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| Christmas 2013 |
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| me and my pretty girls |
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| my handsome boys |
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| getting set to fly to Kudjip on the helicopter |
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| co-pilot Rolanda! |
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| landed in Kudjip, great flying pilot Ray! |
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| Me, nurse Amy, the 3 blood donors, and our patient |
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| blood bag |
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| my crib for the night, not so comfy |
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| C90 airplane medical evacuation of same patient to Cairns |
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| off duty, enjoying my first McDonald's fries in 18 months! Yay! |
I really had a hard time last year with missing family and so I think God granted me a special blessing by allowing me to be almost too busy to notice I was missing much of the holidays! Let me explain.
I happened to be on-call at the clinic over Christmas (and something always happens when the clinic is closed!). A missionary lady needed medical attention on Christmas Eve day. As it turned out, her medical issue continued to get worse over the next few days with me and the doctor seeing her every day for a few hours. Finally, on boxing day we decided to fly her via helicopter to another hospital here in PNG (40 min. helicopter flight) for a blood transfusion. Back home this wouldn't be a huge deal, you'd be admitted to hospital and get your blood. Out here, we had to fly the patient to a hospital that had the proper equipment to do a transfusion, plus I had to fly with her and stay with her as her nurse for her stay in the hospital (and do all nursing work for her, including the blood transfusion), plus we had to bring our own donors! Yes, that's right, I flew my patient and 3 willing missionary ladies from our center (with the same blood type as my patient's) down to another hospital via helicopter so we could transfuse 3 units of blood from the donors into my patient. Talk about stressful! :) But I gotta say, helicopters are so fun! What an amazing experience! In any case, the whole procedure went so well, my patient had a very minor transfusion reaction that resolved itself after a short time. I was so encouraged by the response I got from our missionary community when I first asked for blood donors... I think I had 13 responses within an hour of sending out an email.
The next morning we flew back to our center with the patient feeling great and energized after receiving all that blood. Well that afternoon, her condition worsened once more and it was clear she needed a surgical procedure we could not perform here in PNG. So we got everything ready and the next morning we flew out via our C90 airplane (pressurized PTL!) to Cairns, Australia.
The ambulance met us on the tarmac and transferred us and the patient to the hospital where she was being admitted. The flight went very well and we left our patient in very capable hands. At that point, I was officially off duty...and in Australia! PARTY!!! :) Just kidding, in all honesty I was very tired. I had very little sleep the past 2 nights (a total of 4-5 hours) so I was a walking zombie. I did get to eat at the mall foodcourt and you guessed it... MCDONALDS!! :) It was sooo yummy and such a special treat for me to be able to enjoy fastfood after 18 months here in PNG.
I experienced culture shock, which I wasn't anticipating. It was overwhelming to be in civilization and not having everyone staring at me (cause I'm white) or trying to protect my personal belongings (namely my wallet) and hearing english all around me. It made me realize that when we get home this summer, I (and my family) will have more difficulty fitting back into "regular" life than I originally anticipated. I was not expected reverse culture shock, and yet it paralyzed me. It gives me a greater appreciation and understanding of the feelings that our foreign missionaries have when they come home after 4 years away...never mind my 2 years! :)
So that's how I spent my holidays... I told you I had a good excuse right? :) Clinton was able to take off the week after Christmas as well and so we did get some good family time in and were able to relax.
For New Year's Eve, we celebrated at a friend's house with a group of other friends and their kids. We put the kids to bed there and then stayed up playing games until midnight at which time all the teens and other not-so-young guys drive their motorcycles or four wheelers (or golf carts) around the hills for 15 minutes. There's not much to do out here, so this constitutes fun! :) It was a great evening of visiting and strengthening relationships with fellow workers.
The week before Christmas I made a batch of Christmas cookies (recipe courtesy of Mennonite Girls Can Cook!) and invited a few of our national friends over for a visit one afternoon. They loved the cookies! :) They don't have ovens and so homemade cookies really is a treat. This one couple are in the process of building themselves a new house. Out here, the roof which is made of this long, strong grass that they bind together, only lasts about 5-7 years before it starts leaking. Instead of just replacing the roof, they build a new house and tear down the old one. Well on their new house they decided to put on a nice door with a big lock. The lady was so pleased with the fact that they were putting this big lock on their door just like a white mans house! :)
Now my pidgin is still a continual work in progress, but they all think I am doing so well! I am definitely not embarassed to try out the words and laugh at myself when I say the wrong thing. :)
The patient that I was with during the holidays on the medevacs was telling me cultural things in her village. One thing that disturbed me greatly was that a whole group of women (20 or so), had followed the advice of this one man (a supposed doctor) who said he could give them a certain birth control. However, they all ended up getting pregnant and their SDA (7th Day Adventist) pastor told them that the babies were demon babies because they were conceived while on birth control. So he encouraged them all to abort their babies. They way they do that in this village was to eat a few tubes of Colgate toothpaste. They did it, and they all miscarried their babies. It was such a sad story to hear, but it just shows how lost these people are and how they live in fear of evil spirits on a daily basis.
Clinton and a group of men from our center, climbed the highest peak in PNG... MT. Wilhelm in mid december. It is just about 15000 feet high. Clinton did so well, he complained abit of being cold and wet, but now he is so glad he did it and can actually see himself doing it again! :)
Clinton has also completed his online course through SBC and got an A+!!! I am so proud of him! Tayah is getting set to start term 3 this wednesday. She`s very excited to get back into school!
We have bought our return tickets to head home! The countdown begins. :) Our departure date from PNG is June 2nd and our arrival in Winnipeg is June 6th. We`re looking forward to seeing friends and family again, though the process of packing and saying farewell to all our new friends here on center and our national friends is daunting. We have truly come to love PNG and call this place `home`.
Well this post has gotten a lot longer than I originally planned, but well, I have much to say! :) Thanks for bearing with me as I babble, though I have many more stories to share, I will leave it at this. Thank you all for your continued support, love, and encouragement. We wouldn`t be here without you all and we couldn`t do what we do without you all!
Blessings to you all and we truly hope your Christmas and New Years was wonderful!
Love, Rolanda for the Friesens
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