It's been a decade!

Well this week we sang Happy Birthday to Carter, and can you believe that it has been 10 years! On the day of his birthday we had a special supper and had a few of the other people on the station over for cake and then just yesterday we had a party with  a bunch of the boys that Kaleb and Carter hang out at the river with.  That was fun.  We introduced the boys to a few new things like capture the flag, water relays, balloon darts and a scavenger hunt.  I think they all enjoyed.  The boys here are very competitive, love to run and have a good time.  In the picture below Carter is standing guard of his teams flag during the very enthusiastic game of capture the flag.  One of the teams got close but no one actually won.                                    

Here is a shot of all of the gang.  Jay and I are still working at remembering all of the names.  After all of the fun and games were finished the boys enjoyed ice blocks (freezies), popcorn, pineapple, and banana muffins.  Oh and a the end of the party the boys showed our  boys how to roast and enjoy one of there traditional foods here, pit pit (the flower of a wild sugar cane)                                      

Well that finishes up our birthdays for a little while.  We may have to look for another excuse to have a party!

Mel for the Marshes

They Beat it to a Pulp

This week the boys and I had a truly PNG experience.  The making of Sago or sak sak, as they call it in some parts of the country.  Sago is made from the sago palm,  like the one standing behind Kaleb here.  Sago is the nationals  main source of food here in the lower parts of the country.  They extract the starch that is found in the pulpy inside of the tree.                                      

Making sago is a very labor intensive job.  They first have to cut down the tree, after it has gone to seed and then cut away the bark until they get into the meat of the palm.  They then proceed to chip away at the pulp inside a little at a time making it into small shavings that they can rinse. The section that this women was working on was going to take her all day and getting this tree finished was going to be an all week project

The tool that Rosinna was using was a club carved out of wood with a little tin can fit on the end.  This made it hard enough to chip away at the wood. She was working in stages each time going about 6" deeper into the trunk. This tree was close to our house but they often have to go out into the jungles into the sago swamps.                                                                     

I had my turn at it.  We will just say it would have taken longer than a week and I would have been mighty sore.  These PNG women are tough girls! You have to be careful not to take to big of chunks off.           

After Rosinna finished chipping the palm she hauled it up the hill to where her daughter was doing the washing and the rinsing of the pulp. This contraption was built just for this week.  They would build a new one each time they make sago.  The upper basin is where they rinse the pulp and then the juices with the starch run down the shoot into the collection basin at the bottom                                                             

Reta would continue to dump water over the pulp and squeeze and wash it until it ran clear. 

After the pulp runs clean Reta would just toss it out and get some fresh stuff.  She had a long day of squishing and washing                                                              

I had to include this picture.  This little one is the youngest daughter of the lady who was taking the pulp out the tree and the other women is the oldest daughter in the family.  She was quite taken with the boys and was following them all over. She was pretty cute!             

And here we have the final product before they dry it.  They let the starch settle into the bottom of the basin and then drain the water off the top.  As I was watching Rosinna dig it out I was taken with how much it looked and acted like oobleck that the boys and I have played with.  You know when you mix corn starch with water until it is a paste.  Really that is all that it is, starch!  There is not a whole lot of nutritional value.  The people eat sago every meal as the biggest portion of there food.  They either fry it over the fire or they boil it or put it in banana leaves to steam it.  I really must say that it is not my favorite things.  It has not much taste and the texture is a lot like rubber, very chewy and gluey!  This weekend however we had some at a bung (potluck) that was mixed with banana and it was alright.  I'm not sure I could live off it.

 

The boys and I have been invited back in about a month or so after the palm has had time to die down a bit and the sago grubs have had time to grow.  Great big fat juicy ones!  We will see who is brave enough to try those!  GULP!

Mel for the Marshes

The Haus Sik

This is the Haus Sik in Rumginae or as we would call it, the hospital.  Since Jason gave you a close up picture last week of what goes on at the hospital, I thought this week I could give you a closer look at the hospital its self!

