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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Medevac: Pig Bite |
