I flew into Papua New Guinea two weeks ago and am sitting with a cuppa on our medical ship. Our ship is up out of the water (dry dock) undergoing repairs and routine maintenance, so my current view involves a couple of different ships and a lot of metal. My ‘office’ has been a table in our lounge area, and I’ve watched ships be painted, moved and relaunched from my desk in the changing scenery out the window which is the dockyard.
It’s been a busy but not too busy first two weeks in PNG, and things have been nicely churning along getting prepared for outreach (outreach = block of time where we go out and do medical clinics in villages). My little team of three who I flew to PNG with have all cleared quarantine (I got my first nasopharyngeal swab for the COIVD test required at the end of quarantine; ‘insert until you meet resistance’ on the swab instructions definitely has more meaning when it’s your own nose involved), and our second group of people from our base in Townsville joined us earlier this week.
This second group will complete our medical team for the time being, minus the local health workers we will partner with in the field. It honestly feels a little strange to have us all here at a place we’ve been working, praying and planning towards for a long time, but it’s certainly a good sort of strange.
(From left to right: Travelling up to PNG, out ship at dry dock, and the view from the window on descent into Port Moresby)
O N T H E A G E N D A
The reason we’re all now positioned in PNG is the recommencement of medical outreaches, and my pace of life will change just a little bit this coming week as we fly out to Western Province to get this underway!
We’ll be one of two medical teams heading out (our Rural Health and Advance First Aid course students who have been training at our campus in Port Moresby will also be heading out), and these will be the first medical outreaches we’ve been able to do in PNG since we had to bring our ship back to Townsville last year because of the pandemic. Which is kind of a big deal.
W H A T I ‘ L L B E D O I N G
While getting essential health services to rural and remote locations can be difficult in PNG in regular times, the pandemic has compounded many of these challenges as resources have been redirected and redistributed. My team will be heading up to Lake Murray to join with the local health care workers for patrol (going village to village conducting clinic) for the provision of essential maternal and child health services (think routine childhood immunisations, well baby clinic, family planning, antenatal checks).
Please be praying for safety in our travel, wisdom and flexibility in these coming weeks as we conduct clinic, especially as this is the first clinic we will navigate during COVID-19 times.
PS: If you have any questions for me about what I’m up to or what I have been up to please reach out – I’d love to chat with you!