Paul's PNG Mission Trip - Ep 10

[pandrews]

(June 2nd, 2010)

Life in Kaiam is seldom dull with equipment failures (bearings, tires,
and gears) and the repairs. Likewise it's always interesting to see
whom of the locals is around at any given time to help with the
physical
labor that needs to be done. In my six weeks here, the able bodied
people have fluctuated from one sole worker to nearly two dozen
willing
workers.

Why such a large change from day to day and week to week? Most of the
people that come here to work do not live "in town" if you can call it
that. They and their families may walk eight hours or more through
the
jungle in order to come to the airstrip location. That's quite a
commute. Usually they travel on Sunday to Kaiam, work during the
week,
and walk back starting on Friday morning giving them Saturday at home
to
take care of the chores and get their supply of food gathered for the
next week at Kaiam, which they will carry with them. This is a huge
undertaking. And what is their reward for this grueling schedule?
Medical care including malaria drugs, bandages and a health worker to
administer simple medical procedures as well as promise of education
for
their children and access to the rest of the world with the eventual
completion of an airstrip.

On Friday, Anton and I will take the two day journey back down the
river
to Munduku for a Monday MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) flight that
will take us back to Mt. Hagen for a two hour drive down a bumpy road
to
Mambis. Left at Kaiam will be three people that are working with us
to
complete the airstrip: Peter, Kepson, and Boaz. These guys have been
coming and going from Kaiam for a few years now since the beginning of
the project. After spending between six to twelve weeks at Kaiam,
they
will take their own three day journey back to their families, stay
with
them for just a couple weeks, and then head back to Kaiam.

All this travel time gives one plenty of thinking time. One of the
common topics is what the rest of the world might be doing at the same
time as I'm bouncing down the runway with a tractor bucket full of
soil,
or floating down a river in a dugout canoe, or attempting to restrain
myself from scratching the aggravated bug bites on my extremities. It
slowly dawns on me from time to time that I live in the remote jungle
that most of the rest of the planet only experiences on an episode of
'Planet Earth'. The 'savages' that inhabit these places are my
friends
and I wash in the river while their kids show off by vaulting their
naked bodies off of rocks into the shallow stream. Living in Mambis
is
certainly experiencing a different country and culture, but living in
Kaiam is living in a different time.

I wouldn't call it a simpler time because building a jungle 'haus win'
is not an activity that I'd be able to complete as I lack any
knowledge
about what materials to use and how to acquire them. Nor would I be
able to put forth the physical effort required due to the heat of the
day. The God given knowledge and skills acquired in the bush allow the
people that possess them to live here much as they have for thousands
of
years.

I look forward to returning to Mambis and the modern facilities there.
Meanwhile I will have first hand glimpse of the way that the people of
this different time have lived throughout history. Papua New Guinea,
and the bush in particular, is not something that is easily described
to
someone who has not experienced it first hand, but it certainly is an
extraordinary experience.

Paul Andrews
http://zloof.blogspot.com/
http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=14786