1) Housewife – My job of primary importance is keeping up my home so that after a hard day of flying Bill has a place to come home to that is clean and restful, with a good meal waiting to fill the hole in his stomach. Cooking generally takes longer then in the States as most everything must be cooked from scratch. Here I am getting ready to make guacamole from the abundance of avocados off our tree.
2) Baker – Bread is a food staple for us. I bake a loaf of bread at least every other day. Bill’s favorite Friday night supper is Banana bread topped with Papaya and soaked in milk. Really!
3) Laundress – Laundry is always waiting for a day of sunshine so that it can dry. After years of having to wash clothes by hand in Africa, I am most grateful for a washing machine here in PNG. However, dryers are still a novelty. There is nothing wrong with using good old sunshine except when it wants to rain buckets every day.
4) Shopper - Shopping is probably my least favorite activity. Battling the masses of people that hang out in the very hot, muddy, filthy market is just not my idea of fun.
The produce, spread out on the ground in the mud, is lugged around in bags that quickly become VERY heavy to carry.
After arriving home, all that produce must be carefully cleaned in order to avoid such nasties as hepatitis, dysentery, and cholera. Not only do I shop for myself, but for others as well. For example, while Carol Millist has been on medical leave to Australia, I have done all the shopping for her family. I also shop for missionaries that live in remote areas if our pilots are making a flight out their way. Just this past week I shopped for some AFM missionaries as well as some SIL missionaries.
5) Farmer - Well, farmer is a pretty grandiose title, but I like the way it sounds. (grin) I bravely try to fight a winning war against the weeds, bugs, and disease so that I can produce a little of my own produce and maybe not have to visit the market as often. (So far I cannot claim any great success!)
6) Grounds Keeper – With the amount of rain we get it takes constant work to keep the yard from turning into wild bush. One of my weekly duties is mowing the lawn and weeding the flower beds.
7) Animal Keeper – As you can see here, I have this big, fiercesome, guard dog that takes her job very seriously. Not only must I cook for Bill, but I must cook for her as well. She gets a big bowl full of brown rice, sweet potatoes, and tuna fish every day. Some how she seems to thinks she earns her keep!
The sweet potatoes come freshly dug up from the gardens. They are covered in dirt so must first be scrubbed clean.
8) Inventory Controller – It is my job to receive in and log out the aircraft parts inventory. This includes counting and batch filing the parts when they arrive, entering them in to the accounting system, converting their prices from foreign currency into local currency, etc.
9) Accounts Clerk – I share this title with Carol Millist, coming in several times a week to help with the accounts receivable and payable.
10) Banker – I do the weekly banking for AAS. I count up all the money that has come in through our commercial aviation business, match it with the receipts, enter it into the accounts system, and deliver it safely to the bank. (At least that is my goal. This past week a woman was robbed as she attempted to enter the bank. She was attacked by a gang of men who cut her bag right off her arm with a machete and took off in a get-a-way car. Such is life here in PNG)
11) Hostess – There are always an assortment of visitors coming to PNG that have to be provided for by the missionary wives. “Fly and Build” teams, Division personnel, Union personnel, friends and relatives coming for a visit, etc. For example, just this past week, I had Terry McHugh, our Union Accountant, in my home for the week, when he came up to review our accounts. This afternoon I have a film crew arriving from Australia that I will be putting up for several days.
12) Airplane Mechanic Assistant – Any time the airplane goes down for routine inspections, Bill has several little non-skilled jobs for me to do to help with the maintenance. One of my favorite jobs is doing paint touch-up on all the hundreds of little spots where the paint has worn off. Maybe it somehow appeals to the artistic side of me.
Someone recently made the comment that the work I do does not impact any lives. This is true. I am not a frontline missionary. However, what he failed to realize is that for every frontline missionary there has to be the support people that enable the frontline missionary to be able to do what they do. Every day our pilots impact not just one person’s life, but entire village’s lives. They are often the lifeline to these remote villages - flying in store goods, building supplies, medicines, and medical teams. They fly out their sick, bring home their deceased, fly out their produce to sell so they can have money to pay school fees...etc. I cannot fly an airplane into some of the most challenging airstrips in the world, but I CAN do all the little mundane “behind the scenes” jobs that are just part of daily living, and in the process I free up my husband to do what he does best. Impact lives!
From that point on it was steady progress.
The team held meetings every night. They hung a sheet on the side of the clinic to make a large screen.
