More pics, and an adventure!!!

This is a critter that Josiah (our next door neighbor age 8) caught crawling around after the Church service.




Left: Skyler Husa playing with Shiloh's doll after the first helicopter run, the day I left. Joey and Brooke were both gone, so I helped the Tart kids put all their food away.

Would you believe that we went two-tracking in a twelve passenger van?? Or how about climbing on a world war II tank?? Or driving over a coconut tree in the same twelve passenger van?? Getting eaten alive?? Swimming in the ocean?? We managed to accomplish all of the above between about 9:30am, and 4:30pm. Not too bad for only seven hours! OK, to start at the beginning, I said that I would like to see the world war II attractions around here. So first we stopped at the Sherman tank. That was pretty cool. Very rusted, lots of broken glass, but the words "Good Year" were still visible on at least one of the tires : ).

From there we went to a market and Chris bought some bananas and found us a guide to get us out to see a bomber that's also in the area. When we found the turn off for it, it was not the best looking road. But our guide said it would be fine, so we held our breath and turned onto the the two-track that was overgrown with VERY tall grass. In most areas the grass was almost as tall as the van, and was also growing in the middle between the two tracks. Most of the time we couldn't see anything in front of us, and to the sides of the van we had all this leafy, and grassy stuff jumping in through the windows. The road was also pretty swampy, so we were slogging our way through the mud. Well, then we got stuck. So Angie moved to the drivers seat, and the rest of us hopped out and pushed. We weren't stuck very badly, so we got out of that one pretty easily. But our feet were all covered with this nasty, yucky, slimy, gray, mud. But at that point it didn't make sense to turn around, so we continued on. We passed a piece of the plane's wing on the way in, but didn't bother stopping. After a little bit more of the same, we came to a fork in the road. Chris asked our guide which way to go, and he told him to go straight. About two seconds later, there was a big bump, and a loud thump (that rhymes huh??). That was the coconut tree. It was a pretty good sized one too. Angie and I are guesstimating fifteen inches across. Well, we studied the situation, Chris tried some maneuvers, but with no success. At that point a couple more guys came up the road on foot, and said they'd be willing to help us out. Their village was nearby, so one of them headed in that direction to get an axe, our guide stayed with the van, and two of the other guys went with us, and we hiked the rest of the way to see the airplane. On the way we passed a really swampy, pond thingamajig, and learned that it was where a bomb had landed. We also learned that the area had been a Japanese airstrip. After quite a ways of hiking through tall grass, muddy places, and prickers, we finally got to the airplane. It was pretty cool to see the bullet holes, and all. We were told that it was an American plane, but later found out that if they're giving a tour to an American, it was an American plane. If it was a tour for a Japanese, it was a Japanese plane. I have no idea which it really was. The guys that were with us also said that there was a small graveyard right there too, where the crew had been buried. When Chris asked how many people there had been, they told him that there was "Thousands!" The plane could really have held only about six at the absolute most, so probably had only four in it. One of the guys really liked Baruch, and kept patting him on the back and saying "Nice boy." So he took Baruch and climbed up the plane onto the wing. Baruch wasn't sure if he should be scared of the height, or if he should have fun up there. Jael decided that she couldn't let her younger brother outdo her, so she climbed up there too. Got some good pictures : ). After a little while there we hiked back to the van, where we found that the guys there had already chopped through the tree on one side, and most of the way on the other side. They finished that up, and then spent the next couple hours trying different ways to get the van up and over the chunk that was still under there. We did have the sense to check under the van, and the back for the jack, but we didn't find one. We were stuck there altogether for about three hours, so after about the first hour and a half, one of the guys climbed up a nearby coconut tree, and dropped a couple down for us, for something to drink. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that the whole time we were being eaten by red ants, mosquitoes, and flies. We were pretty close to being out of ideas to try, when another truck came along, and happened to have a jack with them. So we jacked her up, pulled the log out, and did about a ten point turn around, and headed back up the trail. We had all of the other guys that helped us out with us, so it made for a crowded load. At first Angie and I were riding in the back end with the door open, and then a couple of the guys who had been running behind us caught up and jumped on. Then we ended up getting stuck in another mud spot. So the four of us in the back jumped out and pushed us out of that mud spot. We finally got back to the main road, and all of us in the back moved into the van, so that we could shut the door. Then we drove to our guide's home, and dropped all of them of there, payed them, shook hands all around, said tenk yu about fifty times, and went on our way.

And now I have been on the computer almost all morning long, so I'll have to finish telling you the story later. That was just the most exciting part of our day. But I think Angie wants the computer, so I should go. Adios!!!

Anna