9 weeks in PNG
Hello there!
We are back in Townsville now, settling back into “normal” life after 6 additional weeks of living on the ship in Papua New Guinea. That makes it 9 weeks total this year! Living on a ship and sharing a small living space with 50 people is quite the interesting feat. But we have had incredible groups of volunteers coming on board (doctors, midwives, dentists, physiotherapists, general volunteers…) and have found that living in this tight space with so many people was actually quite fun (with the exception of the occasional grumpy morning, in which case there is NO where to go. You’re in the middle of the river- no land to step onto and run away for a moment!)
Throughout the villages, we learned of the cholera epidemic which had made it’s way throughout the Western Province in early 2011. It has been an awful year for them, and many were still mourning. Cholera is spread through lack of hand washing and general cleanliness. The villages that are educated in how to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, before eating and drinking clean water had minimal, if any cholera cases. Those that lost many people tended to be the villages drinking water out of the swamp without boiling it first, and no basic hygiene like hand washing.
We arrived in one village right when a woman was delivering her baby. This village was a 20 minute zodiac ride away from the nearest health center. Two of our nurses went to assist. She had been in labour for about 10 hours with no luck. Finally the baby came. But the sac did not come out. If we had not been there with our zodiac to take her to the health clinic with our fast boat, she would have died. In a canoe, it would have taken them a few hours through the big waves. We got her to the clinic, and the health care worker removed the sac!
Health clinics are few and far between. Many have only one health care worker to thousands of people. Again, with our fast boats you can get to a clinic in reasonable time. But for a village which only has canoes, or must go by foot, that can take hours, or days. So, many of them don’t try. One man told me their people are never able to get to a clinic. They always die in the village, with no pain relief or anything.
Shauna helped out where she could- working in the kitchen, helping keep the ship clean, assisting the Primary Health Care Team, taking care of dental patients on board while they wait to be seen, and helping Johannes make sure things ran smoothly.
Johannes was leading the outreach. He spent his time speaking with village leaders, doing assessments of each village, and planning future outreaches. This entailed spending time time taking the zodiac out with the captain scouting rivers that haven’t been scouted in years, trying to see where the ship can go. We both met with lots of village leaders, connecting with them, telling them about the ship and creating a relationship that we hope to last for a long time.
Us visiting a new village is quite funny. Picture it: you live in a PNG village in the middle of nowhere, when suddenly a big white ship pulls up right in front. Three people (Johannes, Shauna and the Captain) in giant lifejackets come riding up in a fancy zodiac. These weird white people then take 20 minutes tramping through the mud, trying to keep themselves from falling over (Shauna noticed that Johannes tends to hold his hands up near his head to keep balance, which Shauna thinks makes him look hilarious). Meanwhile, the whole village has gathered at the side, watching and of course laughing at us shamelessly. We then introduce ourselves and ask to speak to the village leaders (chairman, teachers, health care worker…) We usually hold this meeting in their church or community hall. The whole village comes to watch this meeting. Us coming to their village is probably one of the biggest events ever!
Amidst leading the outreach, Johannes also found a little time to attend the Johns club on board! 5 of the 50 people on board were named John. There was: Farmer John (a sheep farmer), Dental John (a dentist), Eye John (an optometrist), Lion John (former chairman of this regions’ Lions Club) and German John (Johannes). Those guys loved each other!
We are loving our involvement with the medical ship, and the time we spend in PNG. The people of PNG are so lovely and generous. We never leave a village empty handed! We often will be given a branch of bananas, coconuts, hand made bags and oars, and… deer antlers! They love laughing and having a good time. It seems that we are building friendships with these people that will last a very long time.
As always, we would love to have you come on the ship to PNG! Please let us know if you are interested.