This is the outside view of the operating room (or theater as they call it here) where all that hard work was taking place last week.  You can see one luxury, an A/C so that the doctors don't melt into a puddle under the operating lights                                                   

Welcome to the waiting room!  This is where people would come to sit and wait for a chance to see the Dr's on duty for the day.  Today it is looking a little vacant, only because it is Sunday, it will be hopping again on Monday.  Every year the Dr's see around 11,000 out patients. 

Here you have the ICU.  It is a bed in the corner of the nurses station,  close so that the nurses can keep a close eye on how the patient is managing.  Oxygen is available to one person if need be.  We have personally seen a snake bit victim being treated here.                 

Here is the other half of the room, the nurses station.  Today they said was pretty quiet but they are close by the patients who need the greatest amount of observation if something should come up.

This is the door into one of the wards off of the nurses station.  There is no glass but this allows for more air to flow through the wards.                                                             

Just a glimplse into Unit 3, a humble surroundings.  The patient would be given a bed but are required to supply their own sleeping mat or mattress.  The patients must also come with a guardian, someone to cook meals for them and help them with laundry and other personal care.  The person on the floor in this picture would be a guardian.  Some people don't have a choice and come with out a guardian, but are fortunate in a place like Rumginae where there are people from many different tok ples (or tribal groups) around who will help to provide for them.  For many of the staff working at the hospital this is not there home either.  They are also far from home!                                            

The Hospital Laundry Room, for hospital use. The patients would be required to do there laundry down at the river.  It is a good thing they have someone to help them!

I am amazed when I look around the hospital at how rustic and basic it is!  I am amazed even further by all that the staff at Rumginae Haus sik are able to acomplish with what they have been given.  The Lord truly does use the simple things!

Hope you enjoyed the little tour. (and remember don't complain about how bad your bed is tonight)

Mel for the Marshes

Jason Goes In For Surgery

It's not what you think, last week I had the opportunity to be in the operating room and watch Dr. Addy & Dr. Sharron operate on a woman that had a cyst on her overy. I was not sure how I would do watching a surgery in person, but it was not to bad and if I have another chance I will go and observe again.











This is Dr. Addy scrubing up to get herself sterile.

This is Dr. Sharron with her sterile smock on and working on getting her sergical gloves on.

Here is both Dr. Addy and Dr. Sharron hard at work. They were hoping to keep the incision small, but due to the size of the cyst they had to make it larger. It was quite a process, they used a number of instrument to cut through the different layers of tissues.

The next two pictures are a little more graphic, the first one shows Dr. Sharron with her hand inside the patient feeling for the cyst and pulling it out on top of the patient's stomach so that it can be removed.

The next picture is of the cyst removed. The cyst was about 2/3's the size of a basketball and weighed about 2-3 kilograms.The Dr.s have told me that they can be so large that they can weigh upto 15 kilos, this is hard to image. Just for you information this woman was awake for the whole surgery, she just had an epideral.

The Good doctors here are amazing and they are able to do so much with so little. Please pray for them as they continue to do the work that the Lord has called them to do.

I hope with one of the medivac I do in the future that I will be able to follow the patient all the way through and return them to their home. When this happens I will share this journey with you.

The Weather Report

Final tallies are in and the total amount of rain recieved in Rumginae this year is 6941.6mm!  for those of you who are unfarmiliar with the metric system that is 6.9 meters!  A lot of rain! It rained on 289 days this last year and I am told that is down a little. 
We are currently the new rain gage checkers (a very official title)!  Everyday we have to check the gage and record the results.  At the end of each month they are sent to the national weather service and then again at the end of the year after everything has been tallied.  It is good timing as the boys are studing weather in science right now.
I just checked my toes, there are no webs yet but may be coming soon to help me slop throught the warm puddles all over the lawn.  Oh and a lesson learned,  sometimes barefeet are better than flip flops.  Flip Flops can FLIP muck clear up to the back of your head!! 
Speaking of gages, I had better run and check it!
Mel for the Marshes