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."