Most of the people living around here are very poor and just barely have enough to eat and clothes to wear. People living on a 1$ a day... or less... But there are some fabulously wealthy people here too. I cringe when I think of how they attained their wealth. There are those who are from other islands and are just smart business-wise but then there are those that are native to this island who have incredible amounts of fundage (there are actually two hover craft on this island.... they have no idea how to use them, but they have them...). The other day someone described Wamena (interior city) as being one of the most corrupt places on the planet. He estimated that there are about four guys skimming around a million US each, each year!!! He also said that there are people dying each day there because of fundage meant for the "health system" mysteriously doesn't actually make it to its intended destination. Our MAF wives actually visit all people that have been brought into Wamena by our pilots for medical reasons. They give them a blanket (not provided by the hospital!?) and some food and pray with them. They also try to advocate for their care. Often folks from interior are just plain scared to be away from home, everything is strange, and they have no idea that they need to speak up for themselves (totally non-cultural for them). There are wives on other bases who are doing or beginning to do the same thing. For example, a few weeks ago a young man was in a motorcycle accident in a village and he was brought by MAF to a city in the South for treatment. A week later he still hadn't received any medical care, even though he was in the hospital, and now he is being brought out to Jayapura to have his leg amputated because it was infected due to lack of treatment. This happened in spite of one of our national worker's visiting the young man and trying to get care for him. It makes you just want to scream/cry....
Yesterday a boy at our kid's school had his birthday. He is from Wamena and to celebrate he bought lunch for all the kids in the elementary!!! From Texas Chicken - so they had rice and chicken and pop.... I don't even want to know...
On the brighter side, there is an expat doctor in Wamena now, and he has set up a clinic and he has an expat nurse and I think some locals working with him to provide better medical care to whoever needs it there. But there are of course, limits to what they can provide.
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2 comments:
I just found your blog! Gotta add it to my list of "Blogs I follow".
Thanks so much for sharing your stories.
I will second your comments! Dan says that it is AMAZING the amount of money that the Bupatis and the Camats have to throw around, when he takes them into the villages and they are just basically throwing money at the people. Crazy. You just wonder where all that money comes from, and then you think "I don't want to know!" just like you said :-)
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