Praise God the branch is full of kids now! There are fourteen ranging in age from just months to 16. Instead of hearing from a branch member this week, we’re hearing from one of our teenagers. The Noland family arrived almost a year ago now. Sydney Noland wrote this post months ago when she was processing living here. Enjoy getting a glimpse of life in PNG from Sydney’s perspective!

By Sydney Noland

Hey all you guys out there reading this. My name is Sydney Ann Noland. I am fourteen years old and I’m a Missionary Kid. Me and my family of eight moved here to Papua New Guinea six months ago.

Over the past year we have moved seven different times. That’s a lot of times. Sometimes being here all the way across the world from my family and friends is hard. Sometimes its super cool cause I get to do things and experience things that most American teenagers will never get to experience. So overall being an M.K. is pretty cool.

Over the past six months me and my family have been learning a whole different language and learning about a whole different culture. Papua New Guineans are some of the most kindest, sweetest, most affectionate people I have ever met. They live in community over here, which means that if you need help with something all you have to do is ask.

Oh yah I forgot to tell you the name of the language which we are learning is called Tok Pisin. Tok Pisin is the trade language here. Here in Papua New Guinea there are over 800 different languages so Tok Pisin is the language that you need to know if you would like to communicate with someone who might not speak the same language as you do.

Being here in Papua New Guinea also means that running an air conditioner is super expensive. That means that our family does not run the air conditioner and sometimes it can get very HOT. So we really like our fans here but when the electricity goes out then we cannot use our fans. The electricity goes out at least two times a week. Sometimes we can go days without electricity without it even blinking on to give us hope.

Overall I love living here. There can be some challenges and sometimes things can get frustrating but I know I WILL SURVIVE.