PNG Adventure Continues

Today is Sunday March 20th, and we have been in Papua New Guinea for more than three weeks. The days are going by quickly, Scot is at the hospital each day. He is seeing quite a variety of patients: many tubal pregnancies, many tumors, 3-4 TB patients every day, 2-3 malaria patients daily, has delivered 2 patients with HIV, several C sections, one set of twins, and has had one fetal demise - there is no fetal respirator. He is also beginning to spend time in the ER stitching up machete wounds. Unfortunately, there is a lot of domestic violence and a machete is often used. Husbands cutting wives, wives cutting each other - amongst the non Christian people there are multiple wives.

Scot enjoyed giving out the baby caps that Cindy Rigdon's mother made. The patients were very thankful to receive them.

Tyronza is continuing to cook, and is amazed that she actually enjoys doing it. The shopping experience is very different. You have to travel about 30-40 minutes into town for groceries at the store and the large vegetable market. There is a small market available just outside the hospital compound, but you never know what will be available. (Actually, that is true in town also!)

The money used here are kina and toea. The exchange rate is currently about 2.5 kina to the dollar. Except for locally grown produce and vegetables, everything is quite expensive. Tyronza bought 6 kilos of ground meat for 125 kina, two small rolls of paper towels for 30 kina.

The electric system here has many power spikes and is sometimes out for a period of time. It has not been a major problem, however. You do learn to keep the candles and flashlights handy.

This past Sunday, was a very interesting day for us. The previous week Tyronza met Isaiah on a hike. He is the Nazarene Mission Zone Circuit president for this area of PNG. He has 28 churches on his Circuit. He became very excited when Tyronza told him that she was the mission president at their local church and invited her to speak in one of the churches on his circuit. She accepted and transportation and translation were arranged. On Sunday morning, we were picked up by one of the missionary families and were taken to the church where Tyronza spoke about Nazarene missions in general and about sharing the news of salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ to your family, your friends and your village. After the service, we were given fruits and vegetables as a thank you. It was a wonderful experience.

On Thursday night, Tyronza attended the District Mission Convention for the Western Highland Province. It was an exciting time and very interesting. On Friday afternoon we were able to take some time off and were taken to an orchid garden. It was beautiful with lovely flowers, butterflies and birds. The man and his wife have been working on the garden for fifteen years and he said he has 300 of the 3,000 species of orchids native to PNG. On Saturday morning, we were able to leave the compound again for a hike up to a Catholic mission. It was a gorgeous day and many pictures were taken. The link site is

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19428&id=100001961413037&l=a20582723c