Drew and Bobbi Scholl connecting you to tribal missions 
We have been adjusting pretty well to life here in PNG. We are getting comfortable with the people and the environment and are able to get ourselves into town (grocery, market, etc.) without someone else helping us. Driving on the left side of the road is starting to become a little more natural. We haven’t quite got used to the perpetual smell of smoke though…there are always fires burning around the area…sometimes there are moments when it is lightly snowing ash.
We drove to the Interface camp, where we will be living in a month or so, to check out the area and meet the people we will be working with. It is beautiful there and is a bit off the beaten path. The road to ITF is very rough. Where we are at now it’s only a few minutes to town…once we are at ITF it will take about an hour depending on the condition of the road. Dry season it’s no problem but they say it gets pretty nasty during rainy season. Some people pay money to do that type of off-roading! We also got to see the house we will be living in while we are there.
This last week orientation has involved meeting people, seeing other NTM locations in the area, and getting to know how to get around Goroka safely. It has also been a slower week to allow us time to transition and get settled as a family in this radically different place. It has been great to meet other missionaries with all types of backgrounds. Some have been in the mission field for 40 + years, others only a short while and have a background similar to ours. Our kids have met some other kids here and have had a blast playing, riding bikes, climbing trees, etc. It is nice to see them so happy in spite of the tough transition. There is no doubt they miss their friends and cousins back home…even little Annie asks about them and tells us she wants to see them.
This week we start culture and language training. We will be working with a national who will be training us one on one. The training is not done by reading but is done in person by verbal and visual association…it’s like how kids learn how to talk.
