Left BATI early morning to go to airport. We are leaving for Sumba! Met David's wife, Masta at the airport. So great to see her again! She will go with us to Baing to help with interpretation and to help prepare meals.
While at the airport and during the rush through security we ended up with an extra bag on our cart. A woman with a security guard came up to us and she pointed out her bag on our cart! We had lots of questions asked - it was pretty scary and we prayed that it would work out - she still had another bag missing, and the security guard wanted to know where it was! Finally the other bag was found - thank God! None of us wanted to go on a mission trip and end up in a jail in Denpasar! We were getting even more anxious to finally be in Sumba...
We arrived safely and Gary and I were so happy to see old friends (Pastors Elias, Chuck and Casper) waiting for the team! Got our stuff and headed to Baing. About a 3 1/2 hour ride - got a good view of Sumba. Stopped at Pastor Stephanos' church to say hello - Compassion International was doing Vacation Bible School there.
We got to Baing at dusk - it gets dark between 6-6:30pm there! Pastor Elias apologized for not having food as good as we have at home??? I told him that it was the type of meal that I would prefer to have at home! Rice, fresh bok choy and spinach - great meal!
The houses in the immediate vicinity have walls, doors and concrete floors. Simple but nice. In the surrounding area the homes are much humbler - usually one room with thatched room and sometimes a lean-to for cooking. A lot of them are built off the ground - probably to discourage snakes and pests.
Found out that the bathroom at Pastor Elias' house was brand new - they had built it for us! It had a nice squatty potty and a dip bath area. It is the only sealed toilet in the village. Joe and Sam were gracious enough to let the lady's (and Gary) have the rooms at Pastor Elias' - they had no bathroom at their house across the street. Clay and Luke pitched their tents in Pastor Elias' church next door since Clay has the bad mold allergies that effect him almost everywhere.
Electricity is regulated in Sumba - you can only use it at night. Pastor Elias had borrowed a generator in case the electricity went out so that we could see the light in the bathroom behind the house. Gary and I were blessed to have the only light in our room.
So many different sounds and distractions that make sleeping hard - roosters, who have absolutely no sense of time, crowing in the middle of the night. Dogs that fight all night long. Coconuts and mystery fruit falling on the tin roof. It's cooler there than in NC, but still in the low 80's and hard to acclimate to while trying to sleep. Add to that the over 40 sleep problems of 5 out of 6 on our team, and you get a little sleep deprivation!
At least we didn't have to worry about scorpions in our sleeping bags like Clay and Luke, who killed one by their tent the first night!
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