The week in Telefomin was very enjoyable. Consistent flying, rather than the sporadic opportunities I usually get, enabled me to regain my proficiency. It’s nice, and very helpful, to be able to put the wheels down where you want to on airstrips that don’t have very much in the way of margins!
During the week, the aircraft was used as a hearse (three times), a delivery truck (for building and food supplies) and a bus (for passengers). There was no need this time for it to be a fuel tanker since fuel stocks in Telefomin were quite good.
I was told that the hospital in Tabubil is requiring that the bodies of deceased patients are removed promptly. I think that in the past relatives took their time to make the transport arrangements, consulting with all the family members and so on, whereas now, they have to get on with the flight. Consequently, charters to repatriate bodies back to their home community for burial are happening regularly.
Since MAF provides the only service out of Tabubil to surrounding communities, I presume that if we can’t do a flight, the body has to be driven three to four hours to Kiunga, and then flown using one of aircraft operators based there.
When the aircraft is used as a truck or a bus it is very easy to miss exactly what, or who, you’re carrying and why. One lot of building materials looks just like any other load. An aircraft full of passengers seems the same as any full passenger flight. However, looking down the load manifest I found that on one flight the building materials were for a school classroom.
On another flight the bales of rice, tins of fish, bottles of oil and boxes of soap were for the high school in Tekin, the one run by Glenda Giles whom I’ve mentioned before.
The passenger list showed medical transfers from Telefomin hospital, which hasn’t had a doctor for several years (though there is hope one, or more, may arrive in the near future) to Tabubil. Students were flown to school, as well as passengers going about their own business.
We stopped at one airstrip to pick up two medical evacuations. The first was an older woman who had fallen on one of the mountain tracks and broken some ribs. She was moving very carefully as you’d expect, but not a squeak of pain or complaint. I don’t know when she fell, but she’d probably been waiting for us for at least a day, possibly two.
From the same community was a man who was jaundiced and who, we were told, was passing urine the colour of coffee. I’ve no idea how long he’d taken to reach the stage where it was thought a good idea to send him to hospital, but I’m sure it was longer than I’d have been prepared to wait! I hope that he’ll be OK.
It is so nice to get out of the office and back to the sharp end of our work.
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In the meantime, Nicki did her usual amazing job of making Telefomin home and keeping up with her safety work, preparing for the two orientation courses she has coming up, working on a photobook (the internet in Telefomin is good these days) and planning accommodation for staff in Mount Hagen.
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On Friday I was flying again, but this time in my role as a checking pilot, so not so much fun. Then back to the office for a while and some problems to solve which will occupy me somewhat during the next few days.
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Most of yesterday was spent in the garden, trimming our hedge and weeding and reorganising one of our larger flower beds. The latter is a work in progress which will take a while longer to complete. Butterfly gingers, red cannas and amaryllis (now known as hippeastrum, I think) had taken over and need to be brought under control. The white and pink candy-striped amaryllis are the same as the ones grown in pots in the UK, but which flower and reproduce very freely here.
That’s all for now. Have a good week.
