Done with Internship

I’m done with my internship! I had my last day on Friday. It wasn’t as hard to say goodbye to my students as I thought it would be, but that’s probably because I’m still around for another week and will see them. I gave them each a small gift and a ND quarter to remember me. Some kids were more excited about it than others. ;) It was neat to be able to do these last 2 weeks on my own… it was a good confidence builder. I wasn’t nervous about being by myself, but it’s still different actually doing it on your own as opposed to feeling like you can do it on your own. My internship experience here has been wonderful, and I’m really going to miss my kids! There was a “thank-you” party for me during the 15-minute recess break on Friday. Alyssa brought delicious treats, and there was a gift from the teachers (a candle holder) with a card that they all signed. As a “words of affirmation” person, that meant so much to me! After school on Friday I had the 5th grade girls come over for a baking party. It’s amazing how much mess, noise, and fun come with such a group! We made peanut butter cookies (they ate them all) and chocolate cake and cupcakes (all 12 cupcakes were gone, too… remember there are only 7 of us total). They had fun writing on my bathroom mirror with the air freshener and putting flour on their faces and jumping to touch my fan. They also wrote a letter to Joel to convince him to come back to Papua to stay… they even offered to babysit for us. ;) I treated them for supper at the game (chicken curry), and we had a fun time together.

I spent quite a bit of time this week wrapping everything up and making sure parents had materials to work on with their kids for the rest of the school year and over the summer. I also did lots of stuff to prepare for Joel’s and my trip to Wamena. There’s always paperwork involved, and the elections are coming up this week which makes things even more interesting. Flight schedules are off, there are lots of extra holidays where people are gone, etc. Fortunately the people at the school and Mike know what needs to happen when, so I think I have everything under control. Wednesday I went to my last Bible study, and we all shared our testimonies. It was really encouraging to hear the various stories of how God has worked in the lives of the ladies. I also had my last Indonesian lesson with Ibu Elsje. I gave her a USD t-shirt as a thank-you, and I think she liked it. :)

On Saturday I got to go to “the pipe” with several high school kids and Garth (one of the dorm parents for Hostel 1). It was great! We walked for about 45 minutes on top of a big black pipe. It’s probably about 2’ in diameter (don’t hold me to that, though… I’m bad at estimating). It wasn’t too bad, but there were some parts that made me nervous because it was a good drop to rocks below. Most of the time it was only a few feet off the ground and you’d fall into jungle. We had to cross the river a couple times, but when we reached our destination it was amazing! We were at the river near a waterfall area that had great swimming holes. There were several large boulders to climb on and jump into the pools. The water was so cool and refreshing. The boys were doing all sorts of flips and dives and crazy things. They were very entertaining. I jumped off a few times, but I injured my pinkie toe on my 2nd jump because I slipped. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, I know, but I felt it the rest of the day. It rained a little bit while we were there, which made me nervous about going back down the pipe when it was wet. It ended up not being too bad, but I did slip a few times (always in good spots that were close to the ground… Thank You, Jesus!). It was a great day! That was one of the things I’d had on the list of things I wanted to do before I left, but I didn’t think I’d be able to since I had so little time left. What a blessing that I got to go! Clare came over for supper, and we had a good talk.

We had a great sermon on Sunday about when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. The speaker talked about Jesus’s example of servant leadership, and that we should follow His example. He explained that we serve God by serving others. “I serve Jesus when I serve you.” We need to serve others not so that they serve us, but so that they are liberated to serve others. I got to talk with my parents, Lexi, and Hunter, and then with Joel for a few minutes later that night before the internet went down. The next time I talk to him will be in person! He flew out of Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, and will arrive in Sentani on Wednesday morning (Tuesday night where all you guys are). I’m so excited!!! He’s currently somewhere between Tokyo and Singapore, and has a layover there before flying to Jakarta. He’ll spend the day at the airport hotel before the lovely overnight flight to Sentani.

Today has been an interesting day… still no internet, then no water. Somehow the tank was left open and it was pretty much dry. I got a shower in this morning, but haven’t had water since. That’s too bad because I have a pile of dishes to do! Hopefully they’ll be enough by morning to do the basics. The power was out for a little while this afternoon, too, and 2 of the 3 ATMs at the mall were out of service as well. What a day! It was definitely a Monday. The accreditation team is at the school this week, so you can be praying for their visit. Tim and Alyssa are extra-stressed this week. But the current plans are to go to beach on Saturday, so hopefully that will be a good time to relax.