Wednesday was my first mobile clinic. We left the house around 7:30 and traveled about 30 minutes to another village. Half way into the drive we come to this huge river, with no road leading across. Now this thing had a really strong current, you'd get swept away if you tried to walk or swim across. Now this is completely normal for anyone living here but I am new to this so I found it to be pretty entertaining when Bill drives through it and the water is coming up the side of my door. The rest of the drive is absolutely beautiful I still cannot get over the mountains here! When we arrive there are 300-400 people awaiting our arrival. Some of the men had come in the ambulance, earlier that morning to get everything set up. We had one big tent that Lori used as an examination room and there were a few canopys set up for other purposes. Upon our arrival Bill had all of the people who needed to see Lori form a line so he could distribute numbers to each of these people. He soon realized there were more than had been expected and only gave numbers to the 200 that were in line, anyone coming later in the day wouldn'nt be able to see her. One of the pastors gave a short message before we started seeing any patients. There were about 10 people that would meet with each of the patients afterwards for a one on one ministry. Since I can't speak Pidgin I was given the fun job of treating sores! Yummy. There were a ton of people with sores and scabies and such, that myself along with one of the clinic nurses help treat. We pretty much just sprayed them with a type of antibotic and cleaned the area then put neosporn and a bandaid on. There were some pretty nasty looking infections coming through, especially with the poor little kids. Alot of them had scabies all over their bodies. After an hour of that we got through the majority of the people but Lori was only at patient number 40 out of 200...we had some time to kill. We ate lunch in the ambulance and then played some volleyball and finally at about 4 in the afternoon started packing things up. Long day but I got a nice tan!
As I headed out to the kitchen for breakfast yesterday morning, I could tell something was wrong. Bill and Lori were there talking and I could hear the worry in their voices. As I sat down at the kitchen table with my cup of coffee, Bill filled me in. Lalow's death, is still stirring up problems with the people here. Bear with me as I try to explain this because it's really confusing to put into words: A witch came to the village this morning in search of Lalow's spirit so he could tell her who killed him. She claims the murderer is the ambulance driver, who looked in the mirror while driving Lalow to the hospital and did sorcery on him. Now I've spent a great deal of time with this man lately and feel awful when I hear this because he is such a sweet guy. The witch was paid by Lalow's brothers to come find the killer and have said before that they suspected the ambulance driver so it's no surprise that's who she said was responsible. They are now demanding 10,000 kena(5,000 american dollars) and two pigs or they will kill him. The biggest thing that shocked me was that most of the people here believe(or are questioning) that he is responsible. And I'm talking about the christian guys and even the pastors! They have grown up believing that these so called witches NEVER lie about this, so it is hard for them to change their way of thinking.
It's Friday morning and I'm about to leave for Simbai. The power went out last night when I was trying to finish up this blog post so I have to hurry and write the rest, so sorry it is very rushed and probably confusing. But Lori just came and told me that some of the men came to village last night and tried to attack the ambulance driver in his sleep. Luckily alot of the christian men were sleeping outside of his home and all stuck together to stop the attackers. It's hard to imagine this is happening a few hundred yards away from where I had been sleeping. Anyway I am headed to Simbai in a 6 passenger plane, which should be fun. There are no roads leading in or out of Simbai so this is the only way to get there. They only have 3 hours of electricity a day and have no internet or phones. The only way of communicating with the outside world is through walkie talkies, which Bill contacts them with every Monday Wednesday and Friday to make sure they are okay. If they don't answer for 3 days he has to send out a search party for them, lets hope that doesn't happen while I'm there! Thank you all for your prayers and please continue praying for everyone here and the hardships they are facing!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
creeper alert-i need some mace
Sunday morning we headed up to the Kokinaga church for the last time(for me at least-next sunday i will be in simbai and the following ill be on my way home). Ruthie and I did the lesson for the kids, then played a few games and we gave them prizes I had brought from home. They were excited about this because most of these kids have nothing so punch balls and book marks were a big deal. We stayed for the entire service this week instead of just sunday school, because with Bill still being in Medang it was too hard for all of us to go to the other church as well. There were at least 4 women breast feeding in the middle of the service, not worrying about covering themselves up, thats just how it is here.(hahah can't even imagine the reaction we would have if someone did this in america)I look around at everyone, sitting there in the dirt, intent on what the pastor. At the end of the service the pastor explains to the congregration that it will be my last week at their church before i go back to america and he tells me how thankful he and the congregation are of my church back home who all gave money to them to help buy the land that the church is built on. They will officially own the land November 27th and wants me to let everyone at home know that. They then present me with a belim as a token of their apprecation, I'm a very sentimental person and was almost in tears at this point. Back at home, we all sit in church while the missionary offering is being taken, with no idea of what the money will be used for. And today I am standing here, seeing with my own eyes, how great of an impact we have on these people; how much of a difference we make; how much these people appreciate us. They have nothing; they sit on the dirt for hours every sunday morning to hear God's word. We have everything, and yet we find the most frivolous things to complain about and completely forget what church is all about. I truly love and admire these people.
