Bits and Bites....

It's been a while since I posted.... Life has been a little busy...
Hugo has been gone since Monday to Kalimantan where he is helping out with some work on the Caravan there. I am very thankful for cell phones which allow us to speak each day. Things are going well with the work there but Hugo is ready to come home. Lord willing he will come home on Wednesday.
Last night Ice came to my door in tremendous pain. I thought she was in a lot of pain three weeks ago when I brought her to the hospital, but I think she was in twice as much pain now. I made the decision to bring her to the hospital again but this time I brought her to the best hospital in our area, a private Catholic hospital where Marc was born about a 20-25 minute drive away, as the other hospital does not have a surgeon and I was quite worried that Ice would need surgery. I felt like an ambulance driver as we raced along the curvy road to Waena with me honking my horn and flashing my lights to get people to move aside for me.
This hospital is better. They actually provide water to patients in the ER to swallow pills with. At the other hospital we had to go buy water so she could take her pills.... Things happened quite quickly and she had an ultrasound and her blood checked. She still has PID, but they also found a cist in her uterus that they feel is causing the pain. She also still has her bladder infection and some inflamation of the intestines. She is receiving pain meds, but I think mostly because I asked them to give them to her. When I went there this morning she was in a lot of pain and I asked if they'd given her anything and they hadn't since the night before. So they gave her something. So now she is on two different powerful antibiotics which we hope will clear things up. If not, she will need to be operated on.
This hospital stay is going to cost a lot more than the other one but I hope that the end result will be better as well. Please remember Ice in your prayers.
Brynnie is finished her malaria meds and seems to be fully recovered.
Mikah has started to learn both the piano and saxophone. We had already arranged for her to have piano lessons from our neighbour and this year at school she has band class and chose to learn the saxophone. She can already play a note... yeah.... man that things loud...

Bits and Bites....

After a week of constant posts I have been rather neglectful....
Ice has been doing great. I gave her this past week off of work so that she could get her energy back. Yesterday I went to visit her and her husband and talk to them about the infection Ice has and what it all means. I also brought meds for her husband to take because he could re-infect her. Thankfully he was quite willing to take the medication. I just hope they listened to me when I explained how important it was that they take the meds for the full two weeks even if they feel fine after only one week. Then I explained to them that there may be a possibility that they would never have children. They took this news rather stoically. I do believe that had anyone one of us Westerners been told this kind of news, we would react emotionally. The people here live with such hardship and instead of fighting it or trying to alleviate it, they often just simply accept it. That is why Ice did not go to the doctor in spite of having symptoms of PID for a while already.
We are settling into the school routine again. The kids are happy to be back for the most part. They all have great teachers which is a blessing. Although one of Mikah’s teachers is still waiting for her Visa to come through. In the meantime, the grade 5 teacher is teaching the classes she will be teaching.
Hugo is headed to Kalimantan tomorrow. Almost one year ago the program in Kalimantan received their first Cessna Caravan. Now that plane needs some inspections, installations, and repairs on its avionics systems. So they asked if Hugo could come to do the job. It’s a lot cheaper for him to go then for one of the guys from Nampa to come out. Lucky guy... He will be gone for just over one week.
This past Monday was a national holiday celebrating Indonesia's independance. So we went to the beach with our church. We decided to go to the beach we always like to visit as it is really the best one and the other church members had never been there before. Of course, we had another cultural experience. There is a guy who is controlling all the boat drivers and making them ask more money. There is one man who will do it for less, the man who actually owns the beach we visit, but he wasn’t around when we came. So we were forced to wait a long time and then pay more. We arrived at the beach to find that there were already about 100 Indonesians there! We have never ever seen that many people at that beach before. In spite of it all, we had a nice time with our fellow church members.

Home again!

