Updates

I know it has been awhile but live gets busy sometimes. I really don't know where the time went. Since our last post we went on a trip to North Carolina and Florida. We flew military aircraft and it only took us one plane and like 14 hours to get to South Carolina and then we rented a car and drove up to North Carolina. Kyle went to camp, Justin stayed at Grandma Debbie's, Bill, Zack and I went down to Florida for a few days and went to DisneyWorld. Then we spent some time in North Carolina visiting family. The way back on military aircraft it took us like 5-6 days and 3 planes. We got stuck in Cailfornia for a few days because the plane we were on the list to get on broke down and we had to wait for it to get fixed because we were already scheduled on it. The bad part was that every morning we had to go in there and wait to see if it was going to leave that day and by the time they would decided it wasn't it was already close to rush hour so we could never make it up to Sacramento. It felt really weird being less than 1 hour away from "home" and not being able to go visit my dad's grave. I had some issues with it but got through it.
After we got home it was time to get Bill ready to leave for his trip and the boys ready for school. And during the mist of all that I got a part-time job from 8am-1pm. Also Aunt Susan, Bob, Katlyn and Scott Jr. came to Hawaii and we got to do some fun stuff with them and Bob's son Justin (he lives here). Bill left for Papua New Guinea on Aug. 1st at 7am and Aunt Susan left later that afternoon. So that just leaves me and the boys. Kyle and Justin started school on Aug. 3rd and they like their new school so far. Zack has gone on one day and also goes tomorrow (Aug. 7th), then starting on next Tuesday (Aug. 11th) Zack will go everyday. It will be nice when we can settle into a routine, everything just still seems so hectic. I am hoping maybe after next week when Zack has been going to school for a bit everything will settle down.
So I have gotten a few updates from Bill. Internet is very slow and alot of times his emails don't get through. I have talked to him once for just a couple of minutes, he was on a satellite phone so it was hard to hear and it kept breaking up. Here are a some of the emails from him.....(I have removed other peoples names)

Aug 3rd
"Im here in Port Moresby now.. Im in a guest lounge on a computer that is slower then a snail crawling uphill in an avalanche. We got in yesterday at about 5:30pm Hawaii time last night. We had to wait forever through customs and getting our bags before we could go to the hotel. We finally got here at like 10pm Hawaii time. We had dinner and I had the only beer here, its called SP Lager... not bad. We were all beat so then we went to bed at like 1230 HI time but it was only like 830 here. I slept like a rock, yesterday was a long day. So far no bad effects from the doxy... so thats good. Today (3 of the guys) are going to help depalitize our gear, not really, they will just point out our stuff and the PNG workers will do it, while (1 of the guys) and I are staying behind, we have a meeting with the Embassy officials."
"So far the people are very friendly and you can tell they really appreciate you being cordial with them. It was a very interesting drive from the airport to the hotel. There were a lot of street side markets with people sitting on balnkets with thier goods. People walking everywhere... and the drivers are crazy. There is a distinct funk amongst some of the men that Ive seen but the woman so far have not had that. Since we are at a port. My hotel room overlooks the port and ocean, its pretty cool. The room is very westernized. Its not bad at all. This city is one of the largest in the country and most successful but I would say it looks like a poor city to us. Im sure the rest of PNG will be alot more exotic and wild in nature."

Aug 5th
"Today was amazing... it was like I was in a National Geographic episode. We flew into this remote village on a mountain top... about 6 big grass woven hut buildings... as we fly over, about 60 people come out and they are all smiling and waving... very cool experience... we landed in the middle of thier village and they all came to greet us with smiles and hand shakes. I spoke to the village chief about 2 crash sites and we plan to go back later this week so they can take us to them. I took a picture of the kids and showed it to them, they were all laughing, they thought it was cool. They all wanted to be close to us and hear what we had to say. Then when we lifted off, everyone was still out there and they waved to us good bye. It was one of the coolest feelings I have ever felt. Our supplies arent in yet (supposed to be tonight) so I didnt get to give the kids candy yet. I wanted to so bad. they were all smiles just watching us. I took some picutres but I didnt take to many, I didnt want to seem rude. "

Aug 6th
"Sorry but the phone is not really working today, everytime i try to call you it tells me to try again later." "Today we coordinated an LZ to be cut for a site, it was pretty cool, they gave us these funky looking cucumbers that were pretty good. we gave them some rice and sugar for thanks. we also found another site that is definatly one on our book. we are going back tomorrow with (the anthropologist) becasuse there is probably remains at the site.. im very excited because this site is one i was really hoping to find... and i did. we finally got all our equipment today, seems like its been so long... i forgot what i brought." "(One of the guys) showed me a picture he took of me today. Im standing with my back to him but the entire village of like 60 people are all around me... its a really cool picture. I wish i could upload pictures but i swear this thing is worse then dial up... the typing even has to catch up with me, especially on like the password login screens. Tonight we are going to eat chinese food again, we had the western menu they had last night and the service was horrible... dad would have beat someone :) we sat at the table for 1:45 before we got our food. well, gonna stop now before the internet dies off again."

Well that is really all I have for now. I'll try to update more often so everyone know what is going on. Love to All.