Good Bye Papua New Guinea

Well, this is it. Thank you for those of you who have been praying for me. Without your prayers I couldn't have done it. Thank you for all the emails and encouragement. Now there's two doctors, Dr. Valerie and Gary (Papua New Guinean doctor). So it's time for me to go home and see my husband. So hopefully I'll see you guys soon in London!!!! Once again thanks for your support.

Singing

Singing with Papua New Guineans is inspirational. This is fellowship meeting during the week at the hospital. All of the people are staff and family and they are singing in Pidgin. Enjoy!

In the jungle

I spent several hours with a PNG family going into the jungle or 'the bush' as they call it. While digging for bushhen egg, we encountered this turantula.


This is the boat ride to 'the bush'. In the background, you can hear Isaac's family speaking Pidgin and of course you hear the engine for the boat. 'The bush' is as virgin as it gets. Interestingly there are no monkeys. I know they have wild boar, snakes, turantula of course, lots of butterflies and birds.


Above is a picture of Esther as she gathered firewood 'in the bush' for cooking


Above is a picture of Isaac and Esther's family in the neighboring village


Isaac's family. I find this picture endearing.

Clinical cases

Above is a picture of a middle age lady who presented with foot drop. As you can see she has some skin lesions which was treated for fungal infection but never got better. She has leprosy. She took 3 months medication but never came back for more. Then she came back again only because her husband was very sick. Now the whole family is on TB medication. Her husband has 2-3 wives. That is quite common to find a man having several wives. One patient I had was the 7th wife.


Above is a closeup picture of a 10 year old girl who has had years of scabies. It seemed like almost all the patients have scabies. You know in GP land in London, a small skin lesion comes up and everyone jumps up and down, but here it's so common that if you don't have any skin lesion then you're abnormal. I was abnormal when I arrive but now I've got all these mosquito bites, and I think there is a bed bug in the bed. Now I also developed all these bites on my trunk. I was in denial and thought initially it was just mosquitoes that somehow found it's way on my abdomen and back but now every morning I get more bites on my body so I know it's either scabies or some other bed bug. Now I look like any other person in PNG. I've gotten over very quickly on examining someone with scabies. Now I can even examine a hairy smelly man's armpit without wearing gloves. I'm very proud of myself for that actually. Sometimes there is just no gloves lying around.


The above picture shows two brothers. One is 3 years old and the other is 5 months old. You could probably figure out which is the sick one. Despite being breast fed and it seemed like he is always hungrily breast feeding, and also feeding additional food, he is still not gaining weight. Oh and of course he is on TB meds as well and if it's TB he should be putting one weight by now. Next we're going to counsel mom and get permission to do an HIV test to see if that is cause why he is not putting any weight despite all the feeding.

Vehicle in Kikori

Above is the picture of the truck I use to go to the oil company. It was donated by somebody and it is old but it still runs. To get it started, first I need to get a few strong men to push the truck everytime I start the truck. Then the part when you change gears keeps pulling off, and if I'm lucky it will go back into the right place so that I can change the gear properly. Or I try to stick to one gear..........


Above is Father Paul from the catholic church. He has a better and 'cooler' vehicle. He also runs an HIV counselling and testing clinic paid by the catholic church.

Market and Store

Above is a picture of the market place. Anybody can sell anything here at anytime. No license needed. The market is right by the banks of the river so people come by their canoe to shop or to sell.


Above is a picture of some crabs being sold. There are plenty of crabs and they are cheap--something like 30p per crab.


Above is the picture of the biggest and main store in Kikori. It's quite a dismal place, it has an oppresive feeling when you enter. In this picture it looks bright but I think it's the camera and the flash. In reality, there are no windows to this place, all the goods are behind bars. So you go to the bar counter (kinda like the bank in the developed world where you cannot get to the person behind the glass or bars in this case) and point or tell the person behind what you want. This is the affect of poverty. The reason they cannot have a normal grocery store is that people will steal. The person who run this store is a white Australian and she is one hard woman. They have guns to protect themselves. The delta store has a generator that provides electricity all the time. When you go on the river, it's quite a good landmark because you know you're in Kikori from the store.


Above is a picture of the only TV in town. It is owned by the Delta store and this is right outside the store. See how the TV caged.

Playtime

This is what you do when you don't have TV, XBox or computer.




Above is a machete used by everyone including kids. Not only do they use during meal time, looking for food but play items for kids. The first week I was here, I saw a 3 year old boy carrying a machete in the corridor, I got the machete out of his hands and handed it to his parents. But minutes later, the boy had the machete in his hands again. The parents thought why is the doctor taking the machete away from his hands. Interestingly you would have thought there are more accidents but they learn at a young age how to handle this sharp object. There are no lawn mowers here in PNG, they use the machete to mow their lawn. I've seen kids as young as 6 years old being put to use and helping out with house chores such as mowing their lawn with this machete. It's hard work. I can't be bothered to cut the grass by the house I'm staying in. Nature shall take it's course.