Taking it EASY...

Well, I'm crappy at blog posting..I said I was going to post once a month but its been two months since my last blog post..

It's not so bad living in a small town like this and being able to go home to the village when the mood takes me but this town seems to exist in a place that time forgot. I tune the radio and all I get is chinese radio channels apart from wantok radio light, occasional 100FM and sometimes Radio Sandaun or Radio Fly.The food on the shelves have indonesian sub-titles and the plane comes here only three times a week from Port Moresby. I've even forgotten what EMTV is like since we only watch Kundu2 here (when there is power).

I phoned home to the folks in Lae (note: Lae is home also) the other day and everyone was going on about LegendFM. First question to them: What is LegendFM? To be greeted with uproars of laughter and then empathy at my predicament (Turangu, she lives in Vanimo). I recieve a phone call from my old company and promised to read an email which is difficult without power. It's been two days since they sent the email apparently...

I'm back to ferrying water up flights of stairs due to the power shortage which lasts days on end and eating vegetarian meals because I can't store protein in a fridge that isn't working...But it's okay, you see..

My last job involved daily emails flying back and forth, daily reports to people as far away as Sydney and USA, conference calls spanning continents and the constant buzz of phone lines. My clinic shook everyday from the noise of overhead helicopters. It's nice to wake up in the morning to the sound of crashing waves on the beach and listen to little birds arguing in the roof gutter. Its nice to come to work and be greeting by smiles, greenery and the sound of children laughing in the corrider. It's nice to run on Vanimo time..

So here I am, taking it EASY so to speak.....

Ode to a texting fool

Miss calling and texting like you know me
Had you ID yourself I might not have brought you down
Sadly you crossed the line when you claimed I told you I was fat with a tait ass
So of course I had to bring you down

So I text back like I'm a dude
And you start doubting yourself
And my sis calls you to reduce you to dust for texting her 'small bro'
And you start to waiver in your confidence

And yet you still text me saying I'm a woman
So I ask didn't my sister make it clear enough to you?
And yet you continued the gay coversation
Hence my text: Batz, gay pasin stopim, painim meri na stap

Your reply: Bats ol ba kism pan blo ol mkim na mi ksm tok2x natin
Tsk tsk tsk, now your completely backtracking
And now for round two, my sister rings you again
To 'apologise' in case your her 'small brother's mate'

You state you randomly text the phone
And that you've already deleted the number
You sound fully sober and we hear remorse in your voice
We also catch the accent, highly unmistakable

So to 'Peter in Rabaul'
You are so not there
And I am so not male
But you started it

Never randomy pick up numbers of women
And think its okay to text them repeatedly
Never think its okay to describe them
Never underestimate her capabilities

Today you feel foolish
And this is my somewhat public apology you will never see
So, to the texting fool
Think twice next time and just say who you are.

PS. Your way off, I'm 15 kilos lighter than I used to be, fool. I won't comment on the ass:P
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

Waiting on the world to change

Its been a while since I wrote anything on this blog, so much has happened...

Human nature rears its ugly head when you least expect it. Tired, emotional and unable to write about it on this blog, I choose to reflect on work while waiting on the world to change. John Mayer sure can sing the right songs.

Accident and emergency medicine has brought back the spark of love I had for this job. One I thought was fading fast. Everyday brings new patients, new cases, people who cross my path perhaps only once for the rest of their lives.

Along with it you see the heartache, people struggling to survive, women who sit shaking with fear in their eyes, badly bruised, victims of domestic violence.

Then there are moments where you can't help but smile such as a small child peers around a corner as his mother waits to pick his prescription, pure mischief on his face.

Time seems to speed up sometimes, patients become a constant blur of sound and color. And then there are times when you feel the world come to a standstill as you break bad news.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

What you speaking now? - Language mishaps in a border town

"Dua Minggu" I learned means two weeks in Bahasa Indonesia. Two weeks till I review a patient who lives on the Indonesian side of the divide in a place called Arso. A statement I had to get another patient to translate with a lot of hand signals and smiles.

I am multi-lingual, a side effect of being Papua New Guinean, although not as well as most. I am fluent in English and Tok Pisin and understand enough to get by with my mother's people here but oh, now I need to learn Indonesian, so the next time an old man blurts out his heartfelt thanks in Bahasa Indonesia for helping him, I hope to reply in his tongue and make him smile.