Today Hugo and I went to the hospital with the intention of donating blood for Ice. We met the doctor in Ice's room as he was making the rounds. We discussed her situation and what we should do. We went to the lab where Ice's blood was checked again and Hugo had his blood type checked during which he let slip that he had had dengue fever last year. This immediately ruled him out from donating. As it turns out, Ice's HB levels had risen enough that she no longer needed a transfusion, but could take iron pills. Then it was on to the ultrasound. The idea was to look at the appendix, but of course if that had been the problem on Monday, it wouldn't be obvious anymore as antibiotics had taken their course. However, I felt that we should still take a look at things and it was a good thing we did. As it turns out, she has a bladder infection (why a urine sample wasn't taken on Monday baffles me) and she still has pelvic inflammatory disease. I was able to convince the doctor that she could go home and take antibiotics there. That left the bill to be settled. Ice's husband had gotten a letter from their district head stating that they were poor. However, at this hospital that letter is meaningless. Apparently, this hospital was built specifically for people from coastal tribes in this area, not those from interior tribes. Had we gone to either the hospital in Abe or in Jayapura, the bill would have been taken care of. However, those hospitals are far away and very dirty. As it turns out, the cost per night to stay there is a whopping 24,000 rupiahs ($3.00 CAD - including 3 meals a day)! So in the end we paid about $110 for five nights, iv fluids, meds, scans/x-ray, and meds she will take at home now. I told Ice and her mom that I would take care of 75% of the costs and that they would have to pay 25%. I don't think this means much to them as I'm pretty sure they don't understand percentages. But I'm sure once I sit down with Ice and explains exactly what it means for her she will be relieved. She has savings as I keep back some funds from her pay each month. Sadly, I will need to sit down with Ice and her husband and explain the ramifications of pelvic inflammatory disease.

Cross-Cultural training...

This is what we see on our way to Jayapura. In the first photo is Lake Sentani. The second photo is of a monument to three soldiers who were in a helicopter showing off for the prostitutes that live along the edge of the lake when they crashed and all died.... (photo credit - Mikah)

I feel a bit like I'm in a cross-cultural training program right now. Yesterday I went to the hospital again to see Ice and she told me that the doctor had said that she needs to have a blood transfusion and that she should find someone with type B blood to donate. So I went to the nurses station and asked them what the doctor had said and there were no notes for that day. So I went to the ER in the hopes that he would be there and I could speak with him; having not seen him since Monday evening. He was there, (poor guy was the only Doc in the entire hospital I think...), and I waited patiently until he aknowledged me. I asked him about Ice and the blood transfusion thing. He explained that her hemoglobin level had dropped to 5 which is extremely low and therefore she was in need of some blood. He figured that they should give her blood and monitor her for another day or so and then do and ultrasound to try to get a look at her appendix and see if that is the problem. (If it is, she would need to be transferred to another hospital in Abe or Jayapura as they can't do operations in Doyo.) Ice's mom doesn't really want her to get blood from someone else because apparently she had a transfusion as a very young child and it made her "not normal".... I explained to Ice and her husband that now they check blood for the major illnesses - malaria, syphillis, hepatitis and HIV/Aids. So I went home. I'm pretty sure that Hugo has type B blood but when I saw Ritha's sister, I asked her what her type is and she is B. So she and Ritha went to the hospital, but for legitimate reasons, she was not able to donate but they told me that the lab closes at 5:00. So Hugo and I left for the hospital right away and arrived just after 4:00 only to be told that the lab person had just gone home for the day. Well.... I marched over to the ER in a bit of a huff (although I have to admit I kind of expected this to happen) in the hopes that the same Doc would still be there. He was and I waited patiently again for him while he dealt with the patients that were in need of him. I explained what had happened and he did his best to track the lab tech down but was unsuccessful. I gave him my cell phone number and we went home. Later that evening he sent me a message and we set up an appointment for Saturday morning at 10:00.... Let's hope it happens...

