God's Fingers in Suki

"Do you think a robotic scientist and a computer expert can make a difference in a remote community in the swamps of Papua New Guinea? A community only accessible via aircraft?"

Sometimes we fly people to a certain location and, though we might know about the ministry they are involved in, we do not get the full picture, because another pilot is picking them up again. This is also true for the following story, which MAF PNG recently released.
While doing training with a new pilot in the South Fly area of the Western Province, we picked up long term missionary Graham Martin and his two companions in Daru to go to Suki. As the weather had been very challenging we had to overnight in Kawito and had a good time listening to the stories of Graham, who has been serving in PNG for decades. Next day we were able to drop the men in Suki, but did not meet them again as another pilot picked them up and brought them back to Daru.

Click here to read the full story as released by MAF PNG

Having a chat over a bar of chocolat

Weired shaped chocolat bars

Steven and Markus doing area check outs

"Hey, it's my turn!" "No, no, I got it!"

Waiting for the plane to get ready

Teaching in Suki

Food Relief after Flood

"Drought and flood both can cause shortage of food as crops don't grow as they should. Both can go hand in hand in PNG. Just having less rain already affects the growth of a lot of plants depending on an abundance of water, and a continues shower quickly accumulates a lot of water in the tropics. It is common to receive 10% of Switzerlands annual rainfall in just one night.
Last year's drought made UN's World Food Program to step in and help out with rice. In this story it was a flood that caused the government of PNG to help with food relief."

Here the full story as released by MAF PNG:

Click here to read the story as PDF

A plane load of goods ready to be loaded into the Caravan

Bags Of Blessings

"Medevac Care Bags are threefold blessing: first when the Mt Hagen MAF ladies get together to pack them, second when a MAF wife or pilot hands them over to a patient in need, and third when they get unpacked by the grateful recipient."

Here the full story as written by Madeleine and released by MAF PNG:

Click here to read the story as PDF

Telebe with her newborn twins

The Village The World Forgot

"Imagine finding a key to a time machine. Where do you think you would end up?
Ryan Cole, a Canadian pilot, who I trained with at Prairie and who recently joined the MAF PNG program, suddenly found himself in a village the world forgot…"

Here the full story as released by MAF PNG:

Click here to read the story as PDF

Ryan watching as the plane is about to leave him in the past

A Good Friday

Looking at the fridge I contemplated what I should do. It had stopped working this morning and if I did not find a fix reasonably quickly we might have some spoilt food at hand. The tropics are rather unforgiving in that respect, and it looked like it was going to be a sunny and hot day. Luckily it was Good Friday, I had a day off and lots of time at hand. “Well, I suppose I could always swap it with the fridge at the MAF Base in Rumginae.” I thought. It was usually empty and has about the same size as ours.

That’s how I got to the MAF Base, and that’s where Mike found me. We were just heaving the fridge unto the pick-up truck, when Doctor Mike marched in with the news: A patient with a spear wound to the lung needed to be picked up in Kawito and brought up to Kiunga Hospital for treatment. Only problem: the patient needed a chest tube set in order for accumulated fluid to drain from around the lung. Otherwise he would not be fit for air travel.
Now, the doctor who would be able to perform this “procedure” was on an outstation visit to Obo. So, it was decided that Rumginae hospital would pack all the bits and pieces she needed for the operation and I would first fly to Obo to pick her up before proceeding to Kawito. All in all this would add up to a 3 ½ hour round trip excluding the turnaround times on the ground. Luckily, the weather promised to be and stay good.
After dropping the replacement fridge at our house and refuelling the plane I set off for my regular holiday medevac. Landing in Obo Dr Sharon requested to take a sick lady with her, in order to examine her more thoroughly at Rumginae. So, with an extra passenger on board we departed for Kawito. In the cabin Dr Sharon used the 50-minute flight to consult her textbook and read up on the procedure to set a drain.
We landed in Kawito and shortly after that they brought the patient in by boat. Actually, there were two patients, and I was glad I had taken all the seats with me. Instead of two we now had four passengers which made up a full load back to Kiunga and Rumginae.
Having set up an interim theatre under a bush shelter Dr Sharon started with her “surgery”. With the assistance of two nurses from nearby Balimo Health Centre and a crowd of bystanders, she began to disinfect the area of operation and to put out surgical covers. It wasn’t long after she reached for the scalpel and the patient started screaming, that the bystanders drifted away – convinced that the man wasn’t going to make it.
All worked out well, though, and after cleaning up the bloody mess, we loaded the plane and headed off for Kiunga. A lady who felt unwell, a man with a spear wound and a drain, another one with a wound to the belly, a doctor, and their pilot.

