Christmas 2012

Some pictures from our Christmas celebration in Papua New Guinea.

Santa in Mt Hagen

Christmas presents at Sutters in Mt Hagen

Christmas presents at Sutters in Mt Hagen

Christmas presents at Sutters in Mt Hagen

Joelle with sparkler

Niklas with sparkler

Joelle and Niklas in front of self-made Nativity scene in Rumginae

If it does not go according to plan

The call from Rumginae hospital came before my first flight in the morning. A boy has been bitten by a snake, probably a death adder, and was to be brought to a hospital as soon as possible. We got the plane ready as fast as we could. However, when I arrived in Haewenai the boy's breathing was already laboured. Haewenai is only 10 minutes North of Rumginae, but since surface repair work was still in progress I was not able to land there. So, I had to bring the boy to Kiunga.

As I stopped the plane in front of the MAF building in Kiunga I was relieved to see that Doctor Sharon from Rumginae was already waiting for us. The boy was loaded unto a stretcher and immediately received an anti-venom. His condition, however, was rather unstable and the drive over the dirt road to Rumginae rough, so it was decided to bring him to the hospital in Kiunga.

Doctor Sharon injecting the anti-venom

You might be wondering, why the boy was not admitted to Kiunga hospital in the first place, and why a doctor from Rumginae travels 45 minutes to treat a patient if there was a hospital nearby. The answer is unfortunately too common in PNG: Three out of six hospitals in the Western Province do not have doctors. Kiunga hospital is one of them.

A few days after the Medevac Doctor Sharon told me that the boy did not survive. She also told me that the snake bite actually happened on the day before the Medevac, meaning, the people of Haewenai waited a whole day before calling for help. They would have had ample time to bring the boy down to Rumginae in a canoe.
So, why did they not do this? Why did they wait until an airplane was needed and it had become too late anyway? There are no easy answers to those questions, since reasons are complex and mostly routed in PNG culture. An animistic worldview for example, still hinders a lot of people to seek professional medical help in a hospital. What can a doctor do if spirits and powers are the cause of an illness or a person has been bewitched? Only traditional rituals can help, people may think – if anything at all. Just this past week a woman decided not to be airlifted to the hospital with her very sick baby – and it probably has not survived this decision.

All these experiences clearly show, that change in the Papua New Guinean society cannot happen through aid work only. More significant is a change of the traditional worldview, including the religious. For this reason exactly, I am convinced that the M (mission) in MAF is still of great importance for the well-being of this country and its inhabitants.

Holiday Pictures 2012

Here they finally are: the pictures from our holiday with family from Switzerland. Beginning of September two of Madeleine's sisters and her mother came to visit us in Papua New Guinea.
It all started with them arriving a mandatory two days late. Luckily they had some good hosts in Port Moresby, them being able to stay with Sue and Rich Ebel. They then stayed for about a week in Rumginae, experiencing our daily life. They saw the work the hospital does and even had the opportunity to donate some blood. Unfortunately, we still had some cool weather and they missed out on the heat and humidity.
After that we all went to Madang on the east coast to do a week's relaxing, bathing, and snorkelling. Then we went on to Mondomil in the Highlands to get a taste of PNG's life in the cooler and more remote area of the mountains.

Boarding for Madang

The Bismarck Sea in Madang

Sand, sand, sand

Family-Kayaking

Independence Day celebrations

Ground transportation a la PNG

Mondomil: Holiday cottage Swiss style

Hiking in the Highlands

(For more pictures click here)

While we're not flying

The moon shone through the bedroom window as I woke from a restless sleep. It had just risen and hung about halve full above the treetops of the night jungle, its pale light rendering a ghostly atmosphere to everything around me. It was strangely quiet, the stillness broken only by the occasional cry of a night animal. Even the crickets had become silent. I realised that the diesel generator wasn’t running anymore and my heart fell – she must have died.

It all began, when Matt entered the MAF shed in Rumginae on Saturday morning. I had had some problems with the Internet connection and was checking some settings, when my fellow MAF pilot appeared wearing his MAF uniform. “Got a medevac?” I asked. He nodded and I learned that there was a woman in Bosset with birth related problems and bleeding, who needed to be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the village people of Bosset hadn’t bothered cutting the grass of their airstrip making it necessary for the woman to be brought to Aiambak by boat – 22km in a straight line, but more than double that on the ever winding Fly river. An interne doctor helped Matt ready the plane, my own offer having been turned down because I was officially on holidays. There was nothing I could do other than go home.