This morning we had an appointment at 10:00 to get our fingerprinting done at the immigration office in Jayapura. The guy from our office was already there ahead of us trying to smooth the way for us. Apparently things weren't going well and he was told that we'd just have to wait. I guess the boss there was feeling uppity and just wanted to flex his power. The kids did great waiting. We were expecting things to go like they do for most people; in and out in 15 minutes. Therefore we hadn't brought any form of entertainment for the kids except one garfield comic book (which I read to the kids from cover to cover while we were waiting). Finally, we were told we could go in. In the old days, like 6 years ago when we lived here, the process involved actual ink that was only removable by a combination of vaseline and wet wipes. Now the process is highly modern. Our photos are taken by a digital camera attached to the computer then each of of fingers is scanned by a special finger print scanner. But we still have to sign 2 items manually and one on a special computer pad. The reason we need to have our finger prints taken each year? No clue except that they like to keep track of us... Need I say more. By 12:00 we were done. We then went to a nice school supply store (they also sell sports equipment, musical instruments, toys, movies, electronic equipment, books....) to get the kids what they need for school. Then we had lunch at KFC. Following that we decided to try and find a beach called Base G. After a number of wrong turns and adventures down extremely narrow roads, we finally saw a sign telling us which way to go. You really can't get lost here, there aren't that many roads. This beach is open to the ocean and so there are waves and wind. The beach we usually go to is in a bay. So we hung out there for about an hour. Then a guy comes along and tells us that we need to pay 100,000 Rups for the use of the shelter. We explained that we had only been using it for one hour and were in the process of leaving and so would he accept 20,000 rups? He claimed that normally they charge 200,000 rups and that he had already cut the price in half. He claimed that they keep it clean (not, there were beer bottles and other garbage lying around...). We stuck to our ground and finally said we were leaving right then and didn't pay anything. The truth is that any old person could come up and ask for money, we have no idea if he is legitimate or not, there were no signs saying that one had to pay, and he didn't show any proof. There were some Spanish tourists in the shelter beside us and he tried the same with them and they also didn't give him anything. At the other beach they have a book in which you write your name and the amount you paid and there are signs telling you that you need to pay.

Then we made our way back and headed to a place called the Papua Trade Centre. We had promised to take the kids there as they have an enormous blow up bouncy castle on the weekends and there is a Canadian pizza chain there called Sarpino's. The traffic was horrid and what should have taken us 15 minutes, took about an hour. Then after all that, no bouncy castle... ugghh... Well, we met our friends there and ordered pizzas, which were tasty. After that the kids played in a place called Time Zone. One of those arcade type places. It was incredibly loud and local kids kept coming in a bothering us and a couple stole our kids swipe cards... Then there were the ladies wanting to take photos of the kids and photos of Mikah holding their kids...

One can never ever forget where one lives.... But it was still a good day.... :-)

Visiting Ice...

Today I took Marc and Brynne, Ritha, her sister and Rode to see Ice. She is looking a lot better although she still has some pain. As you can see on the photos, the room she is in is actually quite nice and clean although very sparse. It is the first half of the white and yellow building on the bottom photo. The hospital is a series of buildings attached by covered walkways. The circular part with the pointed roof is the nurses station for the area that Ice is in. I think the nurses mostly hang around in there really... When I came to see Ice her IV had long since quite dripping and her blood was going up the tube. Of course she doesn't say anything about it... So I went to the nurses and told them about it and they immediately came to fix the problem (you can see her in the photo there doing her thing). Ritha said that my skin colour probably was the deciding factor in that. She's had the same thing when her sister-in-law was in the hospital and the nurses basically ignored her. It often happens here that those from other parts of the country don't show much care to those from this particular province, if you get my drift...

Ice hadn't seen the specialist yet when I came so I hope it happened this afternoon but I'm not holding my breath.

Update on Ice...

Ritha and I went to visit Ice today. I just felt that I should check up on her and make sure she was getting what she needed. Well, as it turns out... I walked into the room, incidentally, she happens to be in the mens room as the women's room was full (but thankfully she has one of only two beds that can be completely closed with curtains) and the first thing she said was that she wanted to go home. I informed her that that was just not an option. She is obviously still in a tremendous amount of pain. Then I noticed what looked like a prescription lying on the table beside her bed. I asked her and her mom (who is staying with her now) about it and they didn't know. "The sister (nurse) put that there earlier today." I went and asked some nurses what it was and it turns out that one needs to go to the pharmacy and get the prescriptions and then give them to the nurses.... What? Okay, so off I went and to get the meds. Turns out they are out of stock on one of the items and tell me that I'll have to get that one in Sentani.... Ugghh... By the time I get back to Ice, she's received her lunch. It was in a nice divided container; hard-boiled egg, rice (of course), piece of chicken and piece of fried tofu, some green veggies and a piece of red papaya. Not bad! Except they don't even give you a utensil to eat it with! So we took Ice's mom back to Sentani with us and got the medicine so she could bring it back along with a long list of items that no one had thought to bring poor Ice. Items such as a toothbrush, soap, towel, spoon, bottles of water, plate, cup, clean clothes etc... Ice's mom got a little mattress from her boss and she is going to sleep there tonight on the floor beside Ice's bed. You cannot be in the hospital here without someone helping you. How else would you get your meds? Ice can barely get out of bed! Plus, her IV ran out and her blood started going up the tube. I told her mom that if it runs out, she needs to go to the nurses and tell them. I hope she will. These people are so shy when it comes to medical things that they won't speak up for themselves. I really believe that had I not gone to her house and told her we were going to the hospital, Ice would still be lying there on her mattress on the floor of her stuffy little bedroom wracked with pain. It just baffles me. Anyways, there is supposed to be a specialist coming from Jakarta tomorrow and they will bring Ice to him and we'll see from there what happens. Let's pray that she doesn't need surgery....

