Time passes and Nicki and I are both acutely aware of it at the moment. Eleven weeks today and we leave PNG. Some mornings I wake up and wish it were over and we could go immediately. Other days, or even later the same day, the awareness of tempus fugit, time flies, makes me feel it is all happening far too fast.
All our crates are out under our house and ready to load. If I have time this afternoon I’ll start taking the first boxes full of belongings down to them. It certainly won’t be the final pack as there’s still too many things to decide whether they come home or not, and others that will be but which need boxing or wrapping, but it will be another move in the overall direction of departure.
Dave & Karina Mills are staying here tonight on their way home to Australia for leave. Their second daughter, Ashleigh, is leaving with them to go to university, following behind their older daughter, Natasha, who is at medical school. Like when the boys were at Ukarumpa, we’ve seen these young people grow into adults and move into their own careers and lives. It’s wonderful to see, but at the same time, there’s a certain wistfulness due to time passing, which at the moment particularly fuels our own sense of tempus fugit.
The last time I wrote I said that last weekend we’d be in Kompiam with Dave & Karina. That happened as planned and on Wed Nov 28th we flew out from Hagen in the little Cessna 172. A short 20 minute flight in a tiny aeroplane save a 4½ hour drive over some not very good roads.
Originally Dave and I intended to walk from Kompiam to Lapalama on the Thursday, but the opportunity came up for us to be flown there instead in one of our Cessna Caravans. I was still in the later stages of a cold which had gone on to my chest (I’m still occasionally coughing a bit, but it’s virtually clear now) and didn’t feel 100%. A 4 hour walk when you’re not feeling great, versus a 5 minute flight. It wasn’t a difficult decision!
Admittedly the walk there is much more downhill, though that can be hard enough with the pounding it gives hips and knees, but when we walked back on Saturday I was immensely grateful I wasn’t in recovery from a walk in. More about that later.
The couple of days in Lapalama was quieter than expected with less fuss being made of our presence than promised. It turned out that we’d come in the middle of some intra-community and intra-church politics and power plays. The good thing was that it gave me some space to get over the cough. However, I hope that the politics are sorted out positively as one of the individuals primarily responsible for the airstrip being closed in 1995 is worming his way back into a position of authority in the community and church. While I got over the cough, Dave and a national doctor who’d come with us, ran some clinics in the local health centre.
Pastor Nana is one of the Baptist pastors in Lapalama, and it was he who led the delegation to Kompiam back in 2009 to meet Dave and myself when Nicki and I were staying with them then. I estimate him to be much the same age as myself, possibly a year or two older.
On Saturday he walked to Kompiam with us, for most of the trek carrying my pack (about 8kg) with a rope of bananas on top (about another 6-7kg). While I hauled myself up steep slopes, reliant on a stick as a third leg, or using both hands in more precipitous places, he simply walked up making it look like an afternoon stroll. After a bit more than 4 hours of trekking we reached the new road that’s being cut between Kompiam and, eventually, Hagen. A Landcruiser from the hospital had come to meet us and after a 25 minute drive we were back; the drive has cut another 4 hours off the original trekking time.
While I collapsed, Ps Nana had a drink, did some shopping, was driven back to the head of the trail and walked back the same afternoon. The physical fitness, endurance and sure-footedness of highlands people never ceases to amaze me. When we walked out we met people with loads or children on their backs traversing the steep narrow trails, and pregnant women who seemed to think nothing of the exertion.
In Kompiam we had a lovely couple of days with Dave & Karina. While Dave and I were away, Nicki had chatted with Karina about her offer to assist with Tok Pisin training for new MAF staff after we leave.
The local church gave us a lovely farewell on the Sunday, complete with a song sung by some young people especially for us, and in the afternoon we went for a swim in the local river accompanied by lots of local young people who climbed in the back of the Landcruiser for the short drive there and back.
The river was beautiful, refreshingly cool without being freezing and crystal clear with small fish in the shallows. A deep pool allowed the younger, braver people to jump off an overhanging rock. My best effort was to do a bomb off a lower rock, only to find the pool I jumped into wasn’t so deep. A bruise at the top of my rear end is still slightly tender – no jokes please about me being like a steam engine, it’s too old.
Back to work on Monday, flying back to Hagen at about 10 a.m., after taking part in the school assembly. Karina runs the school and asked us to tell the children a bit about our time in PNG.
And back to work it was. There have been some major maintenance challenges this week, which I’ve not been primarily responsible for sorting out, but still needed to be aware of what was going on. And then on Thursday Brad Venter came to Hagen and it was a case of transfer of controls: “Handing over”; “Taking over”; words that pilots are very familiar with.
I spent slightly over half a day briefing Brad on various issues he needs to be familiar with. On Friday I did his recurrency training and checks so he can fly again. Tomorrow, Monday, he’ll have sent out an email saying to everybody that he is back in role as Flight Operations Manager. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the job, but after six years in post, it isn’t all that easy to walk away and leave it to somebody else. For the next couple of months I’ll provide whatever support Brad needs and hopefully finish some fairly major projects and tidy up other loose ends.
