Papua New Guinea - Part 1

Sunday 12th March

After having just spent 4 glorious days in sunny, sophisticated Brisbane with my (Beth’s) Aunt and Uncle, enjoying the delicious western food and comfortable beds, we arrived in the deepest, darkest Madang, Papua New Guinea. It could not be more different!

The first thing that hits you as you disembark the plane in the heat. But not just any old heat. We’re talking wrap-you-up-close-with-a-sticky-blanket kind of heat. It’s almost enough to make you a little breathless, but we were quickly welcomed by the friendly faces of two YWAMers (Youth With A Mission) at Madang airport - which is a generous term for a corrugated iron structure with a wooden bench for baggage claim! Off we went in the Toyota Landcruiser (now Ben’s car obsession) to our gated compound and found we had the luxury of our own little flat, complete with equipped kitchen (much to Beth’s delight) and balcony (much to Ben’s).

Our first few days were ones of orientation, meeting other members of the medical team and the rest of the YWAM base in Madang. A lot of the work they are doing here consists of Oral Bible Translation (OBT) where they go to rural islands and tribes, form connection and relationship, then invite them to come and translate parts of the bible orally. These are then recorded onto SD cards which people can insert onto their android phones and either listen to the bible or watch the Jesus film. It’s really quite a genius idea, and considering PNG has over 850 known languages, they have taken on a serious challenge. The common language here, aside from English, is ‘Tok Pisin’ which is a form of pidgin – imagine a 5 year old has heard the English language, written it phonetically and taken out any inessential words, and you get an idea of what Tok Pisin is like. For example, a ‘bilum’ is a bag in which you have your belongings, ‘skinhot’ is a fever and ‘how old are you’ is translated as ‘how many Christmases have you had’. It’s been a lot of fun getting used to all the words and phrases and Ben's consultations in pidgin are becoming more and more interesting...!

A normal day consists of 7am breakfast with the medical team, then morning prayer, devotion or worship with the rest of the YWAM base (which is glorious). We then either head out to the hospital or we make an earlier start and go to a remote village. There is usually an ‘Aid Post’ in most villages, managed by someone with medical knowledge or village pastor who will invite us to be there. Then people will come flooding, mamas, papas, babies and pikininis (children!).

On Saturday last week, we went to the village of Nobnob (we tried not to giggle when we heard it too!). On the team we have two doctors, two nurses and an optometrist. We have also linked up with a DTS (Discipleship Training School) Outreach team from Kona who are here to engage with the community, teach primary healthcare and play with the pikininis whilst the parents are being seen. It’s amazing to see how a simple game of ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’ has the children in fits of laughter and breaks down barriers pretty quickly. Simple things like learning to wash your hands after going to the loo, washing your body and teeth daily and making sure you toilet in the right place are so obvious to us, but are not as engrained in traditional culture as they could be.

Then there’s the betelnut. If any of you have ever visited a Pacific Island, it would not come as a shock to see bright orange mouths, stained teeth and receding gums from betelnut. Almost everyone here chews on the fruit, however it’s the combination with lime powder and mustard that creates the narcotic, red concoction in the mouth which leads to all sorts of oral cancers and dental problems. It’s so a part of the culture that it’s sometimes even given to children, which came as quite a surprise!

However, this was not the most shocking thing we saw on our outreach day. We saw some people come with simple back pain (from carrying bag straps on their head) and others with very septic wounds. One man had a horrendous genetic skin condition which caused warts to grow absolutely everywhere on his skin. Another lady had come with an awful cut on her head from domestic violence (which is all too common here). Others I think were just there out of intrigue and wanted to see the circus act of westerners turn up with their funny equipment and colourful drugs. It’s hard not to be able to treat some conditions, and there are some situations that you know you are only putting sticking plaster on, quite literally. But the beauty of going with a Christian medical mission is that everyone you meet gets prayer, and it’s the knowledge of God’s love for them, shown through a health service, which we hope they leave with, above all else.

We have also had the privilege of going to one of the local resorts to use their swimming pool and Ben has even sussed out that there is a Madang Golf Club as well as a weekly rugby team! The supermarkets are pretty well stocked and Beth has realised she can make yoghurt and sourdough bread as well (starters grow remarkably quickly out here!). Whilst the heat is often soporific and the sights and smells take some getting used to, we are feeling very blessed to be here and a small part of what we hope will make a difference to some people. What we have realised the most, is how good it is to be back in community, with a purpose and once again in good health.

We will keep you updated with next week's shenanigans, but hope that helps paint a bit of a picture for you thus far! Please keep us in your prayers as PNG is not a particularly safe country and we are going to some quite hard to reach places.

Thanks and love, from B&B.