PNG May – July 2014 #2 Still in PNG and now 3 weeks and only 4 weeks to go and much left to do and most are exciting with a few exception such as releasing a guard at the Medical Clinic/Birthing Center. It seems that his arrival at work is random but never early and his departure is random but always early. So what does one do in three weeks…I did report about the first 10 days and if you would like a copy of that send me a brief note and I will send you one unless the first print edition is sold out which is highly unlikely. I have walked many miles at 5,500 feet elevation and a few simple walk hikes up to 6,000 feet in this Garden of Eden. We have had many lovely sun filled days which are great to get the coffee cherries to turn from green to yellow to red and then a dark purple and if you wait too long to pick them to black. Red and purple is the right color to pick. The harvest is in full swing and all focus is on getting the cherries to our mill before they are swiped by coffee thieves. The price of coffee cherries is very high at the moment so the thieves are many and brazen so it is a race. On one day a team of thieves got 1.50 metric tons (3000 lbs.) and slashed down 70 + coffee trees but that was highly unusual. However we are praying for honest people who respect other people’s proprieties. Changed hearts and minds are the only real solution for PNG and anywhere for that matter. There was a noteworthy skirmish and one got his foot hurt bad enough to go to hospital for surgery. The thieves attached our guards when they tried to stop the stealing the various parties are working out compensation for injury vs. loss of property. Aarlie’s mantra for the rest of this year is PICK, PROCESS, PROTECT…great words and being done well. Lance and Linda Fletcher were able to be part of the crowd in the grandstand for this event while they were here for fun and R & R. The real reason was so Lance could work on The Rotary PNG Madan Water & Sanitation Project which is sponsored by our home Rotary Club in Centralia and we are working with the Mt Hagen RC in PNG as the host club. Lance led the charge and together we made great progress because of his work, direction and clear organized thinking and keeping me in line. Many reports and documents were submitted and improved by people back home in Rotary (Barbara & Andy Greatwood and Bob Wubbena). Our plan and direction has a clear focus and we will be successful to provide clean water and proper sanitation over several years for 40,000 people and with special attention to needs of the children and women. Linda and Aarlie worked on women and children’s issues especially education, status of women and helped select a curriculum for water & sanitation in the schools and community centers where we will place equipment for clean water and proper sanitation. We do have to admit that being with some of our very best friends was just plain fun, inspiring and spiritual helpful to us all. Don’t get the idea we didn’t work hard because we did so double our salaries! As I look through my Daily Diary from 26th to today the most exciting event was the visit of Lance and Linda so other than that it will become very repetitive and can be summed up in a few words which will never work for me so I will use far more than necessary: • PEE, POOP & SOAP are the words of sanitation where and how do you take care of waste and make CREATION CARE A TRUE REALITY. Many wise people say how dumb can the developed world be to take the best, cleanest water possible and Pee & Poop in it and send it back to the earth far worse than we received it. In addition to that we add chemicals, toxic waste of all sorts of bad junk into our waste water and in short we are destroying God’s Creation a world and universe of splendor that was given to us to protect and enjoy. o Articles, journals, consultation, diagrams, engineer reports, common sense discussion with knowledgeable people in WASH (water, sanitation & hygiene) world have given us a mandate to change what we can with baby steps but yet in PNG it will be dramatic giant steps o In a society where for thousands of years and generations the population has dealt only with biodegradable God made material, o Now they are left with the highest infant and maternal mortality rate in all of the Pacific Countries o TO MAKE IT SIMPLE we must start with Sanitation (pee, poop, soap, hygiene) and Clean Water o Water is easy as we have >10 feet of annual rain fall in our region SO rain water harvest is simple (Dr Becky Morsch told me that 5 years ago) o Community by community center this will be done and same for school by school o Must teach sanitation and hygiene in all schools, all communities and groups that is culturally acceptable , age and language appropriate and repeat the teaching again and again and again o Women and moms will be the key as they have a huge desire for health of children and families • Excitement has begun two schools are nearly completed save for good curriculum development but with some adaptation of the curriculum from Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Community Based Health Care (CBHC) and the work of the Mt Hagen Rotary Club we are well on our way. • WATER IS SIMPLE o Harvest it clean, store it clean, dispense it clean o With multiple buildings on and around the plantation area with rain water harvest, good distribution and interconnection from all or our sources many 1000’s of people will drink the simple clean water o One task will be to keep all water infra-structure in top operational condition • Miseries of Measles, Malaria and other maladies including TB and the usual infection, infection and infections of PNG. We are in midst of a measles epidemic and a frantic widespread immunization campaign is going on everywhere in PNG. Five cases to our clinic alone in the last week. Yesterday our clinic immunized 120 kids in tent in the middle of the coffee plantation…please go to Aarlie’s Facebook for great pictures. Two of our managers are being evaluated for possible malaria but I refuse to believe that for now till there is proof positive • Madan Clinic and Birthing Center now has two new medical staff after one retired and one was making use of clinic funds for private purposes. We are happy with current staff and now moving forward with strength and making a difference in our area of service. • 3 Pairs of socks and 3 pairs of underwear have walked or jogged away and left me doing laundry every day. We make a point of leaving all we need at the plantation and apparently someone needed plates, towels, big cooking utensils, spoons, knives and on and on…Aarlie was rightfully upset and how do you think I felt with such great loss??? • Monocular Vision I broke one of my rules never have one of anything as I do not have glasses but rather a glass as I sat on my lovely new glasses and broke the frame so the R lens will not stay and it cannot be taped and it cannot be fixed here without grinding my lens down to fit other frames…but with tri-focal I did not want to chance that. Now I can almost claim disability status my brain is doing fairly well to adapt to fuzzy vision in one eye and clear in the other • Snakes, mice and other creatures nothing much nicer than finding a snake slinking and sliding around in your bathroom and a mouse swimming for dear life in the toilet bowl. Note to self be sure to use your headlight before you go to the bathroom after dark. Cockroaches can stay as long as they pay rent each fortnight. • Schools Shut downs for Funerals which cannot be good for the students as they stretch out to 4 day events. Problem is that the process after a death can be very elongated for some days and with 4000 people in our area instead of 1000 few years ago there are far too many days lost for education for the kids when most are not connected closely to vast majority of those who die…might know them slightly. This is placed on the back of students that are in classes of 40 -80 with one teacher and get only 3 hours of teaching on the best of days • PNG POWER IS OFF and we need to mill coffee and get in bags and on the boat for our great customers. We need to become a solar powered plantation as the cost of electricity is extravagant here but we still like when it is on…expensive is better than noon. Dean and LD come and visit us and design a system for us and you can deduct your travel expenses. • Lovely Saturday morning (7 June) and several lady guest from Mt Hagen will come and visit Aarlie today and check out the excitement of Madan Coffee & Tea Plantation and also our humanitarian projects…join us for the world’s best coffee which may be cold without power…but still good
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 10:00:32 +0000
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