Thursday May 21

(Continuing the story now that I have internet)

Thursday, May 21 – Ukarumpa Kai Bar

Funny story

Last Monday, when Stephen was sick, we went to his host family’s house – Marsha and Larry Jones – for supper.

Rhett and I went in to visit the ailing lad. He was obviously delirious.
Later I brought Stephen some broth and crackers. As he sat up in his bed we chatted about his state. He commented on how a ‘bird of paradise’ was doing a dance for him on a log outside his window.

Stunned (that a bird of paradise was in Ukarumpa) I looked out the window only to see a magpie fluttering around.

Not wanted to contradict the sick lad I affirmed his sighting and left the room, concerned more than ever for his health.

On Wednesday, when we were having lunch at the Kai Bar at Ukarumpa I over heard Stephen telling everyone the story of the Bird of Paradise sighting.

As did I, the students began to question the authenticity of his sighting.

Soon I was called upon to confirm Stephen’s story. Unable to do so, the entire story became very humorous and I have tried to discipline myself not to continue mocking him. I haven’t been very successful.

I have since learned that the bird was actually a Willy Wagtale.

We are in Goroka. We are staying at the Research and Conservation Foundations Guest House.

It’s clean, nice, friendly and we have access to a kitchen for breakfast. Not sure what we will do for lunch and dinner.

We ended up eating pizza at the Bird of Paradise Hotel. I ordered Lemon Lime Bitters for the brave and most were wondering if there was alcohol in it. No…..

We had dessert and coffee and it was nice to have a big meal at a restaurant.
We were going to have dinner at the Mandarin Chinese Restaurant but since most of the violence around the country has been targeted towards Asians, Rhett wisely diverted our dinner plans to the Bird of Paradise.

Back at the guest house we had intermittent electrical outages. Guess the problem is city wide.