"BATS"

Hello Friends and Family,

Tyronza and Scot are back in Papua New Guinea and safe. The trip over was uneventful, just long, (St. Louis-Salt Lake-Los Angeles-Brisbane-Port Moresby-Mt. Hagen-Kudjip). Total air time was a little over 24 hours. We left on August 25^th and arrived in Kudjip on the 27^th. We are both healthy and doing well.

PNG is much the same as before, but in Kudjip things have really changed. The hydro-generator is up and running and we have no more power spikes or outages of electricity. I would say that, so far, electricity seems as dependable as in the USA.

Surgery and Labor/Delivery are running smoothly. We have no general surgeon, at the current time, so there is no competition for surgical time, but I have to do some cases that the general surgeon would ordinarily do. So far, I have had 8 major cases in the first one and a half weeks.

Today, I would like to talk to you about fruit bats. PNG is a tropical country and there are many banana, pineapple, mango, papaya, sweet fruit, guava and passion fruit growing. Because of all this fruit, there are many fruit bats. On the coast, fruit bats often sleep in large groups in certain trees.

It is customary, in PNG, to store bananas out on the porch hanging from a rope. This cuts down on fruit flies in the house. Usually, you try to cover the bananas with a cloth to protect them from sun, insects, and bats. We have stored our bananas this way all the other times we have been here and never had problems with bats – until now. Our usual cover is an old tee shirt with the neck and sleeves sowed closed. This bag can be opened and bananas added or removed as needed. Imagine my surprise when I went to get bananas for breakfast and found most of them half eaten. I was not sure what the culprit was. When I asked the locals, they said bats wouldn't come on the porch and most felt it was likely the work of a rat. (That didn't make Tyronza too happy!) That next night I decided to wait up and catch the thief. Once it was dark, I heard wings and knew it was really bats!

Some quick camera work caught these two photos. These guys were large – at least two feet from wing tip to wing tip.
When we showed the pictures to Lena, our haus meri, she called then flying foxes and wanted to know whey I was taking pictures instead of clubbing them for her supper!

The next day, I tried tying the bottom of the bag shut, but that night the bats just sucked the bananas through the cloth! I am now storing my bananas in a cardboard box on the porch. This seems to be working.

So long from this strange and interesting place,

The Stork