Flight

Tired! That is the feeling of the moment. It is a tiredness that might take more than one good night's sleep to remedy and is certainly beyond the power of the local coffee. I’ve made it to PNG, settled into my accommodation and in the quiet of this moment, the 4am start and the poor sleep before it have caught up with me. In bed last night, the enormity of this move finally hit me. There was no sense of wanting to back out, but rather anxiety about what it all means and just how much is unknown. Thus the bad sleep. Once under way this morning, early though it was, I was back to being excited. Flights, connections, customs etc all went well. I ended up on the morning flight from Pt Moresby to Ukarumpa, which is a blessing as I can right now hear the afternoon flight coming in to land. It would have been a very long day if I were on that flight.

Soon after taking off from Pt Moresby we were cruising at 10 000ft between two layers of cloud. To my right I could see mountains poking out of one cloud layer and disappearing into the next. To my left the cloud thinned out and the ocean was visible. Beneath us was an icing of clouds, in the windows between the white I could see the dense green of jungle, rising up towards us. With such rugged terrain it is no wonder that so many distinct languages and cultures have developed here. 

Coming in to land at Aiyura we circled Ukarumpa. Today it was an unidentifiable web of houses and streets. No doubt it will soon be familiar. Today there were many new faces. Some were faces to go with names I’ve been emailing for months. One familiar face met me soon after landing, that of Beverly who I did my ‘work experience’ with nine years ago. It has taken me awhile to get back here, but I am now ready to be here and ready for the long haul. If I had of stayed nine years ago, I doubt I would have lasted. 

It is good to be here at last.