The first night in Wewak we were amazed by the huge Flying Foxes (check out this post) but they soon left. It turns out they only show up here in April or May and leave around June and so every time they show up we know it’s been another year in Wewak. They make a crazy amount of noise and sound like guinea pigs fighting each other.
The bat swarm flies around every evening. This is from our back porch.
Weird Bug
Our missionary neighbors found this awesome looking bug. It gave me a chance to whip out my macro lens and my homemade macro flash hood I made from a white cardboard box. The cheap batteries only gave me about 25 shots before they died, but it was a good trial run.
Kids Playing
Climbing a tree doesn’t seem that significant but this occasion stuck out to me. This tree is beside the road that runs around the top of our little hill. We walk around it sometimes during cooler evenings. The last time he tried to climb this tree he got halfway up and freaked out. He was a blubbering mess and I remember being annoyed that I had to rescue him (proud dad moment). Fast forward two months and this time he scampered up the tree and then basically leaped off, all without interrupting his own commentary on dinosaurs. I was shocked. Who is this child? As is the case with younger siblings who want to follow their brothers everywhere but can’t, Oliver stood at the bottom and cried.Elliot dresses like he’s going into battle whenever he approaches the ocean. Local kids gotta think we’re so weird. All they need to go swimming is their birthday suit.Adi’s sitting on a log, eating a snack at Wom Beach.This is the play set at the bottom of the compound. “Look what I can do!” is usually what the kids say right before they get hurt. In this case, it’s what Adi said when she saw me holding a camera. You never know what you’ll find under this play set. Missing shoes, missing toys, broken styrofoam boxes, sticks, and anything else you can imagine.There’s an old tree at Wom Beach and the kids like to jump off of it.We found ourselves waiting in Port Moresby airport for several hours and so Oliver began stomping across an empty bench, passing the time pretending he’s a dinosaur or some other fearsome creature.
Around Town
There is a dirt road that runs around the perimeter of our peninsula and it offers some nice breezes and beautiful scenery. Also, an occasional drunk person.
Since we live right beside the ocean, and since the ocean has free food swimming around in it, it’s not uncommon to see people trying to catch that food.
This is Gary, a local policemen who tuns into a fisherman on is off days. He is using a traditional sea going canoe carved from a tree with a “saman” strapped to the side. Canoes used in rivers don’t have these.This lady is fishing with a string, no pole required. I pulled up on my kayak and asked her if I could take her picture. She responded by shooing all her children to the other side of the pier and then posing nicely without them. I thought it was pretty humorous. I do feel bad for people because they see my camera and assume that if I take their picture they will end up in the National Geographic and be famous. It usually doesn’t happen.Old fuel storage in the center of Wewak. This photo available on Shutterstock.These meri bluas were for sale along the road. I liked the color and the way the tropical breeze blew them around. This image available on Shutterstock.At first glance you may be under the assumption that this lady is winking at me. I thought she was too, but upon closer inspection there wasn’t anything scandalous going on. She’s actually a one-eyed market mama making “bilums.” A bilum is a woven bag that men and women wear all the time. They don’t leave home without them.Over the past few months they have closed the main road in Wewak town and did some construction work (read this blog post). This is a good thing because the road would get flooded with seawater which resulted in holes big enough to swallow things like axles and transmissions. They raised the road quite a bit and put up a seawall. Then they invited local artists to paint things on it.I’m no Marco Polo but I believe this is the view looking east from “Nambis Road.” You will often see commercial fishing trawlers or container ships anchored out there because the wharf is just off to the right of this picture. This is around 5:45 am. I was dropping a family off at the airport and brought my camera for a little extra excitement.
Haus Sik Patients
Finding patients at the Haus Sik can be challenging. The hospital has many different wards (each ward is in it’s own little building) and patients are moved around all the time. Some days it feels like we spend most of our time walking around with bewildered looks on our faces asking people if they know where other people are. It’s like a real life version of “Where’s Waldo?” except that in this version Waldo looks exactly like everyone else.
It can be tough to get our kids excited about visiting patients in the haus sik. Especially on days when we don’t feel like doing it either. However, a few weeks ago, we found these cheap Chinese “Lego” sets and bought a few to help our younger patients pass the time when they’re stuck in a bed. As we walked into the children’s ward, it occurred to me that Elliot could assemble the toy in front of them (they’ve never seen Legos before) so they could get the concept of clicking together bricks. And wouldn’t you know it, suddenly Elliot enjoyed the Haus Sik trip. And it dawned on me that instead of trying to make my little introverted children into Pentecostal evangelists, I could instead find ways for them to use their natural giftings to minister to other children, such as quietly assembling a Lego toy. It stands to reason that they’ll be more excited about doing so.Here we load a “belmama” (or pregnant mother) into P2-SAB. She was experiencing some complications and needed a ride to better facilities pronto!The “wasmeri” (A caretaker who comes with the patient to look after them during their stay in the Haus Sik) looked very concerned about flying in a plane. No amount of words could make it better. But that’s not unique to Papua New Guinea. My mom hates flying too.Teamwork! Loading meds for an aid station deep in the Sepik.
Pilot Piet
We’ve gotten to know a MAF pilot family here in Wewak. I can’t even pronounce their last names because they come from Holland and you need to be well hydrated to produce the sounds required. I’m also currently drinking coffee and don’t want to spit it all over my keyboard. MAF has their Cessna Caravan based at a hangar right across from ours so one day Piet came over and asked if someone would like to ride along with him to Ambunti to pick up some missionaries. We pick up a lot of patients from Ambunti and so I was happy for a chance to see this place first hand.
Piet, at the controls of P2-MEW.Dead ahead (pardon the phrase) is the Ambunti grass strip. When Samaritan Aviation lands here, we use the Sepik river running across the frame. Ambunti is home to a good health center and so a lot of people come from the surrounding areas and get referrals to the “big” hospital in Wewak. This is why we have so many flights from Ambunti – probably one a week on average.There are no roads connecting Ambunti to larger cities so I’m not sure how they got a Massey Furgeson here. They probably put it on a barge and chugged up the river for a week. I’m guessing it’s not a small investment of time or money to get a Massey Furgeson into Ambunti.
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