On the way to the hospital (by Matt Painter)

I heard the plane return in the early afternoon and guessed the woman was brought to the operation theatre immediately. A few hours later the emergency alarm was sounded, summoning extra hospital staff, as their help is needed in an urgent situation. I had the strange feeling that my non-involvement during the day would soon change.
And true enough, just as we had put our kids to bed and were about to start doing the dishes, our walky-talky squeaked and a voice inquired if we would be willing to donate blood. My wife immediately went up to the hospital and I followed after checking the conditions for donating blood for pilots. Being on holiday, I was good to go ahead.
There was a light drizzle as I walked from our house to the laboratory. It was dark already and the almost autumn-like atmosphere felt strange, like a dream. I could see the building holding the operation theatre ablaze with lights. There, doctors had diagnosed a placenta praevia and had performed a Caesarean to get the child out, but afterwards the woman’s bleeding didn’t stop. Now they had sent for an additional doctor from the hospital in Kiunga, a 45-minute drive away, in order to be able to make a full anaesthetisation and remove the uterus, which would hopefully stop the bleeding. Hymns drifted from the theatre and I realised that apart from the doctor’s skill and the voluntary donations of blood, God’s help was needed desperately.
There were a few people standing in front of the laboratory as I approached. But they turned out to be onlookers only, so I picked my way through them and entered the room. To my right my wife was already lying on a bed with a filthy looking mattress and cobweb covered legs. The assistant sitting at her side just told her – did I notice some pride in his voice – that he hadn’t taken blood for nearly eight years. “Very encouraging!” I thought and glanced at the rest of the room. Everything was covered with ancient laboratory apparatus, testing tubes, boxes, and other odds and ends. Strewn across a desk to my left were pieces of gauze, alcohol trenched swaps, and their torn wrappers. Here a nurse took blood samples to determine the haemoglobin level. A rat was scurrying over a beam in the roof.
I asked if they still needed my blood and after some discussion they figure it wouldn’t hurt. So after some back and forth, a bold nurse offered to take my blood sample, and, made nervous by my white skin, wasn’t able get a single drop out at the first try. No fumbling about with the needle still stuck under my skin yielded anything, so she had a second go and to my relief was more successful.
As I was waiting my turn, we talked about the difficulty of finding people willing to donate blood. Most villagers do not understand that the body will eventually replace the blood taken, but think they would loose part of their life in the process. Accordingly, they usually want some sort of monetary compensation or they refuse to donate blood. The staff do not like the explaining, the pleading, and the being turned down, whilst knowing that a person might be dying if they do not find enough donors quickly. For that reason, it is mainly hospital personnel who volunteer to give blood.
Then the person in front of me was done and I was told to lie down. As the blood slowly flowed into the bag I was anew struck by the technological difference between the West and this bush hospital. Everything was just functional; the laboratory assistant held and moved the bag with blood himself, the amount taken was determined with a spring balance. No fancy machine humming, buzzing, and beeping while doing all the above more efficiently and economically – and less relationally.

Letting blood a la PNG

The blood was soon taken and my wife and I walked back to our house to finish the dishes. We wouldn’t have to bother about light, because the diesel generator would be running all night, providing power for the operation theatre and whatever medical equipment was needed after the operation. Later that night, as I made myself ready for bed I realised that being a pilot is really only a part of my ministry – and that the other part is done while we’re not flying.

Now, as I lay awake in bed in the middle of the night, unable to get back to sleep, I felt immensely sad. What had gone wrong? For with the generator silent I felt sure things had not gone according to plan. Why did the effort and involvement of so many individuals not do the trick? I know that our work is in vain, but for the help of God. However, why did God not intervene? Tossing from side to side for a long time I couldn’t come up with an answer and over the pondering finally fell asleep again.
I did not feel like a man of faith when I entered the little hospital church the next morning. The interne doctor was already sitting on a bench, waiting for the Sunday service to start. We shook hands and “clicked”, I reluctant to hear the “news”, he a little too indifferent for my liking. He smiled and said: “They are both well.” It took a while to register what he meant, but when it did I felt ashamed. Well, God did honour our team effort after all. But I’m sure glad He does not depend on my faith and trust.

