Life is getting busy once again..

Greetings from the opposite side of the world!  Life has been busy here in Papua New Guinea.  The “newness” of being here has now completely worn off, and what I’m left with is a restless soul, searching for more meaning in my presence here.  Jenny brought this up at our last small group meeting a couple days ago and was met with chuckles and lots of “been there-done that” responses.  Seems the 5-6 months’ time-frame is about when it hits, and it seems to hit most missionaries here in PNG.  Only the most easy-going and mild-mannered souls avoid this season of the Ukarumpa missionary life.  Jenny happens to be one of those blessed few!

God continues to show me why He wants me here… we had an aviation worker fall through the top of the helicopter hanger 30’ up and land in a heap on the hard concrete floor.

 

See that skylight up there?  He fell from about 3-4 feet above that.  Ouch... seriously.

I heard it on the radio while enjoying a day off and rushed to the clinic to help stabilize him before he was flown to Cairns, Australia.  He was pretty broken, but fortunately doesn't remember the fall.

Just one week earlier I was on my way to Cairns myself with a stop in Madang, PNG to pick up a Pacific Orientation Course (POC) student who needed urgent transport to Cairns for a very serious illness.  She's now in rehab and unlikely to finish her training during this class.

 

 

Goodbye Papua New Guinea... hello once again Cairns, Australia!!

 

 

On the flight back, we had a short stop at a grassy runway to pick up some national passengers.  It was pouring rain, yet I disembarked to shoot some photos of the crowd that materialized from the bush after we landed.

 

 

Then back in the air, climbing to escape the weather.  What a beautiful country.

 

 

I haven’t been able to get back out to Norikori after showing the Jesus film due to either call duties, or torrential rainfalls (it’s the rainy season here).  One of my fellow Ukarumpa-ites who heard about my adventures is getting ready to go on furlough and has put the center’s village presentation equipment in my possession to watch until his eventual return.  So now I am responsible for several portable generators, projectors, screens, and sleeping bags (for overnight stays in villages).

Amelie is doing great and has finally announced that Ukarumpa has trumped Bryson City as her “home”.   She continues to take recorder lessons at school and meets with the music teacher frequently to get “belts” (similar to karate belts) on her recorder when she passes set milestones in her learning.  She has only three to go to reach the coveted black belt.  What a brilliant way to get the kids to take recorder lessons!  One of her friends is celebrating a birthday this weekend and is finally allowed to have sleep-overs.  Who did she choose for her first-ever?!  Amelie!  She’s feeling so privileged to have been chosen and is really looking forward to this weekend.

Elisa is doing very well in school and is growing up into a fine young lady.  It astonishes me to receive emails from the school’s library in the middle of the afternoon informing me that Elisa has been to the library and has checked out some books.  She is having two girls sleep over tomorrow night while Ami's gone.  She chose a national girl from her class named Laverty, and Piper, another of her many friends.

She is looking forward to tomorrow night’s Kid’s Movie Night because she gets to pick whatever movie she likes since Amelie and the older girls won’t be watching.  Their last movie night had a new record of 15 girls!  That's a lot of girls... what did they watch?  Atlantis.

 

Too many kids, so Daddy went to a guys-only movie night.

Jenny is still as gorgeous as ever.  I swear that PNG is making her look younger every day!  Her cooking skills are now up to restaurant-quality and I’m starting to feel the need to leave a tip on the table when dinner ends!  I've gotten smart over the last couple weeks.  When the girls make mistakes worthy of punishment, they get a day's worth of doing dishes.  Less for me, more for them!

Jenny continues working hard in the clinic and is seen here caring for a man who I later shot xrays of to discover a terrible pneumonia.  Good catch Jenny!!

 

 

As for me, the clinic manager has discovered my talent for repairing things, so I was asked to repair a pair of nonfunctional IV infusion machines.  I was able to fix one, but the other seems destined for supply parts.

 

 

Work on the national side of the clinic can be very rough and is always busy...

 

I pray the weather allows me to get back out to Norikori this weekend... but Jenny's on call again.  We've yet to work out a good schedule so I can leave the center on the weekends that she's on call without having to hire a baby-sitter.  Anyone want to come baby-sit?!

Check back in another 1-2 weeks for more Papua New Guinea news!!!