#pngretold - retelling the events of exactly two weeks ago
What a busy day! I spent the first part of the morning
installing a fan and a light fitting into one of the CRMF properties before
heading to the local eye clinic (run by CBM) and the hospital. We have quite
close links with the eye clinic and I was shown their equipment that I might be
asked to fix in the future, as well as an old steriliser that we had fixed, a
new steriliser that we had helped to source, and a UPS (uninterruptable power
supply) that we had installed. The later had made a massive impact on the eye
clinic as power cuts are prevalent in Goroka When these occurred during eye
surgery, they would have to stop and wait for someone to turn on the generator
before being able to carry on. Now the UPS keeps the power on long enough to
finish surgery before the generator needs to be turned on.The hospital has very limited technical support and much of
their equipment is donated without spares. As a consequence, often when
equipment breaks, it doesn’t get fixed and there is no replacement. CRMF often
gets called to help, but with limited staff numbers and experience, we are too
often not able to. However, they have heard that a new member of staff who used
to work in a hospital is joining the team (that’s me), so they’ve been keeping
all their broken equipment in a spare room!
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| Just for me! |
In the afternoon, Lukas had arranged for me to tag along on
a MAF flight to a remote village. The pilots (Holger and Brent) were very
friendly and even gave me headset to hear what they were saying, messages to
the control tower and all! Apparently over speeding on this particular runway
is common because the consequences of falling short can be catastrophic. I can’t
help feeling that that comment was just for my benefit. We arrived in Owena
(visible on google earth). It can take three days from Goroka if using public
transport (one day of that is a hike through the mountains to the nearest road),
but it only take twenty five minutes by plane. Owena is beautiful. The very definition of unspoilt natural
beauty. Stepping out of the plane my first reaction was that I couldn’t believe
that we had just landed a plane on that tiny flat patch of ground. It was only
later when talking to Brent that it occurred to me that the small village of maybe
100 people had dug that airstrip out of the side of the mountain by themselves using
only spades and digging sticks! And they finished it in a year!
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| Yes, that is the airstrip |
Brent walked
through the village with me, it was so helpful to have him with me to explain
what I was seeing and to help me understand the culture. When we got to the
middle of the village, everyone was sat around in a big circle with four men in
the middle. They were holding a court case. For attempted murder. And they were
deciding… how much compensation was due! Brent told me that the thinking here
was very different to that in the western world, but that he had never come across
a situation that when he took the time to think about it, he couldn’t understand
how they came to that way of thinking. When I got back to Goroka in a short 25 minutes,
I couldn’t help thinking how different the two places are. Both hold true
authentic PNG experiences, but they truly are worlds apart. CRMF do radio
installations in villages like Owena to connect them to the wider world to make
arrangements and to call for help in emergencies. David (a CRMF technician) was
telling me that you get dropped off by plane with nothing but your tool box and
the hope that you’ve brought everything that you need. They give you a day that
they will come back, but not a time. When they day comes you just sit, wait,
and hope that the plane will come and the weather will hold!
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| Village court |
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