The weather remained very good all this week, and what a superb week it has been. All bar one day, that is, which I’ll explain later.
I mentioned last week that Volkher Jacobsen has come to PNG in order to help with the Twin Otter programme. Flying with him is a pleasure – he is an excellent pilot in every way. On top of that, both of us have flown a lot in the Eastern Highlands, so while we flew out of Goroka this week, we were warmly greeted at several airstrips by people we’ve known since the late 1990s and early 2000s.
It has been so much fun being out flying and doing what we both originally signed up to do rather than sitting in the office!
We’ve flown teachers to remote communities, a couple of medical evacuations out for treatment, building supplies for schools and health centres, coffee out to market. The slightly smoky haze has given rise to some spectacular views of so many shades of blue and grey as the mountain ridgelines recede into the distance.
We came back to Hagen from Goroka on Wednesday afternoon. The programme had gone well and we arrived home earlier than expected, which was useful because we had a guest coming for the evening meal.
Kate Forbes is an SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament, the youngest MSP. She grew up in India where her father worked with VP (short for Varghese Philip), one of the MAF team here who is helping MAF PNG develop special focussed projects that have a particularly high impact for our work. Wondering what to do with her holiday, she contacted VP and Nimmi (his wife) and asked if she could come and stay and do something useful while in PNG.
While here she has visited some of the bases around the country, seen a couple of rural hospitals and helped with some of VP’s projects.
We had a really enjoyable evening with Kate.
It was extremely interesting to hear her assessment of British politics at the moment, what the political climate is in Scotland and her take on Brexit and other topical issues. It was also somewhat salutary to hear how the media represents what she says, taking statements and remarks entirely out of context in order to put their own slant or bias on the topic. I guess that we know that happens, but it has more of an impact when the person affected is telling you about what has occurred.
“What is truth?” is both one of the saddest questions ever recorded (by Pontius Pilate), but also one of the most relevant to western societies.
As I said, one day that didn’t work out so well. Over Monday night my back was so painful that I couldn’t stand up without Nicki supporting me. Quite why the problem I’ve got is worse at night I have no idea. Being in Goroka had the advantage that I was able to get an appointment with the doctor at the New Tribes Mission headquarters. If my back hadn’t improved, let alone got worse, I’d been planning to go to the Nazarene hospital at Kudjip, 45 minutes drive outside Hagen, on Friday when I had an office day.
After a thorough examination he reckoned that it is a strain of the sacroiliac ligament and gave me a local anti-inflammatory injection. It’s improved since then but is still not 100%, so I hope it won’t be too long before it settles down completely.
Having seen the doctor in Goroka on Tuesday I didn’t need to go to Kudjip, so Volkher and I flew three rounds out of Mount Hagen on Friday, including the one to Kol, about 15 minutes flying time to the north-east, but a good day’s journey by road when the road is open, which it currently isn’t.
The flight was to deliver school supplies, including food, to the rural high school. I doubt that many western children would be so pleased to see bags of rice as the primary diet as the youngsters there were.
We’d departed from Hagen just as morning fog rolled in and closed the airport for a while, so we needed to wait at Kol until the fog lifted and we could return, which gave us a chance to talk with the local people more than we usually have time to do. The community is mostly centred on the Lutheran church, and Volkher comes from the German Lutheran church. What I hadn’t realised was that his brother was a missionary at Kol in the early 1990s, and people there remembered him, so there was an immediate rapport.
Janine Bland, wife of our Property & Vehicles Maintenance Manager, completes her 6th decade this weekend. While I’m writing this, Nicki has gone out to a surprise celebration for her. A special Indian meal has been organised with the owner of the Sweet Spot, a restaurant in town. Nicki has been supplied with a sari, though I haven’t seen her wearing it yet, only a photo of when it was tried on earlier.
(… Now Sunday morning and I saw her when she arrived home after a really enjoyable evening and she did look really nice in her sari, which had lovely colours. I’m sure she will have sent out some photos by the time you read this!)
Our rhubarb has been looking very poor for quite a while. I read once that it is a plant that requires several weeks at sub-zero temperatures to do well, and certainly it grew much better after several weeks in our fridge a couple of years ago.
Today I dug it all up, wrapped it in newspaper, then in a rice bag and put it all in a freezer in an unoccupied house on the compound. I’ll leave it for a couple of weeks and then put it in the fridge for another couple of weeks, and then see how it does when I replant it. If it survives maybe it will do better. If it doesn’t, then nothing has been lost.
Another trip to the hardware store was also made today, returning with a couple more sheets of plywood and some battens in order to make the next couple of crates. When they are done I’m hoping I may not need to make any more, depending, of course, on how much stuff we do decide to ship home at the end of the year.
I ran this morning (Sunday) for the first time in a couple of weeks. My back is a bit niggly, but definitely better than it was. My fitness for running at altitude has taken a serious hit with me being more static and I expect it’ll be another few weeks before I’m able to run any distance. But I’m going again, and that is the most important thing!
