Let's get this party started

It is now day three here at Kudjip, PNG. I literally have not had time to sit down and write before now, and now it is only because I woke up early to get some things done. (I know, I know, you can wipe that suprised look of your collective faces now)



First, about the trip here. Suprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I had expected. Of course, I had expected it to be the worst 26 or so hours of my life. Caleb didn't sleep nearly as much as he needed to, only about 2 hours on our flight across the Pacific, and then another 6 on the flights from Tokyo to Mt Hagen, PNG. Yes, I did have to utilize the Benadryl, though the kid really did have a stuffy nose and cough, so it was easily justifyable. When we arrived, Dr Bennett was waiting for us at the airport, and lined along the fairly small fence were about a hundred PNGers tightly packed, watching the goofy foreigners arrive. All our bags arrived safely, which we were definitely excited about, tempered only by the tedious experience of having to pick up our bags at the baggage claim on both our stops along the way, exit through customs, re-enter through customs, and check in our bags again.



We then rode about an hour from Mt Hagan to Kudjip, where the Nazarene Hospital is located. Along the way, there were the kind of images you would expect: beautiful tree covered mountains, little thatched huts, and a few little "markets" where people had their produce lying on the ground to sell. The suprising things was just how many people seemed to be just wandering around aimlessly. I was talking to one of the doctors last night, and apparently it's because people just don't have to work all day to make a living. Here in the highlands, most people are subsistence farmers and the ground is incredibly fertile. Most people plant a garden, have a few coffee trees, and maybe a few pigs and chickens. After they plant the garden, the rest of the work is really not all that time consuming, so people have plenty of time to wander about, gamble, chew boi (more on that later), smoke PNG gold (aka marijuana), and chop each other with machetes.



When we got to the hospital complex, the first thing you notice is the large fence with barbed wire surrounding the whole thing and the guards at the gate. Tribal violence is still fairly big here, and law enforcement is apparently not great. I think they need a good dose of Deputy Kumorski! Anyway, they do a very good job of keeping that stuff out of the station. The set up here is very nice, sort of a camp-ground feel with gravel roads that stretch out in a couple directions from the main circle where the hospital is. We are actually staying in one of the temporarily vacated missionary houses with our friends, the Adams. It is so much nicer than anything I expected!! It is a three bedroom, one bath house that you would expect to see in any town in America, with a few add ons. The water we use is rainwater collected in a large corregated cistern next to the house. We do have hot water, supplied by a solar powered water heater on the roof. Electricity is not a problem here, because there is a small river that runs just down the mountain from us, and the station maintains a small hydro-electric generator. The power does go out frequently, but some mysterious super hero then goes down to the generator and fixes it somehow. We are forever in his debt! Supposedly the water from the cistern is drinkable (depending on who you ask), but there is a large micro-pore water filter on our kitchen counter we have been and will be utilizing. The water is, by most accounts, safe for other things, like brushing teeth and bathing, so that is nice. It almost feels like cheating being able to take a hot shower, but I'll take it!



Time is now running short for me this morning, so I'll save the description of the hospital for another time. I don't want to sign off, though, without giving some props to the missionaries here. They seem like some pretty incredible people. The Meyers (Susan is the pediatrician here) had us over for lunch about an hour after we arrived on Sunday. The meal was wonderful, and their kids were really cool and very good with Caleb. We ate with the Radcliffs last night (Monday) and had a similary great experience. Jim Radcliff is the surgeon here who has been here for over 20 years. We asked his 15 year old daughter if she has gotted back to the States much and she replied, "Yeah, we get back about every three years" Wow. They have 6 kids, four of which were born here at Kudjip. Pretty incredible people. Well, I'm off.