Sunday, July 5, 2009

Road Trip

I just found out that my blog from last week never posted, so here it is. I
have not changed the time references, so they all refer to the week previous
to this.

This week, I took a brief trip out of Kiari for the first time in a little
over a month. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Ben Ritschard was visiting
us for a week, so it was time to get him back to his family. The easiest and
most economical way is to drive to Nomane, the nearest airstrip and put him
on an airplane that we booked to come get him. It had been raining quite a
bit, so we were a bit concerned about the condition of the road. In the
event of road difficulties, Brother Randy asked 6 national guys to come
along to help pull/dig us out if we got stuck anywhere. We left about 7:30am
and made it safely to Nomane with only minor incidents (got stuck twice,
truck quit once, etc.). I wish I could post video from the trip as it is
almost impossible to describe. I was standing up in the back of the pickup
truck holding onto the roll bar. Ben was standing next to me and five of the
guys were sitting either in the bed of the truck or perched on the sides.
There was breathtaking scenery as far as we could see in every direction.
The road is pretty narrow, so you could reach out and touch the side of the
mountain on one side and the other side was a steep drop into the valley.
The road is dirt, of course, or actually more better described as mud and
clay. We cross numerous stream beds and small rivers. The basic pattern
involves a steep climb to the top of a mountain where there is a village,
then a steep descent to a water of some nature, then another steep ascent,
and so on. There are 4-5 major villages between us and Nomane, all without
any Bible preaching church. Very sobering!

At any rate, we arrived safely at Nomane and waited for the plane. To make
the most economical use of the plane, Brother Randy had left some supplies
from his last town trip to come out to us on this flight. In addition, the
Ritschards (who are planning a furlough sometime late this fall) took the
opportunity to send out some of their animals for some national Christians
to care for in their absence. After a bit of a wait, the plane arrived. Of
course, this is not the paved runways and busy airports of America. It is a
long grass strip framed by large white cones to mark it from the air. The
pilot circled the strip first to check for any issues, then landed and
taxied to the side where we were all standing. The guys with us helped
unload all the cargo including the animals. Then Ben got on the plane as
well as five little kids who their aunt was sending to Goroka to their
parents.

We loaded the truck with, starting at the cab, approximately 500 lbs of
supplies wrapped in a tarp and tied to the rollbar, the spare tire (also
tied), two goats, eight people (including me), and two pigs. Needless to
say, the ride home was a bit crowded. The goats were pretty sedate. One of
them laid with his/her head on my foot for about half the trip (better than
later when it turned around and tried to sit on me). The pigs on the other
hand were not happy at all and one of them kept trying to bite one of the
guys. We got home about 3:30 that afternoon.

Well, that was most of the excitement for the week. There have been a lot of
people for clinic lately. 25 on Friday and 24 today (Monday). Even my clinic
helper was sick, so Susanna, the Smith's oldest daughter, came down and
helped me. I had a 10 year old girl come on Friday who had basically impaled
her leg on a fence. (They're constructed of sharpened posts held together by
vines.) She had large flap on her upper thigh that took about 2 hours to sew
up. She came back today for a recheck and it seems to be doing alright, but
I'm still a bit concerned. It was very dirty and rather deep, so it will be
a real blessing if it doesn't get infected. On Wednesday, one of the
national ladies from church brought her 1 year old son. His older brother
(6-7) had been cutting firewood and the smaller boy got his hand in the way
and was cut. It really needed to be sutured, but there was no way to
restrain him adequately. In a stateside ER, he would have been sedated while
the doctor sewed him up, but I just am not equipped for that. I ended up
steristripping it and wrapping it very well. He came back on Friday and it
seemed to be knitting together all right.

Well, I'd better close this epistle for now. Thanks so much for your
prayers. The Lord continues to give safety and wisdom in answer to your
petitions.

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