Eleven days after collapsing, the bridge on the Highlands Highway connecting us to our main suppliers was opened. A semi-truck with an over-sized load hit the side rail and the bridge collapsed. We had plenty of fuel for the generator but there were some shortages in local markets and the clinic ran out of liquid nitrogen.
It did not impact me personally other than it was so quite without the trucks going by in the early morning. The missionaries that live down the hill closer to the highway use subtitles on the TV due to the noise from the road when they are watching movies. I use subtitles when the kids here are riding their motorbikes and during heavy rain storms.
We had a missionary lady from a Swiss mission come to the clinic this week with dengue fever. She was very, very sick! She stayed in our guest house and we would get her in the van when she needed to come to the clinic. Her husband and children stayed as well. I have learned that domestic violence goes both ways in this country. A man whose wife had broken his finger came into the clinic.
Polygamy is very common here. Our work meri at the clinic is one of two wives. It is really hard to identify immediate family members of our patients at the clinic. They have a strong sense of family. They will often call their uncle, “dad,” and a child “belongs” to other people in addition to the parents. One local woman told a missionary that the missionary’s sister who was having her fourth child needed to give the baby to the missionary because she did not have any children. That is what would happen in her tribe. (Okay siblings, where is my baby?) Also, many of the national patients do not know their birthday. They sometimes can tell you how about how many Christmases they have had in their lives.
You really don’t see starvation in this country because of the gardens and because they take of the people in their tribes and of their “wontoks” (friends). I don’t completely understand the wontok system. But I think that things are not given to anyone without the expectation of reciprocation. I have been told not to accept anything for free because they will eventually come expecting something in return for the thing they gave to you.
Bud and Bonnie took me to eat dinner at Pacific Gardens where we had a nice dinner and interesting conversation about the US healthcare system and the needs here at the clinic in Lapilo.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'” Matthew 25: 35-40
Shirley Falls - Connecting You to Tribal Missions in Papua New Guinea