Vanimo is a border town on the coast near Indonesia. People flock here to go shopping at the border (batas in Indonesian) from all parts of Sandaun province and neighboring East Sepik after the road was opened (see a previous post on my road trip). But there is also reverse migration from Indonesia of people seeking treatment in PNG and PNG folk living in Indonesia traveling back for treatment in PNG. Hence I now am on a quest to learn enough Indonesian so I don't look like a flapping bird making hand gestures to get my message across.

Embarrassingly enough, sometimes the patient will patiently watch my flapping hand gestures, smile and then begin a conversation in Tok Pisin. So now I begin my routine by trying tok pisin, then English before resorting to disjointed Bahasa with flapping hands as an encore.

My eventual aim is to be able to write a whole blog post in Bahasa Indonesia to show off my new found brilliance and to perfect my flapping hands technique (why does it remind me of spirit fingers from cheerleader movies?????).
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

Bursting water pipes and other disasters of a small town existance - recent events

Okay, so I never said the transition was going to be easy from private practice back to the public sector and I knew a small town would have its setbacks, but its on days like this I start to see the value of waiting before jumping head first into this.

I am residing in a newly built kit home, basically a bungalow on stilts with a million dollar view of the ocean; drawback is that I wonder where the building inspector was when it was commisioned. In the middle of a nap, I heard gushing under the house, worst of all its hot water from a pipe that has come apart. Luckily, there are plumbers on hand who are working on the house next door and are able to fix the problem ASAP. Bad luck is that a second hot water pipe decides to come apart at the joint after the plumber has knocked off for the day. All I can do now is turn the water pump and the main tap and wait the two days till Monday for someone to come and fix the problem. In the meantime, I shall be ferrying water up the stairs from the laundry for cooking and other essential purposes including the odd nature call situation.

Another thing about small towns, you can't find certain things that in the city you wouldn't think twice about having around the house. You see, when I packed to come here, I did not think of purchasing stick on hooks or double sided tape. I now have paintings I can't hang (and therefore are still in bubble wrap), picture frames gathering dust and lovable old wall clock my brother gave me for a childhood birthday that is still in the box. I also can't seem to find a location to get a decent bottle of wine without being the topic of conversation with everyone that meets me.

But hey, I wake up every morning and watch the sunrise and know its going to be a brighter day because I am optimistic that this city girl will learn to tolerateif not like the slow pace.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Digicel Pacific

Forgotten paths

So I decided to take a trip to Vanimo, located on the northern end of the PNG - Indonesian border. Typically I would fly to Port Moresby and then via Wewak. I decided it was time to change the way I travel so decided to do an epic trip... Lae to Madang by PMV, Ship from Madang to Wewak and then Wewak - Aitape - Vanimo by road....

I am back from that trip and here are a few observations/rules:

1. Ship igo, sepik igo (If the ship is going to East Sepik, sepiks will definetaly be on board) - packed like sardines in a small ship, sharing laughs with random strangers all trying to get home to East Sepik from Madang. Having never been on a passenger ship for that long period of time (the last trip I did was five hours from Lae to Finschafen)  and previously always travelling by plane, I was a little alarmed at first but my cousin summed it up by saying - well, now you know how the rest of PNG travels...


View of the bay, Wewak


2. Dad's little lecture on 'wantok system (nepotism) and networking' always pays off when your in a bind - I'm always onto dad about how much time and energy he spends feeding the bottomless pit (as I put it) of wantok system but people he knew helped out with getting from Wewak to Vanimo as the PMV's are few and far between still.




Many rivers to cross, road to Vanimo

 

Down a dirt road

3. Building a permanent road from Wewak to Aitape and Aitape to Vanimo is going to win someone an election someday or guarantee a second term in office...Why? This is a major undertaking, jokes aside...Not only does the road need to be sealed, you have to take into account the swamps, the weather and the many rivers you would have to build bridges across to get to Vanimo in one piece. I look forward to the idea of cruising on a sealed highway from Wewak to Vanimo, perhaps that would justify me getting a Mercedes. Over to you Mr Somare...

4. There is beauty everywhere....

5. If you wake up early enough, you will definetaly watch the sunrise....