Hospital...

Yesterday evening Ice came to me saying that her stomach had been hurting since the day before. I figured that maybe she had amoeba (she's had it before) and as I didn't have the meds for that I just gave her some travel meds in the hopes that they might help her feel better. Today she didn't come in to work so I figured she must be in some pain. As I was busy with the kids I didn't go see her. At 5:30 her husband came and told me that she was experiencing a lot of pain in her midsection, especially the right side. I started feeling somewhat concerned but he said that she didn't have a fever or diarrhea or constipation. I called a nurse and she said that it would be best not to give amoeba meds but to have a doctor look at her. I told this to her husband and told him to come back if they needed a ride to the hospital. I got dinner ready for the fam and I ate some myself (thankfully). I had this niggling feeling that I needed to go see Ice myself. So I got out my flashlight and hand phone (in the event of a problem...) and made my way over to her place. It was about 6:15 at the time and it was very dark already. I went into her house and she came out of her bedroom and I think she thought I was mad at her for not working but I told her to lay down so that I could check her abdomen. I poked a bit and she told me it was very painful and I also observed that she had a fever. I made an immediate decision to bring her to the hospital. So we went, her husband, his twin brother and Ice's little brother all coming along. We went to the emergency room which is a largish room with lovely green satin curtains between each two equally lovely green stretchers. None of said curtains was closed though. There were women curled up sleeping; there were babies with IV's strapped to their little wrists; and family members sleeping on the floor beside the beds. We were instantly given a little piece of paper and told to go to the lab. I was a little confused and asked the doctor as he finished looking at a guy getting his head sewed back together following a motorcycle accident. He told me to go to the lab and they would check Ice's blood for her leukocyte and iron levels. So off we all went. The nice thing about going there at night is that it is quite quiet and you don't have to wait too long. Well, Ice's leukocytes were 16,000 and her iron was 8.8. Those of you medically inclined will know that those are not good numbers. We made our way back to the Emerg where they did an appendicitis check (inconclusive) and we were immediately taken to the radiology room. This time they pushed Ice in a wheelchair. Thankfully, the poor girl was in so much pain. This hospital is quite the place. It is government run. There are lots of nice tools like a mammography machine, panoramic x-ray machine, a well-equipped lab, 2 ultrasound machines - one 3D, the other 4D, and a digital x-ray machine. The only problem is that there aren't that many people who know how to use these wonderful tools. There are no computers in sight as well. Everything is written out on pieces of paper. It's hard to describe, except to say that it is a spartan place. Anyways, after I paid $10 for the x-ray and $10 for the ultrasound, Ice had her x-ray and then the doctor came and did an ultrasound. She has an enlarged spleen (could be just from many bouts of malaria), a womb full of pus, some issue with a part of her intestines and they couldn't get a good look at her appendix cause there was something in the way... Yikes! So back to the ER we went. There they put her on an IV and sent me off to get meds. Which I did after paying first again. Then I brought them back to the ER and gave the IV ones to the doctor (a Papu*n guy). The other meds they explained to me. Then I explained them to Ice and her husband.... Anyways, they got her going on some antibiotics after doing a little allergy test first. Because of the lack of curtains, all the goings on are observed by everyone. Finally they confirmed that there was a bed available for her. So off we went. Outside all the patient areas are family members sleeping. Apparently only one person is allowed to stay inside with each patient. Once we got Ice settled in, she was so zonked out by then, I left for home with her brother and the twin of her husband. The twin was instructed to get clothes, blankets/pillows (not provided), and drinking water (also not provided) and food for the hubby. His plan was to come back right away with a friends motorbike.
So this whole process took about 5 hours.... Good thing I ate some supper first....
Please pray for Ice that she may recieve the care she needs and get healthy again.