Niklas starts Grade 1

The long awaited day is here: Niklas starts Grade 1 and with all the provisions he gets from the Home Schooling organisation it is almost like Christmas. Niklas currently has three subjects: German, Mathematics, and Social Sciences.

Niklas in Grade 1

New Cessna Caravan for PNG

Last week a new Cessna Caravan C208 arrived in Papua New Guinea. The plane was purchased with donations from Switzerland and three other countries. This second Caravan allows our programme to provide a more reliable flight service.

Cessna Caravan C208 P2-MAG

Swiss welcome in Mt Hagen

Holiday Pictures from Niklas

Our holidays seen from Niklas' perspective.

(For more pictures follow this link)

As Time Goes By

The last few month where filled with a lot of little things that were kinda small for a own blog entry, but still important enough to be mentioned. Therefore, I decided to write it all down in this one.

Election Time
Between June and July was national election time in PNG, which goes something like this: First, a candidate would equip a car, bus, or truck with loudspeakers and decorate it with ribbons, flowers, and flyers, drive through every village with a bunch of followers in tow and thus try to convince the villagers to vote for him. Second, on a set day all people of a village can cast their own vote, provided their name is on the voting list and there is no outside pressure in the form of clan or community members. Third, the results are announced and hopefully accepted, and if not some alliances can be formed, votes from other candidates collected and pooled, and in the end somebody with only a few initial votes is new governor of the province.
All of these stages are prone to public violence. We were glad, that Rumginae was pretty quite.

Campaigning for the elections

Family Visit
At the beginning of September we welcomed visitors from Switzerland. Madeleine's mother and her two sisters came to experience life in PNG. They started off with the mandatory one-day-delay in arriving, but after that air travel went smoothly. During their four week stay they shared life with us in Rumginae, enjoyed swimming and snorkelling in the Pacific Ocean in Madang, and hiked up the steep Elephant Hill in Mondomil in the Highlands.

Moser Family in the Cessna Caravan

Holidays
After one year of working with MAF in Rumginae we enjoyed a three week holiday. Even though taking a holiday in PNG requires lots of planning (travelling is most complex, holiday cottages only sparsely equipped), we found time to relax. This is mainly due to the fact, that our Swiss visitors took on such essential tasks as playing with our kids and cooking dinner. Because of that the parents had time to read and relax.

Kayaking in the sea

A Week of Medevacs
One of the major problems of PNG is the lack of medical care in remote villages. In Rumginae we are particularly aware of this because we are on close terms with the hospital doctors and Markus flies a lot of Medevacs. One week in September will probably be remembered for a long time. Within this one week we flew seven emergencies to Rumginae, four of which on the same day. All the cases were very typical for PNG: four women with birth difficulties, all of which would have died with no medical help; two cases of TB; and one pig bite.
For each flight to the hospital there is also a return trip. It is encouraging to see that for most patients this is a happy journey. Now and then, however, we fly patients back to their village to die, or a deceased to be buried.

Medevac: Pig Bite

New MAF Logo – Worldwide

Since last week MAF has a new logo and with that moves into a new era: For the first time since its founding all MAF entities have agreed to use the same logo and present themselves in unity worldwide. This is very encouraging.

Another Birthday

Here it came and went: the last birthday in our family for this year. And long awaited it was, because afterwards "I will be a big boy". Unfortunately, on the next day Niklas realised downcast, that he was still the same height and smaller than his mate.
On Niklas' special request we had a BBQ with sausages and a big bonfire. With the latter we did not only celebrate Niklas turning six but also our Swiss national day – a little late I know, but better than not at all.

A sausage-BBQ Swiss-Aussie-Style

A sausage and a bun - what's more to life?

Bonfire (with termite infested wood)

Bonfire spectacle

And finally: The Birthday Cake

(For more pictures click here)

Medical Evacuation

There are different reasons why MAF has a base in the small village of Rumginae with its short, grass runway instead of in the nearby town of Kiunga with its long, concrete runway. The most important one, however, is the Rumginae mission hospital and the frequent Medevac flights MAF does for them. Those flights account to 10% of all flights in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, and so, Rumginae is a strategic place to be, especially if the Medevac falls on a week-end.

