One week down!
We have already had one week here and it has been amazing. We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to come here and share Gods love. Each day this week we have headed out to different villages. Some by 4wd 30min to 2.5hrs each way, and one day we travelled an hour by boat.
The ship itself is amazing. It was bought as a second hand small cruise ship back in 2015 and refurbished to include the dental and ophthalmology clinics, usable lounge and dinning spaces and more accommodation. It now sleeps up to 130 people. The works were all carried out with donated money and have just recently finished. At each location that we are in we have many local health workers coming aboard the ship so they can travel with us and work along side us in the villages. We have also been doing teaching and education for the local health workers in the area. A lot of Angela’s work each day involves educating individuals and groups of people on health and the benefits of exercise as well as giving exercises for people with chronic pain and for kids with disabilities. (I get to play with a lot of cute kids which is awesome. They have just the cutest smiles and big brown eyes.) Ben has been fixing taps, playing with the village kids, giving education and hanging out with the local PNG guys which is really cool and such a great way to get the whole community involved and empowered to take control and responsibility for their health and village resources.
Each new village we go to welcome us with singing and dancing and lots of decorations of plants and flowers, its really beautiful. Each day is different, we have set up clinics at schools, under gazebos and in small health care posts. And many people crowd round hoping to be seen, if only we could see them all! Often Angela goes on home visits to people who cannot get into the clinics. Its very hot and humid and by the end of each busy day the exhaustion sets in and we are so keen for the wonderful food made by the galley staff. After the tiring week the weekend will be a great recovery hopefully with some swimming and resting involved. We have acclimatised to the rocking of the boat after a couple of days feeling a bit off with the motion. It almost feels better on the boat now then it does on land! 😉