I mentioned last week that Volkher Jacobsen has come to PNG in order to help with the Twin Otter programme. Flying with him is a pleasure – he is an excellent pilot in every way. On top of that, both of us have flown a lot in the Eastern Highlands, so while we flew out of Goroka this week, we were warmly greeted at several airstrips by people we’ve known since the late 1990s and early 2000s.
It has been so much fun being out flying and doing what we both originally signed up to do rather than sitting in the office!
We’ve flown teachers to remote communities, a couple of medical evacuations out for treatment, building supplies for schools and health centres, coffee out to market. The slightly smoky haze has given rise to some spectacular views of so many shades of blue and grey as the mountain ridgelines recede into the distance.
************
We came back to Hagen from Goroka on Wednesday afternoon. The programme had gone well and we arrived home earlier than expected, which was useful because we had a guest coming for the evening meal.
Kate Forbes is an SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament, the youngest MSP. She grew up in India where her father worked with VP (short for Varghese Philip), one of the MAF team here who is helping MAF PNG develop special focussed projects that have a particularly high impact for our work. Wondering what to do with her holiday, she contacted VP and Nimmi (his wife) and asked if she could come and stay and do something useful while in PNG.
While here she has visited some of the bases around the country, seen a couple of rural hospitals and helped with some of VP’s projects.
We had a really enjoyable evening with Kate.
It was extremely interesting to hear her assessment of British politics at the moment, what the political climate is in Scotland and her take on Brexit and other topical issues. It was also somewhat salutary to hear how the media represents what she says, taking statements and remarks entirely out of context in order to put their own slant or bias on the topic. I guess that we know that happens, but it has more of an impact when the person affected is telling you about what has occurred.
“What is truth?” is both one of the saddest questions ever recorded (by Pontius Pilate), but also one of the most relevant to western societies.
************
As I said, one day that didn’t work out so well. Over Monday night my back was so painful that I couldn’t stand up without Nicki supporting me. Quite why the problem I’ve got is worse at night I have no idea. Being in Goroka had the advantage that I was able to get an appointment with the doctor at the New Tribes Mission headquarters. If my back hadn’t improved, let alone got worse, I’d been planning to go to the Nazarene hospital at Kudjip, 45 minutes drive outside Hagen, on Friday when I had an office day.
After a thorough examination he reckoned that it is a strain of the sacroiliac ligament and gave me a local anti-inflammatory injection. It’s improved since then but is still not 100%, so I hope it won’t be too long before it settles down completely.
************
Having seen the doctor in Goroka on Tuesday I didn’t need to go to Kudjip, so Volkher and I flew three rounds out of Mount Hagen on Friday, including the one to Kol, about 15 minutes flying time to the north-east, but a good day’s journey by road when the road is open, which it currently isn’t.
The flight was to deliver school supplies, including food, to the rural high school. I doubt that many western children would be so pleased to see bags of rice as the primary diet as the youngsters there were.
We’d departed from Hagen just as morning fog rolled in and closed the airport for a while, so we needed to wait at Kol until the fog lifted and we could return, which gave us a chance to talk with the local people more than we usually have time to do. The community is mostly centred on the Lutheran church, and Volkher comes from the German Lutheran church. What I hadn’t realised was that his brother was a missionary at Kol in the early 1990s, and people there remembered him, so there was an immediate rapport.
************
Janine Bland, wife of our Property & Vehicles Maintenance Manager, completes her 6th decade this weekend. While I’m writing this, Nicki has gone out to a surprise celebration for her. A special Indian meal has been organised with the owner of the Sweet Spot, a restaurant in town. Nicki has been supplied with a sari, though I haven’t seen her wearing it yet, only a photo of when it was tried on earlier.(… Now Sunday morning and I saw her when she arrived home after a really enjoyable evening and she did look really nice in her sari, which had lovely colours. I’m sure she will have sent out some photos by the time you read this!)
************
Our rhubarb has been looking very poor for quite a while. I read once that it is a plant that requires several weeks at sub-zero temperatures to do well, and certainly it grew much better after several weeks in our fridge a couple of years ago.
Today I dug it all up, wrapped it in newspaper, then in a rice bag and put it all in a freezer in an unoccupied house on the compound. I’ll leave it for a couple of weeks and then put it in the fridge for another couple of weeks, and then see how it does when I replant it. If it survives maybe it will do better. If it doesn’t, then nothing has been lost.
Another trip to the hardware store was also made today, returning with a couple more sheets of plywood and some battens in order to make the next couple of crates. When they are done I’m hoping I may not need to make any more, depending, of course, on how much stuff we do decide to ship home at the end of the year.
************
I ran this morning (Sunday) for the first time in a couple of weeks. My back is a bit niggly, but definitely better than it was. My fitness for running at altitude has taken a serious hit with me being more static and I expect it’ll be another few weeks before I’m able to run any distance. But I’m going again, and that is the most important thing!