It was already late afternoon, when I walked back to our house, tiered but satisfied with the outcome of this unexpected flight. The investment for the charter was well spent as we had been able to pick up three patients and bring home a doctor in one go. I was even more grateful as I heard the next day that the lady patient brought in from Obo had to have emergency surgery because of an oval pregnancy. If we hadn’t picked her up, she would have died that night.

The patient came via boat from Balimo to Kawito

Dr Sharon preparing the set of instruments

Halfway through the procedure

An Airvan full of patients

Patient transfer to the ambulance in Kiunga

A Special Family Adventure

"Being the wife or children of a MAF pilot means that you usually only get to hear the stories of his day-to-day flying and occasionally see some pictures. It’s really something special if the whole family can board a flight to see first hand how their husband’s or dad’s flying job impacts and enables the work of missionaries for years and finally leads to a big celebration weekend for a whole tribe.
Enjoy our little family adventure!"

Here the full story as written by Madeleine and released by MAF PNG:

Click here to read the story as PDF

Madeleine receiving a flower garland

Following a short video of the occasion:

Bush Biking to Birem

"Can you imagine a pilot using a mountain bike to go to an airstrip? Well, that´s not MAF´s normal procedure to reach the rural communities, but sometimes circumstances require exactly this.
Enjoy the "bike ride“ with our MAF Pilot Andy Little from Kawito, Western Province!"

Here the full story as released by MAF PNG:

Click here to read the story as PDF

Andy and Asa on their bikes

Sunday Service in Rumginae

Sunday Service at the Rumginae ECPNG church.
(Here the translation of the German text: waiting, singing, giving, listening, baptizing)

The Last Few Months

Many things have happened during the last few months, so we thought we should write one big blog entry to catch up with (almost) everything.

Holiday in Cairns

Once again we spent three weeks in Cairns. Apart from swimming in the pool, the sea, in rivers, and in a water park, we "enjoyed" a visit to the dentist. Not necessarily fun (even though they had iPads for the kids), but a lot cheaper than in Switzerland. Here Niklas' thoughts on our stay: "Our holidays in Cairns were super cool. But not only the pool at Tree Tops Lodge was cool, also McDonald's, the water park, Kewarra Beach, Ellis Beach, Stoney Creek and the TV were fun." And under the heading Kewarra Beach he wrote: "The only things dangerous are the jelly fish and the saltwater crocodiles. Saltwater crocodiles are the most dangerous. You go into the water and then, snap, you're eaten." Well, at least it doesn't sound very painful.

Gian on Kewarra Beach

Bathing Pool at Stoney Creek

Wedding Anniversary

During our stay in Cairns Madeleine and I were able to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Ups! Is it really 20 years already? We enjoyed lunch in an Italien restaurant close to the beach, with our children stowed away with some friends. But to our great dismay it was hard to not talk about them for once :)

Wedding Anniversary on Trinity Beach

Lucien's Birthday

At the end of October Lucien had his second birthday. He likes to sing, chatters like a box, knows the past tense and, apart from root words like car, pants, and airplane, speaks of racing car, shorts, and fighter jet.

Lucien's Birthday Party at Kugark

Solar Power

Beginning of 2015 our electrical power was drastically reduced (8am-12pm and 5pm-10pm). We had to run a small petrol generator in order to keep fridge and freezer cool as well as the heat of the afternoon bearable. Madeleine had to reorganize the household in such a way as to get all power consuming tasks done before lunch, and acquired new responsibilities like operating and refueling a generator. Thus, we were quite elated when we heard of plans to install a solar system. Mid November a team came to Rumginae to install solar panels, batteries, and inverter, which together create 12kWh of power through the sun. Since then we again have power throughout the whole day and if the sun shines strong, we are even able to leave the fridge and some ceiling fans running during the night.

