Thursday, Jan 5
This morning a few of us walked to a construction site in the village & got to encourage the workers building an all-denominational (very rare, PNG Christians very segregated) church! Then we headed over to Wewak Hospital to give out little cards we made & prayer. Nothing could prepare me for this. This is the only hospital for over a quarter million people to travel far & wide, sacrificing everything to get to, only to have a bare bed in a room full of filth & other patients that cannot be treated, due to a lack of any equipment, no blood, & about 2-3 trained doctors. We entered the children’s ward to find a room full of kids with death seemingly imminent. Our hearts broke as we felt helpless in bringing hope to such injustice. I plan to donate blood and hopefully find sponsors when I return to America to provide basic help, like an x-ray machine. In the evening, instead of our usual run through the village, we did a casual Bible study with all our runners + families nearby, which ended up being almost 50 people! We did our favorite sheep skit, PNG crew member gave his testimony, and sang songs in Pigen! This will forever be one of my favorite memories here!

Friday, Jan 6
Sailed away from Wewak at 6am to head to the Sepik River!! Gorgeous day on the ocean and so exciting to be greeted in the river by hundreds of canoes (giant, carved out trees) with people waving at us going by! Most have never seen a ship like this and paddled out just to welcome us! I swear this place looks like a movie and this definitely doesn’t feel like real life sometimes!

Saturday, Jan 7
Crawled out of bed for my 1:45-4am pirate watch, which sounds way cooler than it was :), to make sure the thieves by the mouth of the river didn’t decide to climb aboard (crew took it so seriously, we even had a bin of boulders to drop on their heads if they did)! The sailing day constituted mainly of team planning for the outreach we’ll do in Wewak after the medical clinics – some super exciting opportunities we’re coordinating with schools, businesses, police, radio, churches, and more! Unfortunately the ship got stuck in mud & the engine started sucking up mud instead of water, so we had a power outage and major delay before struggling to dock in Angoram – first try, the current swept us past the dock into the bank, a fence, & almost a house – but we made it!! Marie & I left the ship to talk to the kids lining the dock, well the ones that didn’t run away from the scary-looking white girls, had some good laughs (asked a group of teenage boys how many kids they had instead of siblings in pigen) and had a mini town tour by the head magistrate & police chief!

Sunday, Jan 8
All the teams spread out this morning to go to all the churches in Angoram, and we got assigned the Catholic Church. Awesome people, but definitely wasn’t anything I’m used to and was lacking a crucial element of joy in the service. It seemed as though the people were so caught up in the tradition that they had lost the excitement of following Jesus that brought them to church originally. After wandering around the market – considered huge by the people but is basically an empty dirt patch that probably 100 people sit on their mats and all try to sell the exact same thing (lots of beetlenut, sago, and chicken crackers) – we had a blast at the welcome ceremony they put on the start our trip down the river! Marie & I soon had hundreds of kids surrounding us singing “Jesus laikim olgeta” (Jesus loves everyone), playing Simon says, dancing, & running around in a circle game! Even though the waterfall of sweat dripping down my face burned my eyes, maybe permanently, I will never forget the joy and fulfillment from these kiddos! Absolutely incredible afternoon! Like icing on the cake, I got to hold a gorgeous green bird that climbed on my head named Tomas by his owner, Tomas. BEST DAY!

Monday, Jan 9
Set sail super early to Timbunke, with stunning views of the river & picturesque huts along the way. Relaxing day with medical training (learned how to do vaccinations + handle snake bite situations) and clinic prep (filling the wound care box, which is my responsibility from now on). Finished the day with a 3 hour pigen lesson (lots of laughing while learning) with one of the PNG crew members! A favorite memory as learning some pigen jokes & testing them out on the other crew!

Tuesday, Jan 10
First day of clinic! We worked out of a sketchy-lookin health clinic in the village started by nuns, with me helping at the immunization station! Started off just drawing up the shots (“baby suts” in pigen) and being slightly overwhelmed by all the types of little bottles, needles, & different amounts but eventually found a rhythm. The hoard of moms lining up with their babies was crazy, so Marie & I got to put our tiny bit of medical training into practice by actually giving the immunizations!! So cool! Well, cool to know the 2-5 different shots I’m giving them will protect & save them from deadly diseases, but also sad to make these babies cry so hard 😦

After dinner, we projected the Jesus Film (life of Jesus reenacted in Pigen) on the side of the ship & drew a massive crowd. Marie & I sat with a woman Maria and all her granddaughters who loved repeating all the lines to us slower so that we could try to understand. They all died laughing when they realized all of us “whiteman” look like Jesus & called us His sisters! Such a fun group!

Wednesday, Jan 11
Crazy full day today of eye patients, prepping & registering them before eye surgery in our on-board clinic! Loved using my Pigen all day (I’ve gotten pretty good, if I do say so myself 😉 ) getting some insight from these people of Timbunke – the family dynamic, lack of opportunity (especially education), and way of life here on the river. The people have rain catchments, but still drink the practically poisonous Sepik water, all belong to the Catholic church, but have little understanding of the daily blessings (hope, love for each other, joy) God gives. Some of the patients had canoed for hours to get here, some with eagerness & some with hesitation. One of the saddest moments was seeing a woman that was completely blind come register and then be taken home by her angry son. One of the coolest parts was being able to watch a cataract surgery, even though I couldn’t stomach it after the lens came out of the peeled back eyelid & had to leave the room… Also had so much fun playing volleyball with a whole group of girls in the mosquito filled grass! All in all awesome day!

Thursday, Jan 12
Half day clinic started out on the ship for me & Ashley to help remove the eye coverings! Watching the lovely people I got to know yesterday gain sight was so rewarding – cataracts and other eye issues gave way to clarity & healing! (Before + after pictures will hopefully be on my photo page) Bruno and Maria especially touched my heart, each sharing their life stories yesterday and showing a love for Jesus! In the village clinic, I was the scribe for the PHC station before we set sail for Kanduanum. Another rough adventure on the river: stuck in a giant sand bank for a few hours, ship tilted at almost 45degrees, mooring line (main rope) snapped, & finally saved by a nearby tug boat. Anchored just in time for an incredible sunset at dinner. Oh & I might’ve been tested for Malaria today… (mom & dad don’t freak out 🙂 ) but it was negative! Not sure why I’m feelin feverish, so just keep me in your prayers.

Friday, Jan. 13
I made sooo many babies cry today! To be more specific, I vaccinated over 40 babies with 2-5 shots each! Cool experience, but honestly so exhausting after that many screaming kids and scared mothers. Even after our attempts at soothing, singing, & praying, I just hope they don’t remember the scary whiteman with needles forever! After the whole town came through the clinic, I gave a little teaching on nutrition & others talked about other health advice. For dinner we had pukpuk (crocodile !!) and noodles from our Malaysian tug boat friends – finishing off an extraordinary week on the river 🙂