Let's go fly a kite!

A few weeks ago we hiked up Radio Tower again for an afternoon hike.
This time I wasn't sucking as much wind as I was the first time, but
it's still a pretty difficult hike. We even took a side excursion to a
small waterfall and bushwhacked our way back down to Mambis to see what
else we could see. But the whole reason for going up in the first place
was to fly a kite.

Anton has this box kite and a whole bunch of string to get this kite
waaaaaay up in the sky. The only problem is getting the kite up in the
air to begin with. From my own kite experience in Nebraska, all you
need was a good running start and up goes the kite. Not quite so with
this kite and the limited area on top of the hill to get a running
start... Time for plan B... Paul gets to climb the radio tower and
launch the kite thirty feet up! Yeah, it's a short tower, but it
doesn't need to be a tall one because it's on the largest hill for about
four miles in all directions. I took the kite from Anton, stuffed it in
my pocket and shimmied up to the top of the tower. It took a few tries
before I figured out how to make a box kite fly, but soon it was
climbing quickly into the sky. Anton had enough line on so that the
kite was simply a dot in the sky when we let out all the string.

Right about the time we got the kite going up, some kids from
Wapenamanda joined us on top of the hill. Most of the time they were
speaking Enga amongst themselves, so none of us knew what they were
saying, but they kept laughing and laughing at us... I guess us white
skins look pretty funny; I mean we start turning red in the sunlight and
all... After about a half our of flying the kite, and 'sharing with
string' (Anton and Laura know quite a few of those string tricks) we
pulled the kite back in and the kids followed us down the hill until
they turned onto a path that leads back to Wapenamanda, but they were
still laughing the whole time. It must be nice to have so much to laugh
about.

Most of the time we end up being spectacles like that; when we go out
into other towns or mission stations a crowd is quick to gather to see
what we're up to... I'm not sure I like all that much attention, but
it's inevitable here. I did like flying the kite though!