Will this change last?

I came to PNG expecting to lose weight.  First, I could stand losing some pounds though I thought I didn't weigh too, too much, ... 175 lbs.  And as we prepared to come to Ukarumpa, four facts kept staring me in the face:

1. Julie and I had heard many stories over the years about the mountains of PNG and that one could slip and slide down one wet, muddy hill and then immediately face climbing another mountain on all fours.  The roughest terrain on the planet is a huge reason why, on 1/2 of this island (the other being part of Indonesia), there are 830 different language groups.
2. Julie and I had also heard that the SIL center here in Ukarumpa is about a mile in diameter and built on the side of a hill.  We would have no car and be walking everywhere.  For me, that meant walking halfway up the hill twice a day (morning and lunch) to get to work.
3. We had also heard about the abundant choice of fruits and vegetables.  The locals sell their produce at our center's open air market 3 times a week at very, very low prices.  Additionally, many homes (as does ours) have their own gardens.  Now, I ate my share of fruits and vegetables in the US but consider them as the sidedish for my meat.  In PNG I expected to be meat-starved and waist (!) away eating what was abundant and cheap. 
4. We found the variety of meats limited, the cost several times US prices, and sometimes too expensive to even consider buying.  (Hamburger was $10/kg last week.)

So there were good reasons to think I'd be able to lose some weight.

And then, once we got to PNG, we decided to attend the dedication of a New Testament before returning home.  The only one that seemed to make sense was the Malei dedication coming up in mid-December.  We heard there was an option to hike out with the added benefit of saving a bunch of money by not using the SIL helicopter on the way out. 

The translator, John, took a look at us back in September when we talked to him about hiking out.  In the US we had been exercising often in a gym.  We've done some day hikes in the mountains of Vermont and North Carolina.  We had been taking walks around the hilly perimeter of Ukarumpa several times a week since arriving in August, feeling pretty good.  We had been using the Ukarumpa weight room at least a couple of times a week. Julie was part of the hour-long ladies aerobics group 3 times a week.  And then John got us worried when he looked down at us and declared, "you look like you might be okay." 

Uh oh...

And so we hiked out of Yemli a few weeks ago after the Malei New Testament dedication.



Rugged, no?  What we hiked.

 After hiking out, we told John and Amy (his wife) that this shouldn't have been called a hike out.  It should have been called a climb out.   It included fording streams, crossing swaying suspended bridges, walking narrow trails in jungle and on mountain tops, sleeping under mosquito nets two nights, sliding down a muddy trail the last morning to get to boats waiting at the beach.




Suspended, swaying bridge of branches

 

Descending from mountain top to the next river (and eventually back up)





The first woman gladly serves by carrying my pack

  

It was beautiful.  It was memorable.  It was rewarding.  It was different from anything we'd ever done.  It was challenging.  It was very, very hard. 

And, while we were thrilled to have done it and would recommend it (to anyone in good shape), we don't think we'd do it again.



Looking down at the Pacific Ocean, the end of the hike out



So, about 4 1/2 months after landing here, the scale says I now weigh 157 lbs!  I haven't weighed this little for at least 25 years.  I'm on the last hole in my belt and most of my pants look baggy on me, looking really odd with all that extra material collected by the belt.

I wonder if I can keep it off or if returning to the land of too-many-choices, the land of meat-abundantly-available, the land of fast food will triumph.

Switch horses:  I've also been wondering how my take on consumerism is going to change.  Julie and I don't feel we spend a lot on ourselves at home.  (We have two 10 year old cars.)  Still, living in Ukarumpa with long term missionaries, living in and visiting many PNG missionary homes here at the center, and having gone through the biggest/longest holiday season (Thanksgiving thru New Years) with few shopping opportunties and no pressure to "get" has really impressed upon me what we can/should live with and how wild the holiday shopping season back home can be.

And as I received many, many email deals and sales flyers from places like Sears, Best Buy and all those special "Black Friday" sales stores, I felt the pull to spend money, get that gadget at reduced pricing, even though I was on the other side of the planet and actually without the ability to use what they wanted me to purchase.

So, now having seen how the Malei people live, how simple their lifestyle is, having had my focus on God's work and not on the world's focus, I wonder what changes and adjustments even I, reasonable spender and budget keeper that I am and a missionary to boot, will be making when we return home to the US in February.

"Seek ye first..."

I hope both my lower weight and my different outlook will last.  This will be interesting.