking and making nice food. A lot of it still has to be done from scratch. This evening we’re going to host some friends for a pizza meal together. Dominoes would be nice, but unfortunately doesn’t exist near Goroka so we’ll make our own pizzas. What’s nice about break, though, is that can be the morning activity, followed by resting. Usually it’s something Gerdine squeezes into an already busy day.
One of the main stressors living in the bush is being the people the community come to when there’s trouble. The Saturday before we left, for instance, I spent an hour and a half running kids club. Running around in the sun with 50 kids was great fun, but also tiring. I got home, had a nice drink of water and sat down. It was around then that a father brought his 4- year-old to us with a medical case. Gerdine spent the next 2 hours caring for the medical case. I had to respond by shifting into lunch prep and childcare for our own children to free Gerdine up. Not a big deal at all, but after 3 months of being on call like that you do get a little worn out. It’s nice to have undisturbed time to rest. Taking naps without the risk of a knock on the door feels great.
So far we’ve really enjoyed ourselves. The children loved going swimming at a pool in a hotel in town. Despite the glorious tropical sun the pool was freezing cold, but that doesn’t stop exciting children paddling around! We notice that our children have regressed a little bit in their swimming skills. It makes pool visits an important part of break time. The same with cycling. None of our children have learned how to cycle. It’s something we want to work on, but it’s quite hard to get started. Our life feels quite normal to ourselves. We generally don’t daily feel like we’re sacrificing ourselves and our family. In fact we feel very blessed and grateful, seeing many blessings. Seeing that our children can’t ride bikes, a thing that is so normal in the UK and the Netherlands, is one of those small things that sends alarm bells ringing. We’re different, our children are different, they can’t ride a bike! It’s amazing how such a small detail can feel like a judgement on how we have lived and raised our children.
One of the more important benefits is a sense of perspective. We bump into friends working in other tribal locations and we hear their stories about how things are going. We meet friends who are supporting our work in Kovol with all their different skills: the pilots, mechanics, teachers and other skilled workers who work out in Goroka. Talking with them helps us to regain our excitement for the work we’re doing. When our attention is focused on all the details of running a literacy program, it’s easy to lose track of the big picture. Finding yet more spelling mistakes to be corrected in the printed materials leaves me feeling like I’m trapped in a purgatory of constant revisions. I’m convinced there are many more to come. Chatting to our friends out here, though, I’m reminded of how amazing it is that our literacy program is moving forwards. All that work in language learning and material preparation and here we are, it’s happening. I find refreshing my perspective and regaining my excitement for the work going on in Kovol to be the most beneficial part of break.
It reminds me that we’re working with a group of people who asked us to be there. The Kovol people spent 10 years asking for missionaries. After a further 6 years we are well-established community members, speaking the Kovol language and we’ve started our first class. As I daydream and look ahead I think there may be 2 classes next time, with some of our graduates from the first class taking on some teaching responsibility. Meanwhile scripture is being translated and lessons are being prepared. It’s happening. It’s happened so slowly that I’ve barely noticed, but our friends out in Goroka are able to help us notice and it’s encouraging.
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