It was a public holiday when Doctor Addy announced herself with a loud “knock, knock” and stepped through our ever open front door. There is nothing special about being visited by other “White Skins” working in Rumginae. We are a tightly knit team of missionaries pursuing the same goal, so it is not unusual to drop in and check how things are going. However, I immediately sensed that this visit has a different purpose. And sure enough, after the initial pleasantries Addy said: “I’m sorry to bother you on your day off. But we have a woman in Fuma, who just gave birth and whose condition is critical. We’d like to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible.”

About an hour later I found myself, accompanied by a doctor and a nurse, on the way to Fuma, a small, remote village in the middle of the vast rainforest covering all of the Western Province. It being late afternoon, clouds started to build up and isolated rain showers were everywhere to be seen. As good as possible I navigated around these cells without diverting to far from my course. However, the further East we got, the more showers there were. A few minutes out of Fuma I saw that, even though the airstrip was still without rain, a dark front was moving in form the North-East. “This rain will be here shortly.” I bellowed over the engine noise as I pointed to the dark clouds. “You only got about 20 minutes on the ground before we have to take-off again. Is this enough?” The doctor nodded a “Yes”, and I began working through my pre-landing checks. It was a bumpy approach, gusts of wind constantly pushing the aircraft of the ideal path. With ever changing engine power and control inputs I finally landed, taxied to the parking area and shut down the engine.

Preparation to Land

How does the runway look?

We worked as fast as possible. The doctor and nurse rushed immediately to the patient waiting on a stretcher at the edge of the parking area, in order to check her condition and prepare her for the flight. In the meantime I started weighting the cargo and passenger, because in PNG a patient never travels alone. Hospitals here have no catering service and patients are responsible to prepare their own food. Our patient was accompanied by her husband, and after I had weighted the man and several Bilums (knotted, all-purpose bags), I started loading everything into the pod on the belly of the airplane. However, when I took the last Bilum out of the man’s hand a general uproar arose. Everybody started talking and gesturing at once until it dawned on me, that I was about to load the newborn baby into the cargo compartment. Apologising, I handed the little bundle back to the father.

Shortly afterwards we laid the patient on a mattress on the floor of the airplane and secured her with a belt clipped into some floor hooks. Random raindrops started to fall. We had to leave now, if we didn’t want to stay for the night. While the doctor finished preparing a drip infusion, I fired up the engine and went through my checklists. It was high time. The wind gusts started to pick up and more raindrops fell. We taxied to the end of the runway and took-off without stopping. We were soon off the ground, clear of the towering jungle trees, and on course for Rumginae. During our time on the ground the rain cells had moved closer together. “Please, keep the seatbelts fastened until we’re through this weather.” I announced to my passengers. “It is going to be bumpy.” Fortunately, we left the worst behind after ten minutes only.

And just in time, because my medical crew had to attend to the patient, who just delivered the placenta. Afterwards, they were proud to say they didn’t leave a mess for me to clean.

God Answers – Even on Tuesdays

The following text is an account of one of the missionaries we regularly serve in the South Fly area. I had the privilege to fly himself, his mail, and some of his provisions (including day old chicks) from Daru to Wipim.

Cessna 206 at Wipim

"Equipment was shutting down, breaking down, and the rain was coming down! On my return from Guam in April 2012, we were excited because the tractor part that we had waited for since February had arrived. With the tractor down, our means of bringing in heavy supplies like gas bottles, petrol, diesel and building materials was on hold. The weather looked like it was going to break loose any day, which would pin us down on this side of the flood, unable to get supplies to Wipim for ‘Who’ knows how long. We have been tested and tried like this before so this was not new, but a reminder in the lesson of “trust.”

With great anticipation, my son Titus and I replaced the malfunctioning engine part. We had made plans to go down the road on Friday in the tractor to pick up our supplies. As an added bonus we would hire our tractor to the Cell Phone Techos, and the tractor hire would pay for the dinghy hire to get our things up the river. It was a great plan, but everything changed on Thursday when the new part did not fix the problem! “Now what do we do?”
I phoned the technicians in the United States and they recommended another part. ... I called a tractor dealer in Cairns, Australia, – only a 90 minute flight away, and they could get the part from Sydney. We worked out a plan to courier it, but I made the mistake of giving them our P.O. Box instead of a physical address for delivery. Then another error. I gave them my phone number instead of the pastor in Port Moresby who would receive the part and send it on to the closest town, Daru.
To add insult to injury, our phone network in Wipim went down. It was down for a whole week without any way to communicate with Sydney, the pastor in Port Moresby, Pastor Holmes (who was organizing the shipment of our 6 months’ supply of bulk groceries), or the cell phone company to let them know our network was down! “What do we do now?”
Normally, we would use our back-up Satellite phone, but the company went bankrupt recently. If these two failed we would use the HF-radio to communicate with MAF, but our cable had unresolved issues. We were basically at the end of our rope. Too often we look to the Lord as our last resort.