Why we refuse to land at this runway....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwTNvhzGAEA

This was not an unusual occurrence at this airport... Yikes...

Update...

They've found the missing plane. It crashed into an 11,000 ft tall mountain at a level of about 9,000 ft. So far no helicopters have been able to go in and search for survivors. Someone we know was actually the one to spot the plane and from what we understand it is doubtful that anyone survived.

One of my little projects has been to get Ritha and Ice's teeth fixed. Dentists here are really bad at their job (maybe there is one good one out there that I don't know about, if so, I'm sorry...). Ritha has gone to get a cavity filled and instead of drilling out the decayed area, they simply inserted a composite into the hole... There is an American dentist here who has been training a P*puan woman. Right now, as the American dentist is on furlough, she's running the show. Ika is great. She teaches all the patients how to properly brush their teeth and makes them understand the dangers of eating beetle nut and smoking. Today I took Ritha's younger brother to have his teeth checked. He is 14 years old and has never before been to a dentist. Well, he's got four teeth that are beyond repair, and a bunch of cavities. Ika also fixed one of his front teeth that had been broken off years ago. Ice has virtually no molars left in her mouth; to eat bread she rips it into pieces first and basically sucks on it as she's got nothing to chew with. Today we did impressions for fake teeth. I really feel that having a healthy mouth affects ones life quite drastically. Can you imagine feeling pain every time you ate? That's quite normal here. Many people are missing lots of teeth in their mouths which does nothing for ones self-esteem or make it easy to eat... Abscesses are a common occurrence as well and can lead to death.

There's another missing plane...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090802/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_plane_missing

We are down to our last two weeks of school holidays now.
Last Thursday I went to the beach with the kids along with our neighbours and Ritha, her brother and sister, and the girls. Hugo had to work poor guy. It was a beautiful day of fun in the sun.
Ritha’s mother continues to bother Ritha and her brother and sister. One night she came and gathered together the brother’s stuff and told him to come with her. So he did, but it wasn’t long and he was back at Ritha’s place. The mother keeps telling the siblings that Ritha is a bad older sister and doesn’t treat them well so they should come live with her. Such bunk! To top it all off, the girls are getting money together for the brothers entrance fee to his new school. Please continue to pray for this little family!
Please also remember Ice in your prayers. To tell you the truth, I often feel as though I have a teenage daughter when she’s around. She has received very little guidance in her life and her understanding of our purpose in this life is minimal. I have been trying, when I can as all the kids are home now, to talk with her about life and God and our relationship with God. I’ve also been trying to give her some marital advice...
This morning I went to church with the four oldest kids. Brynnie has malaria so Hugo stayed home with her. As we were making our way down the hill, a drunken fellow suddenly materialized out of the bushes. I saw him look at us and I yelled,”Run!” So we ran and he of course followed us. Marc tripped and fell and I had to go back to get him and at the same time the guy picked up a big rock and was saying,”You understand?” Not sure what that was supposed to mean but I replied,”Mau ke gereja.” Which means, “We want to go to church.” So we ran to the gate of the church yard and went in. He actually followed a bit behind us but the men of the church came out and told him to take a hike. Thankfully, by the time church was finished, he was long gone.
One of the elders in our church, Pak Nara, is very sick. He has gone blind in one eye and can no longer read. I don’t mean that he can’t see the letters, he can see them; he has simply lost the ability to read. We suspect that he has a form of dementia. He is rapidly beginning to look old and frail. He has a son who is about 9 years old. Please remember them in your prayers also.
On a brighter note, Mikah and I made the hike out to Abe yesterday. We both needed to get our hair cut. I know it sounds silly to drive so far for a haircut, but seriously, it is really hard to find a good hairdresser here. Plus, sometimes you find goodies there that are hard to find here. Like yesterday I scored some lovely cauliflower, broccoli and strawberries that were actually sweet (and priced like gold...). And who can pass up lunch at KFC? (Well maybe you folks can, but to us, that’s a swanky restaurant!)
On Friday it was my birthday. I’d rather forget about it really (well, the adding on a year part), but the truth is that God has kept me and blessed me so how can I forget? We celebrated with two families who had supper with us and we all enjoyed the chocolate trifle that I had made.


Can you tell we enjoyed those strawberries? All except Brynnie who claims she doesn't like strawberries and would much rather eat pineapple... Just wait until she tries a strawberry from Kraus brothers farm!