Almost Home

I scanned through the 40 questions on the paper test in front of me, trying to calculate whether I’d answered at least 28 right. Many of the problems had been familiar, but to my dismay I’d come across a good number of ones that I’d either forgotten or hadn’t seen before. Part of the difficulty of the test was the basic grammar of the questions. Gary said they’d been translated into Indonesian from English, and then back into English from Indonesian! Some were based on the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASRs) which were borrowed from the U.S. FARs, so that helped, but others were from sources I would have no way of finding. I had no idea what Annex 2 was, for instance, and what it had to do with the high seas, if anything. So having done my best to study the prep material I’d been provided, I followed Gary’s advice on the test to keep praying and answering.

Last train ride - for now. Glad to be done for the time being!

I decided I’d answered the questions as best as I could so I caught the attention of the proctor and traded my completed air law test for the meteorology test. I felt much more confident on that one, although I realized afterward that I’d messed up on at least a few. Oh well, all that matters is that I get the 70% necessary to pass!

As far as if I’d passed or not? “The results will get sent directly to your organization,” the proctor informed me as I turned in my last gradesheet. “Do you have any idea when the results will come?” I queried. He shrugged his shoulder with a sheepish look on his face. “I don’t know…I can ask later, but maybe one week.” My eyebrows went up. “Or less,” he quickly added. Phooey. Ah well, weren’t you saying something about patience, Michael?

Time for some swapping around.

If patience is a quality for a missionary to acquire, flexibility is an attribute that he must increasingly exercise. As I got out of my exam, I discovered my latest opportunity to be flexible. “How much do your suitcases weigh?” Choqky asked me. After we briefly sorted out pounds to kilos, he told me why he was asking. “The airline you’re going on to Papua only allows 1 suitcase of 20 kilos. So maybe you can rearrange what you’ve packed and take the most important things in one suitcase and the other suitcases will get shipped by boat next week.” Lovely. If there’s one thing I’d rather do when traveling, it’s keep all my belongings together. I’ve already lost a suitcase in Africa and don’t really want to do a repeat. But when I found out the extra baggage fee - $10 per kilo - it was pretty obvious why the boat was the best option.

Simon! The awesome mechanic from Costa Rica.

As I was pondering what I would bring in my one suitcase - isn’t everything important? - I got a welcome surprise. I was going to be traveling with Simon, a mechanic who would be giving Gary some much-needed help with work on the planes. Knowing how many suitcases I’d brought, Gary was checking with him if he was traveling with luggage - and he wasn’t, so he could check a second bag for me! I couldn’t be happier. It made the job much easier as I rearranged my belongings between suitcases that afternoon.

That brings us to today. After checking out of the hotel this morning, I tagged along with Choqky for one more metro ride to downtown to order some appliances for the mission base. Then back to pick up the suitcases and head out to the airport to meet Simon and catch our flight to Papua. It’ll be a red-eye flight, but I’m stoked that we’ll be landing at 7:40 a.m. which means I’ll actually be able to see my new surroundings as I arrive, rather than everything being black and generic. So here we go. I’ve been on the road for 2 weeks since leaving California and I’m ready to get to Papua. So on to…home.

One more semi-sleepless night to go.