Psalms 71:3 “Be thou my strong habitation, …. for thou art my rock and my fortress.”

We had been praying the whole time, but now was definitely a good time for God to work.

Psalms 119:126 “It is time for thee, LORD, to work:”

Monday we prayed that somehow God would send MAF on Tuesday. They didn’t usually come on Tuesdays and there was no reason for them to come. There certainly was no earthly way to communicate with them that we needed help.

On Tuesday in our family devotions, we prayed again that somehow the plane would come. At breakfast, Titus prayed again that somehow God would tell the pilots, whose base was 250 miles away, that we needed them to come. The weather had been bad, and MAF rarely came if it was cloudy and rainy like the past week. There had been a deluge of rain; it was flooding in every direction. We were like a lily pad in the middle of a big lake.
After breakfast we all went to work doing our Tuesday chores. I was working under the house with the Bible School men, Ana was grading school work, and the children were doing more work for Ana to grade.
Then suddenly, we heard the drone of a plane in the distance. We all got excited! The children started running around, and I even stopped what I was doing, forgetting the task at hand. The Bible School men had no idea why the Russell family was so excited. Our prayers had just been answered in an amazing way! (Shame on our disbelief!) We could not think of a reason for them to come, except that God moved them to! This should go into “The Book of Awesome!”
I ran upstairs and grabbed my backpack, check-book and bankcard, etc., with the hope that they would take me to Daru and bring me back the same day.
As soon as the plane landed and the engine turned off, I approached the plane and asked bluntly, “Why are you here?” By the look of surprise on the pilots’ faces I realized that the question sounded a bit rude. It probably sounded like, “What are you doing here, get out of here, we don’t want you!”, while actually, we were excited because they were an answer to our prayers!
Captain Clint told us that he was checking in a pilot on our air strip, who was one of the new pilot families to man their old Kawito base in the Middle Fly district.
This was even greater news to us because MAF had not had a pilot based in Kawito for over six years! Although the Western Province is the largest, it is also the least densely populated. For most of our area the only way to get around is either on foot or plane. The plane is much more desirable, especially in a medical emergency! This is an amazing step of faith for MAF to make. It does not make much sense financially, but is paramount for ministry.

After that exciting Tuesday, my children commented on how they saw God work. The two
youngest drew pictures of airplanes or chickens eating.
Titus said, “The pilots talked together and decided to take Dad to and back from Daru. This is another lesson how God shall supply all your needs.”
Daughter Ruth added, “Dad hopped on the plane to Daru and shopped a little. When he came back he brought our supplies that we needed badly; such as the chicken feed and flour. We were almost out of flour and bread and butter. He also brought along some sweets.”
Libby finished off; “Our little bush station is placed in the middle of nowhere, and there are few pilots or planes in our corner of “nowhere.” When we do receive a visit, it is usually on a Wednesday. But this Tuesday, just when our situation was waxing sober, God—our loving Heavenly Father, Giver of all good and perfect gifts—granted us our hearts’ desire.”

We are so grateful to our great God, “…Who does hear and answer prayer.” His greatness is magnified in that He is able to hear the prayers of His children, and answer that prayer through the submissiveness of another. MAF probably had this day planned for weeks, but we didn’t know it. God in His sovereignty does all things well!"

Jason Russell, Wipim

Birthday Season

Last Sunday a special time came to an end: the Bischoff's Birthday Season. Within one-and-a-half months four out of five Bischoffs celebrate their birthdays. That means a party almost every fortnight, but leaves, unfortunately, not much cake for the rest of the year.

The beginning March, 26th: Madeleine

April, 5th: Markus

April, 15th: Gian

The end May, 13th: Joelle

Pictures from Niklas

Niklas remains a dedicated photographer – and lately filmmaker. He is so enthusiastic that the batteries of his camera only last for a few days. From pictures of his siblings and airplanes to hilarious self-portraits you will find everything. Unfortunately, our internet connection is too slow to upload his films.

