November 12, 2015

A Week's Flying

Monday (Map 1)
2 SIL missionaries and 1 teacher fly from Kiunga to Yehebi. The missionaries will be teaching a new course on the subject of „Teaching the Bible in an oral culture“.
3 nurses return to Rumginae after a vaccination campaign in Mougulu. 1 teacher is travelling with them to Kiunga.
2 patients and 2 guardians (relatives accompanying patients in order to support them during their stay at the hospital) return to their village near Honinabi after being treated in Rumginae. / A pastor from Honinabi and one from Suabi travel together with their wives to Yehebi to participate in the above mentioned course from SIL.  / 2 teachers fly from Suabi to Kiunga.

Map 1

Tuesday (Map 2, white route)
A patient returns from Rumginae to his village near Hesalibi. As the hospital is unable to help him any further, he returns home to die. A teacher flies from Kiunga to Somokopa.
The family of a Community Health Worker (CHW) return to Kiunga as he is being transferred to another Health Post. / 2 walk-on passengers would like to travel from Hesalibi to Dodomona. As this was not in the original plan, I do not have enough fuel to take them that far. However, I can take them to Fuma cutting their travel time in half (from 4 to 2 days). / A medical student from Ireland on an internship returns from an outstation visit in Fuma back to Rumginae. / I pick up 2 teachers at Suabi and drop them in Kiunga.
With the last round, high school students, general passengers, and cargo is brought to Debepari and a similar load back.

Thursday (Map 2, blue route)
1 medical student from PNG and medical supplies are flown from Rumginae to Mougulu. 4 general passenger board in Kiunga for Suabi.
1 general passenger flies from Tari to Suabi and another 3 to Kiunga. In addition we have office supplies for the MAF base in Kiunga, vegetables and eggs for the doctors and other missionaries in Rumginae, as well as Christian books on board. / In Suabi I pick-up 2 teachers for Kiunga.

Friday (Map 2, red route)
Due to a medical emergency the originally planned program has to be changed. A woman with birth complications has to travel from Lake Murray to Rumginae hospital. Fortunately, a flight to Lake Murray has already been scheduled for that day; so, we can just add an extra round to accommodate all passengers.
On the first round, 2 employees of a power company fly to Lake Murray. The patient, a guardian, a nurse, together with 2 general passengers travelled back to Kiunga.
On the second round, a family and cargo from a local bank (MicroFinance) fly to Lake Murray, and a government worker and more MicroFinance cargo to Obo. The family of a patient in Obo, as well as a church worker in Aiambak travel back to Kiunga.
The last round for the day is straight Lake Murray and back with 5 general passengers.

Map 2

November 01, 2015

Lucien's Birthday

And in the blink of an eye our youngest turns two. Sorry, it's in Swiss German, but enjoy anyway.

August 11, 2015

Christmas in August

The first four days of August held more exiting events than all of 2015 up to now. Our Swiss National Day, August 1, we celebrated together with other Swiss people who happened to be in Rumginae. We all met for a brunch with everything a Swiss needs for a good meal: Zopf (our national braided bread) with honey, cheese quiche, eggs, etc.

Celebrating Swiss National Day with other Swiss

Two days after that, on August 3, Niklas celebrated his 9th birthday. We went to the river to BBQ sausages Swiss style and discovered a beautiful, sandy beach never seen before. To finish it off nicely we were surprised by a rain shower and returned home soaked to the skin.

BBQ at the river for Niklas' 9th birthday

Pick-nick once more with Zopf

And then the unbelievable happened: Though long thought lost, our X-mas presents arrived by MAF plane from Mt Hagen. Six parcels sent beween November 2014 and February 2015 as well as magazines and letters arrived. All were exited and enjoined the late opening of presents. Some sweets and especially the chocolate had seen better days, but so what, Christmas in August is special!

16kg of x-mas presents from November 2014 finally arrived in Rumginae 

June 15, 2015

Easter Friday – Three Lives in the Balance

"Markus was planning on a leisurely Easter Good Friday, but was suddenly thrust into a full day of one challenge after another."
Here the full story released by MAF PNG:

Click here to read the story as PDF

Three patients and one doctor