Tuesday(today)- Bill and I went to town to run some errands. before picking Amo up from school. First stop was at the local hospital. That was...different, nothing like I've ever seen. For us, hospital and sanitation go hand and hand; that's not the case in PNG. I would best describe it as an insanse asylum you would see in a horror movie. Run down and dirty but at least it had electricity. So after the tour of the hospital we headed to the airport to pick up the Wagner's car. The Wagners are another missionary couple, who, along with their youngest daughter Abby (16), live in Simbai. Bill and I are actually going to stay with them Friday-Monday. Simbai is what they call "the bush", meaning it's in the middle of nowhere; they dont have internet, cell service, anything really. They get electricity three hours a day and their only ways of transportation are motorcycles and four wheelers.(super excited for this trip!) So we get to the airport and thankfully their car isn't a stick shift so I can drive it! I'm really excited about this since I have yet to drive here and everyone drives on the left side of the road so it's much different than what I know. So Bill is acting all nervous and is standing over me as I'm getting in the car making sure I know how to turn it on?? seriously hahah okay Bill this isn't my first time in a vehicle. Anyway we only had to drive for like a mile or two which wasn't bad because I was following Bill but it would've been a little scary to do alone. People are always out in the middle of the road and stopping their cars out of no where to pick people up. The roads don't even have lines dividing the two sides so it's not exactly safe. Anyway we get over to this storage unit that the car needs to be backed in to. I figured Bill would be doing this, I mean backing vehicles up into tight spaces is a man thing, but I was wrong. We had to puch the side view mirrors in to get the car to fit so you can understand how much room I had. So there were three guys standing at a fence watching us opening up the storage unit. I get into the car and start backing in and pulling ahead and backing up and so on for like 5 minutes(Bill's directions were...well let's just say I would have been better off without them). So as I'm getting flustered trying to do this without scraping the car, I notice the three guys has turned into 15..with more coming! I guess a white girl driving a car is somewhat entertaining? That or they were scheming how they were going to steal it. So I finally just ignore the directions I am being given and get it parked just fine.
We then headed to the grocery store and when we walked in there were a couple guys, probably in their mid 20's, creepily eyeing me up and down. Nothing new, this is the norm for me here so whatever, it's just starting to get old. So we keep walking around the store and I'm paranoid, as usual, about someone trying to steal my camera or wallet so I hold my belim a little closer. I'm pretty good about the way I hold my bag, so no one will try to snatch something. People here are always walking so close to me it would be easy to have something stolen. Anyway we keep walking around and I notice the guys staring and creepin on me and am starting to feel like they're seriously gonna rob me. I just act casual as I'm contemplating what I would do if they would take my camera. I'm probably overly confident in my ability to defend myself, but at least I'm not afraid. So Bill and I go down another aisle and I'm getting something off of the shelf when I look back to see these 4 guys standing at the end of the aisle about 8 feet from me just staring. These are the same guys I've noticed following us the entire time we've been shopping, they're not even trying to be discreet about it. I hold my belim tighter to me cause they are NOT going to be stealing from me today. "I think we're being followed" I say to Billand he says "yeah I know, get in front of me". So we walk forward and away from them, to the check out counter. While waiting the guys walk near us, still staring(seriously what is wrong with people here, if they're going to creepily stare they shouldn't be so obnoxiously obvious about it!), and out the exit. We spot Ruthie and Martha who happen to be here at the same time and since they're done shopping, are just going to ride with us instead of walking back home. So we get the groceries and head out the door and guess who's there? yepp the same three sleezeballs from earlier. So Bill walks to my right so he's between me and the guys and we get safely to the car. When we're leaving I ask Bill what they were trying to do..I assumed steal from me, but he said they were trying to get close to touch me, and if I had been alone would have followed me and who knows what. They were also saying some very inapproriate things about me, none of which i understood since it was in Pidgin but Bill sure did. I can imagine my mother now. "I told you to take your mace with you!"
Once back at the house the college guys are asking if I will finally teach them how to play American football. I agree to do that so Ruthie Martha and I head out to the field and a bunch of people are coming wanting to learn. Okay a dude should definitely be teaching them how to play, not me. But oh well I do my best and we just follow the basic rules of touch football. They have NO idea what they are doing. They are so used to rugby that they want to throw the ball everytime the get ahold of it. They don't understand the concept of catching and running haha so it's still a work in progress but we played until it was so dark we couldn't see anymore and they made me promise we would play again on Thursday. Guess they enjoyed it!
