A ROMANTIC WEEKEND GETAWAY!

Have you wanted a weekend away from it all with just you and your mate?  I have the perfect place!  First let me tell you about it and see if you agree.

To get there you must fly to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.  From there you have to get a connecting flight with a smaller plane.  We prefer SIL as they are a mission organization and are very trustworthy.  This smaller plane must go to Kaintiba.  This is where we live. 

After you visit us for a few days you and your mate can take the most exciting walk you have ever taken.  It is long and somewhat difficult, but with your mate holding your hand helping you up and down the steep places it is wonderfully romantic J.

You must walk for 7 hours to get to this place.  Oh, the sights you’ll see on the way.  There is breathtaking scenery, beautiful waterfalls, rock formations, dense jungle with one foot trails and a rustic wire bridge over a rushing river.

Some terrain.  Rugged but beautiful!   Also the people that helped us!  (Also beautiful in my opinion!)

On break for lunch.

After you're pretty much exhausted you come up to this place called Watitago.  There you will get a very warm welcome.   The people of Watitago Baptist Church will probably put flower necklaces around your neck.  They will treat you royally (bush style that is).

in Watitago

Some things to note:  There is no running water other than the river not too far away.  Your toilet will be a bush style one - an outhouse with just a hole in the ground.  Your food will be bush style: a root vegetable like a sweet potato (called kaukau), greens and, if they are prepared for you, probably some rice and tinned meat.  You will sleep in a thatched roof house with a fire pit in the middle to keep you warm at night since the elevation is 3600 ft.  You should bring a bed roll as they just sleep on the floor.  They use tree bark that has been flattened to cover up with.  It is called malo.

A very special meal they might make for you is a mumu.  This is a delicious meal.  They first heat the stones over a fire.  When they are glowing red they line banana leaves over the stones and put greens, kaukau, and meat on them.  They cover this with more banana leaves.  In a few hours it is ready.  YUM! YUM!

Did I really do this?  Yes, I did this past weekend, but not without help.  A group of people out of Watitago Baptist Church carried our things.  My husband and I plus all 7 children and Angel, a young lady from our home church in NY, walked there on Thursday, 15 August.   Then on Friday revival meetings started.  My husband, Mark, preached 7 times in 3 days.  On Sunday we had a baptism after morning services.  13 people were baptized.  We left on Monday, 19 August, to come back to Kaintiba with another group of people who carried our things back.

Here's the crowd of people that went with us when we left.

We weren't alone but we still had the time of our lives!   My husband and I were talking on our way home when I thought of the title for this post.

So what do you think?  Does it sound romantic to you?