(For more pictures follow this link)

Drinking Matters

Over the last few days we had ample opportunities to think about drinking matters – and that drinking matters.

The first occurrence was a problem all too common around the world, however, very uncommon here in PNG: The lack of water. We only had 11 days of draught, but in a country where it usually rains at least once a day, this is more than enough. After all, we are supposed to live in the RAINforest. Longtime missionaries said they have seen nothing like that in all their years of service.
Now, we did not actually lack any water – not quite yet. But our water tanks were at about 1/3 of their usual level and I got a bit worried (how very typically Swiss). I thought about ways to save water, and I envisioned us bathing and washing clothes in the river (which is not really something extraordinary, rather something all the locals do), as well as going into the bush with shovel and water canister to dig up a well in a Sago swamp.
Thank God, it rained before we got to that point. But it certainly showed how dependent we are on tap water.

The second incident also brought us close to disaster: Our milk powder supply got to a critical low and we couldn't find new one. We had bought the first bag in Mt Hagen, but now there was none to have in the whole town. Other people had some connections to suppliers, but in the end all of them bought it in Lae and nobody was likely to go there in the near future.
So, we started using less powder but the same amount of water, which was ok for Müesli but not really for drinking. Fortunately, this only affected Joelle, who didn't complain. Again, I saw us running out of milk and using I-don't-know-what as a substitute.
And then we got saved by a Swiss couple (a fellow MAF pilot), who happened to be on holidays at a Swiss mission station where they kept – being true to our cow/chocolate/cheese image – a stock of milk powder bags. How very typically Swiss.
And again we realised, how much we are caught in our heritage.

Our own cow – 25kg milk powder

Medevac

It was in November 2011, when I had been involved in the first Medevac for Rumginae hospital. Here is the story written by Addy Sitther, longstanding Rumginae doctor:

"It was a Wednesday morning at the end of November. Saisiyato, who was expecting her sixth child began to experience labour pains. She is the wife of Pastor Gasubana Abaya who is serving as the pastor of the Waya Local Church in the Tabo district, not far from their home place of Mapodo. They walked the short distance from their village to Mapodo station where there is a Health Centre, so she could have her baby there. As they arrived at about 10am, her waters broke and the baby’s hand came out. The nurses at the health centre examined her and they knew that this baby could not be born without medical help. They called the doctor at Rumginae on the mobile phone and obtained permission to transfer the patient.
That day, MFJ, MAF’s GA8 Airvan based at Rumginae was in the Middle and South Fly doing a programme there. They were due in to Balimo at around midday. The nurses at Mapodo were somehow aware of this and immediately bundled Saisiyato and her husband onto a motorised canoe and sent them upriver. It took about two hours for them to reach Balimo, all the while the labour pains continued. As soon as they arrived at Balimo, the midwife wrote a brief referral letter and put her in the ambulance to get to the airport. The aircraft had already taken off as they arrived, but was summoned back to take Saisiyato and her husband to Rumginae.

Airvan MFJ before take-off

Meanwhile at Rumginae, Dr Addy had been away for five days attending Health Planning meetings at the Provincial capital Daru and was due back that day. Dr David from the UK was holding the fort here. When he had received the phone call about Saisiyato, the line wasn’t very clear and he assumed the patient was elsewhere and would go to another hospital. Pilots Nick and Markus brought the patient to Rumginae. The Traffic Officer was at Kiunga attending the High School graduation that day, so they were unable to radio ahead with the information. The first the staff knew there was a patient on board was when Nick walked across to the hospital after getting out of the aircraft. The drivers were all away, so students were found to carry Saisiyato to the Labour ward where the nurses assessed her. Not long after this, a vehicle pulled up to the MAF base and Addy got out. Nick mentioned something about having brought some work as she took her things to her house.
Not long after that, David called Addy to inform her about the patient- Saisiyato was still having labour pains, the baby’s hand was still out and the baby’s heart rate had increased showing that the baby was distressed. It was clear that she needed an emergency Caesarean section. However, Unam, the only Laboratory worker had also been in Kiunga for the graduation that day and was unavailable to cross match blood, a crucial precaution should she lose a lot of blood and need a transfusion. As Addy reluctantly prepared to do a cross match and then operate, she knew that a delay in the surgery could mean that the baby would be compromised. She also didn’t want to take the risk of operating without blood available. They had no sooner opened the Laboratory door, than a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) pulled up outside the hospital and Unam hopped out. He was soon summoned to the Lab by the urgent calls and frantic waving of arms and the doctors could then concentrate on preparing the Theatre for the surgery.
In a short while, Saisiyato was wheeled into the theatre and given a spinal anaesthetic. The baby was born quite ‘floppy’ with a heart rate of about 40/minute (very low). The baby who was already distressed was further stressed by the drop in the mother’s blood pressure with the anaesthetic. After vigorously wiping her and giving her some oxygen she was soon crying healthily much to everyone’s relief. The team finished the operation and transferred Saisiyato back to the Ward, where the baby girl, Bisato was waiting for her food! A very happy father smiled and thanked us expressing his complete faith that God was making the way for his wife and child to be saved.