Tuesday(today)- Bill and I went to town to run some errands. before picking Amo up from school. First stop was at the local hospital. That was...different, nothing like I've ever seen. For us, hospital and sanitation go hand and hand; that's not the case in PNG. I would best describe it as an insanse asylum you would see in a horror movie. Run down and dirty but at least it had electricity. So after the tour of the hospital we headed to the airport to pick up the Wagner's car. The Wagners are another missionary couple, who, along with their youngest daughter Abby (16), live in Simbai. Bill and I are actually going to stay with them Friday-Monday. Simbai is what they call "the bush", meaning it's in the middle of nowhere; they dont have internet, cell service, anything really. They get electricity three hours a day and their only ways of transportation are motorcycles and four wheelers.(super excited for this trip!) So we get to the airport and thankfully their car isn't a stick shift so I can drive it! I'm really excited about this since I have yet to drive here and everyone drives on the left side of the road so it's much different than what I know. So Bill is acting all nervous and is standing over me as I'm getting in the car making sure I know how to turn it on?? seriously hahah okay Bill this isn't my first time in a vehicle. Anyway we only had to drive for like a mile or two which wasn't bad because I was following Bill but it would've been a little scary to do alone. People are always out in the middle of the road and stopping their cars out of no where to pick people up. The roads don't even have lines dividing the two sides so it's not exactly safe. Anyway we get over to this storage unit that the car needs to be backed in to. I figured Bill would be doing this, I mean backing vehicles up into tight spaces is a man thing, but I was wrong. We had to puch the side view mirrors in to get the car to fit so you can understand how much room I had. So there were three guys standing at a fence watching us opening up the storage unit. I get into the car and start backing in and pulling ahead and backing up and so on for like 5 minutes(Bill's directions were...well let's just say I would have been better off without them). So as I'm getting flustered trying to do this without scraping the car, I notice the three guys has turned into 15..with more coming! I guess a white girl driving a car is somewhat entertaining? That or they were scheming how they were going to steal it. So I finally just ignore the directions I am being given and get it parked just fine.
We then headed to the grocery store and when we walked in there were a couple guys, probably in their mid 20's, creepily eyeing me up and down. Nothing new, this is the norm for me here so whatever, it's just starting to get old. So we keep walking around the store and I'm paranoid, as usual, about someone trying to steal my camera or wallet so I hold my belim a little closer. I'm pretty good about the way I hold my bag, so no one will try to snatch something. People here are always walking so close to me it would be easy to have something stolen. Anyway we keep walking around and I notice the guys staring and creepin on me and am starting to feel like they're seriously gonna rob me. I just act casual as I'm contemplating what I would do if they would take my camera. I'm probably overly confident in my ability to defend myself, but at least I'm not afraid. So Bill and I go down another aisle and I'm getting something off of the shelf when I look back to see these 4 guys standing at the end of the aisle about 8 feet from me just staring. These are the same guys I've noticed following us the entire time we've been shopping, they're not even trying to be discreet about it. I hold my belim tighter to me cause they are NOT going to be stealing from me today. "I think we're being followed" I say to Billand he says "yeah I know, get in front of me". So we walk forward and away from them, to the check out counter. While waiting the guys walk near us, still staring(seriously what is wrong with people here, if they're going to creepily stare they shouldn't be so obnoxiously obvious about it!), and out the exit. We spot Ruthie and Martha who happen to be here at the same time and since they're done shopping, are just going to ride with us instead of walking back home. So we get the groceries and head out the door and guess who's there? yepp the same three sleezeballs from earlier. So Bill walks to my right so he's between me and the guys and we get safely to the car. When we're leaving I ask Bill what they were trying to do..I assumed steal from me, but he said they were trying to get close to touch me, and if I had been alone would have followed me and who knows what. They were also saying some very inapproriate things about me, none of which i understood since it was in Pidgin but Bill sure did. I can imagine my mother now. "I told you to take your mace with you!"
Once back at the house the college guys are asking if I will finally teach them how to play American football. I agree to do that so Ruthie Martha and I head out to the field and a bunch of people are coming wanting to learn. Okay a dude should definitely be teaching them how to play, not me. But oh well I do my best and we just follow the basic rules of touch football. They have NO idea what they are doing. They are so used to rugby that they want to throw the ball everytime the get ahold of it. They don't understand the concept of catching and running haha so it's still a work in progress but we played until it was so dark we couldn't see anymore and they made me promise we would play again on Thursday. Guess they enjoyed it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)