South 2 North 2 East 2 West in 5 Days

I want to share my crazy week with you including pictures. Not many weeks contain the excitement of this particular week in February. I am grateful for that, but also to God who enabled me to experience this week and his beautiful creation.

It started out as a usual Monday morning.   Around 10:30 I was called to help in the treatment room on the ex-pat side.  The treatment room has a stretcher in it and some supplies and equipment we have available to take care of “ER” patients.  When I arrived in the treatment room I found the other two nurses taking care of a very sick patient.  Together, along with the doctor, we cared for the patient throughout the day and night. This included taking shifts during the night.  In the morning the patient remained sick.  The tests we were able to do showed an infection but we could not diagnosis a specific cause. So with the help of many people, the way was cleared to send the patient to Australia. It was my turn to go. Tuesday around 10am we flew out of Ukarumpa in a Kodiak airplane. 

We arrived in Cairns, Australia, around 2pm.  An ambulance met us at the airport and took us to a hospital.  The ER was busy but when they saw the sick patient they took her back almost immediately.  I stayed a couple hours observing the good care she received.  I left the patient and her friend and headed out.

Due to the activities of the day I had not eaten very much.  So I had a taxi take me to the esplanade where all the restaurants were.  Being there before, I was more familiar with places. I enjoyed a nice meal and some ice cream by the water front.

I shopped at a grocery store and headed back to the place I would spend the night, Tree Tops, where we also stayed in January. I went on Facebook and enjoyed the fact I was not paying for every megabyte of use. Wednesday the taxi picked me up at 4am so I could catch the 6 am commercial flight back to Port Moresby, PNG.  I spent my time reading a book while waiting for the flight. The flight from Port Moresby to Ukarumpa did not leave until after 3pm.  I made it to my home eventually by 5pm, in time to fix supper. All in all I was off the Center for 30 hours.

Thursday I went into work and had the privilege to go to a village clinic on the other side of the airport and up the mountain.  The road was rough and muddy with deep rut in places.  At the end of the time we decided we saw around 53 children. I had the privilege of giving many shots that day.
  

top of the mountain

gardens...main food source for the people

Mothers bring their children

Talking to each mother

Village homes

View of our airport from the mountain

Friday I had off of work to go to a basketball tournament to watch Elijah play.  It was in Goroka, a two hour drive away.  We left around 6 am and arrived back around 6pm.  It was fun to cheer on the high school teams on the indoor court and the outdoor court at New Tribe’s Mission. However, sitting in the sun outside is not anything like the high school basketball games I watched in Wisconsin. 

So I traveled from Ukarumpa to Australia to a local village and then two hours the opposite way to a town. It was an eventful week. I am thankful for the prayers which helped me through the week.