Pastor Gasubana Abaya, Saisiyato, and their newborn baby girl Bisato

What an amazing story of how God worked everything out for good for His children who trusted Him even though they were far away from medical help.... Some delay at any stage would have definitely meant the baby would either have not made it or have significant brain damage and if MAF had not picked up Saisiyato when they did, she would have ruptured her uterus that night and been in a critical state if still alive in the morning. We praise God for the opportunity to serve Him in this way."

Living in Rumgina – Our House

Since the beginning of November we are now living in Rumginae, a little village with a Mission hospital in the lowlands of the Western Province of PNG. Lowlands means the land is very low with the average altitude being 200ft ASL (above sea level) for an area about 1/6 of Alberta or half of Great Britain. Rumginae itself is only 100ft ASL but lays 180 miles inland, 18 miles from the Indonesian border.

Lowlands also means that the climate is hot and humid. The day usually starts with a cool 25˚C and 95% humidity, but in the late afternoon the thermometer climbs to 33˚C with the humidity falling to 70%. Only slowly we adapt to the fact that we are constantly sweating or at least feel sweaty.

Tropical Sunrise

With this blog entry we would like to introduce you to our house and all the peculiarities that come with living in the tropics. The house itself is built on stilts, in order to keep it cool (with the air being able to flow all around it) and to keep the water out (the ground is usually very wet and soggy). And additionally, all the creepy crawlers so abundant around here cannot get in as easily (even though we still have plenty of them).

House in Stilts and Water Tanks

Our water supply is solely based on rainwater, caught in gutters and directed into water tanks. However, in order to have enough water pressure to use a tap or the shower inside the house, the water first has to be pumped up to the roof into what is called header tanks. Fortunately, we have an electric pump that does the job for us. Since the water is coming right from the roof it is supposed to be drinkable straight from the tap. We still use a water filter, though. A look into the water tanks makes this decision easy.

Header Tank and Warm Water Solar Panel

As far as warm water is concerned we are probably ahead of all developed nations. We are using solar energy to heat the water, though, the tank to store it is rather small and if the sun is not out during the day we might end up having a cold shower (yes, we are now starting to need warm showers from time to time).

Electricity is generated by a petrol generator owned by the hospital. It usually runs from 7am to 10pm unless the hospital has patients on oxygen, in which case the power stays on the whole night. For the rest of the time the house has a second wiring fed by a 12V-car-battery system similar to those used in mobile homes. So, we at least have some light when we get up before 7am. Some of our lighting is installed, not in the house, but outside the windows. This is to keep the bugs attracted by light where they belong – outside.

Light in Front of the Windows

Whereas in most places we had lived up to now the main concern was how to keep a house warm, we now think about how to keep the house cool. Without air-conditioning, that is, because those machines consume a lot of energy, which is not available through the hospital’s small generator. Apart from stilts and constantly open windows we use ceiling vans, which are constantly turning (when we have power, that is). They keep the air circulating, which helps to keep things cooler. This constantly moving air also has another advantage: It helps keeping stuff from getting mouldy.

Hot Cupboard

We have another means to prevent mould, however. It is the “hot cupboard”. As the name suggests this is a cupboard heated by a light bulb, thus reducing the humidity inside. So, every thing valuable like items made of leader, documents, paper, stationary, electronics, cameras, etc. are stored here.

New Pictures

Find new pictures of Rumginae, Papua New Guinea in general, and our kids under the respective links in the sidebar. Also, Niklas made a new series of artistic shots. Have fun.