Cairns Vacation

On June 4 Bill and I flew to Cairns, Australia to meet up with our girls who were coming home for their summer break. We spent a wonderful week vacationing together before heading back to PNG.  

We started off at Mission Beach were we rented this lovely little cabin for 5 days. 

It has been six months since we last saw our girls and so we enjoyed just spending time together catching up more then anything else. 

Coconuts littered the beach so we decided to have a go at cracking some open.

Bill found the job exceedingly challenging with just a kitchen knife! 

The fibrous husk had to be removed before finally revealing the inner shell which then had to be cracked open. 

Hurrah! Success at last.  (We threw the rest of the coconuts away. Too much hard work!)

I found two things unique to Mission beach that I have never encountered before. One was live sand dollars. I have often found dead white ones on the beach while shell hunting, but never have I seen a live one before. There were hundreds of them burrowed down under the sand leaving little round lumps as a clue where they were hiding.  

The second were these crazy little crabs that apparently eat something nutritious in the sand (don’t ask me what!) and then spit out the remainder of the sand as little balls.  Even God’s creatures can be artists. These little crabs made gorgeous designs all over the beach. It was absolutely fascinating.

I bet you’ve never seen a sign like this in the states! Mission Beach is a sanctuary for the endangered Cassowary. 

We took a side trip to beautiful Murray falls.

Another great side trip was to Paronella Park built in the 1800’s by a wealthy Spaniard for his wife.  

This is in the rainforest and over time the buildings have been destroyed by floods and cyclones. It now resembles some kind of ancient ruins. It was actually very enchanting in its ruined state.

Part of his estate included this beautiful waterfall.

He planted over 7000 trees in his park! 

Paronella Park at night adds an entirely different dimension. 

The second half of our vacation was spent at Ellis Beach. 

Briana celebrated her 21^st birthday on June 10. Unfortunately she was getting sick, so instead of giving her the traditional birthday cake we opted for passion fruit instead. (She absolutely adores passion fruit before you feel too sorry for her.) 

As part of Briana’s birthday celebration we took a sailboat trip out to the Low Isles. 

To Bill’s delight he got to sit up next to the skipper and help out on occasion. 

The girls and I just enjoyed the ride.

Low Isles is home to this lighthouse.  It is a tiny little island.  Just to give you perspective you can walk around the entire island in less then 10 minutes. 

The snorkeling was not as spectacular as you would find out on the outer Great Barrier Reef but it did have some very nice soft corals. However, what it did have going for it were the sea turtles that came to feed on the corals. They were huge and totally awesome. They are just so graceful and nothing can compare to swimming with a turtle. 

Okay, for all you snorkel savvy people out there, what do these signs mean?  (Hint: From left to right-  “Help! Help!” “I need some assistance.” “Shark!!!”  “Are you OK?”)

Poor Betsy got caught by a dreaded salt-water crocodile.

Briana on the other hand was smart enough to read the “manual”.

Sabbath we visited the Cairns botanical gardens. They are fabulous. Besides having an abundance of exotic flowers, they seemed to specialize in “large”… 

Here you see Bill with a very large “pinecone”. 

The girls seeking cover under a leaf large enough to serve as an umbrella. 

Hiding behind a giant fern. 

Now this is what bamboo should look like! 

And so ended our vacation. It was a small taste of what heaven will be like; beautiful beyond description.

Medical Emergencies

Last Sabbath afternoon Roger received a phone call from the Minister of Disaster stating there was a medical emergency out on the remote little island of Wuvalu, which is about 130 miles off the coast from Wewak.  Apparently it had all started on the previous Tuesday when a group of villagers had been out fishing and had caught a very large fish.  That evening about a dozen of them feasted on their catch – the only problem is that the fish apparently ended up being toxic and before the night was over 6 of them were in a coma! There are only two little villages on this island with no phone service, no scheduled air service, not even regular boat service, but they do have a nurse who runs a small clinic. How was she to get word out that she  needed help?  Thankfully the very next day someone just by chance happened by in a boat,  turned right around, and traveled  back to a place where he could send out a call for help.

The Minister of Disaster is responsible for organizing responses to such situations. However, protocol states that the Defense Force be the first try.  There was only one problem.  The Defense Force doesn’t have any aircraft capable of landing on this island except for a helicopter which didn’t have the necessary fuel range. After messing around for several days  and never ending up with any action, the Minister of Disaster finally called AAS in desperation to see if we could be of any help. It was too late in the day to head out but early Sunday morning Bill and Roger were on their way to Wuvalu.

One hour later they landed in Wewak just long enough to pick up a doctor and medical attendant then continued on for another hour across the ocean to the little island of Wuvalu. 

While there were many villagers on hand to welcome them, they had to wait for another hour for all the patients to get rounded up and carried to the airplane.  It was an extremely hot day and the villagers eagerly sought refuge from the sun under the airplane wings.

By this point (almost a week after the event) two of the patients were making a reasonable recovery, one more had just “woken up” from his coma but was still very much neurologically impaired, while the other three were still in a deep coma.  The villagers were very creative and made this elaborate stretcher out of boards which they perched on top of 6 bicycles. 

They then placed the patients on top of mattresses placed on the boards and ceremoniously wheeled them from the village to the airstrip.  I have seen many improvised stretchers over the years but this was a first. 

You can see two of the patients laying on their mattresses being carefully protected from the hot sun by umbrellas.

Unfortunately we do not have a beautifully set up air ambulance airplane like Bill is accustomed to flying in the States.  This airplane is multifunctional, from hauling cargo, to transporting mission workers, to serving as an ambulance.  So you just make the best with what you have. The patients were placed on their mattresses directly on the floor with IV’s hanging from cargo hooks. Primitive to be sure, but life saving nonetheless.  

Here you see the Doctor attending to her patients and making sure they are ready for the flight.

Soon Bill and Roger  were on their way back to Wewak. You see the patients with the Doctor and health workers in the back of the airplane.  The young girl you see sitting at the front is the first victim to come out of her coma and appeared to be almost fully recovered.

Arriving back in Wewak.

The guys had asked flight service to arrange for an ambulance and miracle of miracles, it was actually waiting on the ramp.

Now you must understand that the ambulance was nothing more than a Toyota Landcruiser with the word “ambulance” painted on the outside.  No equipment, nothing of any kind on the inside, just an empty floor in back to place the patients.

The patients were unloaded from the airplane cocooned inside their mattresses and placed on the floor of the ambulance. (Notice the IV left lying beside the patient instead of being hung up where it can gravity feed. Hmmm…)

Surprise! Somebody finally managed to come up with a proper stretcher.  The last report we received is that two of the three who are still in a coma seem to be coming out of their coma. They were starting to respond to painful stimuli. However, one woman still remains in a deep coma. We are praying for a good outcome for all of them.

Unfortunately you win some and you loose some.  The very next day AAS received another medical emergency call asking for one of our SDA school teachers to be flown out who was critically ill. Before AAS could arrange the flight a call came back saying the man had passed away.  So instead of experiencing the joy of possibly saving another life, we had the sad task of flying the coffin and family back to his home village for a funeral.  However, the important thing is that we are here to minister through the good and the bad - to share in their laughter and in their tears.