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.