Football!

There are things I like about Ukarumpa (the mission centre we live in) and things I don’t like. Sometimes life here can feel insular and claustrophobic. There are times when I just need to get out. I normally deal with that by kick-starting my aging Suzuki DR-350 bike and taking off to Kainantu, the local town, or just going for a ride into the valley and surrounding hills. The fresh air, different surroundings and different people normally set me up for the next week or two.

Something else that does me a lot of good here is getting involved in different community events. On Saturday, the high school on centre hosted football (soccer) and basketball tournaments. Three other schools turned up to compete. Over the past couple of months I’ve been helping out coaching the boys’ football team and yesterday I got to referee a lot of the matches. I enjoyed it, even with the passionate coaches occasionally making their thoughts known from the sidelines.

At the moment we’re planning another survey for December. It’s a bit of a last-minute thing, but it’s going to be a short one, and accessible by road...so no real problems. We hope!

Our team, in white, in the process of beating New Tribes