Solar installation team

Installing solar panels

WiFi Bibel

CRMF (Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship) builds and operates a HF radio network in PNG, enabling remote villages to get in contact with the outside world, e.g with hospitals in case of an emergency. MAF still receives bookings, weather information, and Medevac requests through the CRMF radio network.
A couple of years ago CRMF became part of MAF and now also work in the area of "Learning Technologies". The idea is to use latest technology to spread God's word. Because of that, MAF pilots in PNG carry a box of Bibles which we sell at the airstrips we go to. In October each pilot received a portable server, which contains Bibles in different languages, teaching materials, music, and movies. People in the bush are then able to download whatever they like over a WiFi network. Since a lot of people own mobile phones nowadays, many can be reached.

WiFi Bibel Server

Mentoring

In December Jeff Baloiloi joined us in Rumginae. Jeff received his pilot training through the MAF Flight Training School in Mt Hagen and has a strong desire to join MAF. Being from Papua New Guinea, however, it is very hard to find a job with only minimal flying hours. So, MAF agreed to help him expand his experience by putting a pilot at his side to act as something like a safety pilot. This is done under the term "Internship" and can be best compared with a mentoring relationship. Jeff has to fly the plane and make decisions on his own, but has a safety backup in case things go astray.

Jeff handing out mail at Honinabi

Baby Bischoff #5

In November our family once more received an addition – our kids' cat. Blacky was born in Kugark on a Swiss-Mission-Station and our children fell in love with her. Now they try themselves in taking care of a living creature. Not that easy if it requires daily diligence. Luckily, the cat is living outside and there is no cat litter tray to clean.

A cat called Blacky

Woman Mechanics

Sometimes it is not directly visible what impact our work with MAF has. What we would consider an ordinary flight, can have great significance for passengers involved. This was also true for Sabi:

Maintaining the airstrip (like cutting grass) is the communities responsibility. If it is not done regularly, the strips overgrow, landing gets dangerous, and it needs to be closed for operations. In order to help the villages to keep the grass short, ATprojects, a Goroka based NGO, provided some communities with a Deutscher lawn mower. ATprojects takes the responsibly to maintain the mower, and they also provide fuel on a regular basis. As MAF in Rumginae has been involved in this project from the beginnings, we still do regular flights to deliver fuel.
On those occasions an employee of ATprojects joins us on the flight. They check the lawn mower at each airstrip and carry out repairs if necessary. On the last such flight, to my great surprise, a female mechanic turned up. This might not sound very strange to you, but for Papua New Guinea a female mechanic ist quite a novelty.

Saba Auwo is 22 years of age and was employed by ATprojects after finishing her studies as a car mechanic. "Coming from a family of four women, Sabi is the only one in her family to have completed her formal education. Since childhood she dreamt of one day becoming a mechanical engineer; however despite obstacles in life she did not give up, rather grasped an opportunity when she was accepted at Kamaliki Vocational School. Sabi has a quiet personality but she is resilient in what she does." So, eventually, she was asked to do the fuel and maintenance trips to the rural airstrips in the Western Province. "Though it was her first time to fly on a plane, her first experience was successful and challenging, especially flying into the rural airstrips in a smaller plane. And this is what she said about her trip.
'Going on this trip to Western [Province] was very challenging for me as I was assigned to assess the technical problems of the lawn mowers and to fix them within a limited amount of time given without any supervision. However, I kept on reminding myself that if I can come through this far, doing this job that many females do not venture into, then nothing can ever limit me from doing the tasks that my male colleagues do at work.
It was my first time to fly in an aeroplane and I got really scared when I flew to the first airstrip. I even thought
of not flying back to where I came from even though I still had five more airstrips to cover. But seeing the faces of the people in these remote places who are in dire needs of basic services really changed my perspective about my job and a lot of other things in life.'"
Sabi's journey, however, did not only change her perspective on things. For most of the village population a female mechanic working on her own was certainly a new concept – and maybe one or the other girl was inspired by her. And I learned, that my mundane daily routine could be very scary to the uninitiated.

Sabi readying the fuel containers (Honinabi)

Transferring the delivered fuel into containers (Wawoi Falls)

Proud co-owner of a Deutscher lawn mower (Yehebi)