Tempus fugit.
All our crates are out under our house and ready to load. If I have time this afternoon I’ll start taking the first boxes full of belongings down to them. It certainly won’t be the final pack as there’s still too many things to decide whether they come home or not, and others that will be but which need boxing or wrapping, but it will be another move in the overall direction of departure.
********
Dave & Karina Mills are staying here tonight on their way home to Australia for leave. Their second daughter, Ashleigh, is leaving with them to go to university, following behind their older daughter, Natasha, who is at medical school. Like when the boys were at Ukarumpa, we’ve seen these young people grow into adults and move into their own careers and lives. It’s wonderful to see, but at the same time, there’s a certain wistfulness due to time passing, which at the moment particularly fuels our own sense of tempus fugit.
The last time I wrote I said that last weekend we’d be in Kompiam with Dave & Karina. That happened as planned and on Wed Nov 28th we flew out from Hagen in the little Cessna 172. A short 20 minute flight in a tiny aeroplane save a 4½ hour drive over some not very good roads.
Originally Dave and I intended to walk from Kompiam to Lapalama on the Thursday, but the opportunity came up for us to be flown there instead in one of our Cessna Caravans. I was still in the later stages of a cold which had gone on to my chest (I’m still occasionally coughing a bit, but it’s virtually clear now) and didn’t feel 100%. A 4 hour walk when you’re not feeling great, versus a 5 minute flight. It wasn’t a difficult decision!
Admittedly the walk there is much more downhill, though that can be hard enough with the pounding it gives hips and knees, but when we walked back on Saturday I was immensely grateful I wasn’t in recovery from a walk in. More about that later.
The couple of days in Lapalama was quieter than expected with less fuss being made of our presence than promised. It turned out that we’d come in the middle of some intra-community and intra-church politics and power plays. The good thing was that it gave me some space to get over the cough. However, I hope that the politics are sorted out positively as one of the individuals primarily responsible for the airstrip being closed in 1995 is worming his way back into a position of authority in the community and church. While I got over the cough, Dave and a national doctor who’d come with us, ran some clinics in the local health centre.
********
Pastor Nana is one of the Baptist pastors in Lapalama, and it was he who led the delegation to Kompiam back in 2009 to meet Dave and myself when Nicki and I were staying with them then. I estimate him to be much the same age as myself, possibly a year or two older.
On Saturday he walked to Kompiam with us, for most of the trek carrying my pack (about 8kg) with a rope of bananas on top (about another 6-7kg). While I hauled myself up steep slopes, reliant on a stick as a third leg, or using both hands in more precipitous places, he simply walked up making it look like an afternoon stroll. After a bit more than 4 hours of trekking we reached the new road that’s being cut between Kompiam and, eventually, Hagen. A Landcruiser from the hospital had come to meet us and after a 25 minute drive we were back; the drive has cut another 4 hours off the original trekking time.
While I collapsed, Ps Nana had a drink, did some shopping, was driven back to the head of the trail and walked back the same afternoon. The physical fitness, endurance and sure-footedness of highlands people never ceases to amaze me. When we walked out we met people with loads or children on their backs traversing the steep narrow trails, and pregnant women who seemed to think nothing of the exertion.
********
In Kompiam we had a lovely couple of days with Dave & Karina. While Dave and I were away, Nicki had chatted with Karina about her offer to assist with Tok Pisin training for new MAF staff after we leave.
The local church gave us a lovely farewell on the Sunday, complete with a song sung by some young people especially for us, and in the afternoon we went for a swim in the local river accompanied by lots of local young people who climbed in the back of the Landcruiser for the short drive there and back.
The river was beautiful, refreshingly cool without being freezing and crystal clear with small fish in the shallows. A deep pool allowed the younger, braver people to jump off an overhanging rock. My best effort was to do a bomb off a lower rock, only to find the pool I jumped into wasn’t so deep. A bruise at the top of my rear end is still slightly tender – no jokes please about me being like a steam engine, it’s too old.
********
Back to work on Monday, flying back to Hagen at about 10 a.m., after taking part in the school assembly. Karina runs the school and asked us to tell the children a bit about our time in PNG.
And back to work it was. There have been some major maintenance challenges this week, which I’ve not been primarily responsible for sorting out, but still needed to be aware of what was going on. And then on Thursday Brad Venter came to Hagen and it was a case of transfer of controls: “Handing over”; “Taking over”; words that pilots are very familiar with.
I spent slightly over half a day briefing Brad on various issues he needs to be familiar with. On Friday I did his recurrency training and checks so he can fly again. Tomorrow, Monday, he’ll have sent out an email saying to everybody that he is back in role as Flight Operations Manager. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the job, but after six years in post, it isn’t all that easy to walk away and leave it to somebody else. For the next couple of months I’ll provide whatever support Brad needs and hopefully finish some fairly major projects and tidy up other loose ends.
Tempus fugit.
