This last week in Oro Province has been a different experience again to our previous outreach. As we make our way into the villages we hear “Oro” “oro” “oro” echo though the village as all the people shout out to welcome us. (Oro means welcome in this Province.) We have had an interesting week especially our the three days we spent out on a patrol in a very remote village.
After the weekend of orientation for the new volunteers and sailing down to Oro Province we started the week with a difficult boat ride to a village down a small river. It was over 1.5hr boat ride each way and we were met by a lot of tree debris in the river, very narrow and shallow sections and unexpectedly a change of river location in some areas to what was planned and seen on google imaging (apparently the river has taken a couple of new routes since the last google photos a year ago!) We didn’t know if we would make it all the way to the village but thanks to the skilled drivers we got through. It was as expected a challenging first day as all the new volunteers settled into there new roles. We found it was a bit of a struggle to motivate and involve the people in this village in education and in physio and there was a lot of people with the tropical skin disease ‘grille’ which often arises from poor hygiene and not washing well. But despite the challenges we did have a good day and were able to provide good treatment and education.
On Tuesday in a small group of 16 people we headed out on Patrol to a very isolated village called Iaudari that was 5hours away by boat up a much larger river. Our team included dental, optometry, doctors, nurses, Angela as the physio, and a few of the community engagement team lead by Ben. We were up early to leave the ship by 7am and Angela was spoilt with a birthday breakfast from Ben, birthday balloons on our door, a huge happy birthday from everyone in the dinning hall, and some thoughtful treats from some of the team. (I felt very blessed to have so much love around me.) So as we all waited with our gear to load up on the boats it suddenly started to rain. And boy did it rain. On and on for the next five hours on the boats! A constant downpour. We were soaked to say the least and so was some of the gear. Lucky for the tarps a lot of it faired ok. It was fun though, quite an adventure. When we arrived the rain did let up and we were able to walk everything into the village and dry out a bit before starting the clinics for the afternoon. We were staying and working on the church grounds and were very well looked after by the family there. We were given a few huts to sleep, eat and work in and had until Thursday midday to spend in the village. It was great being able to offer so many different services to the village and also not having to worry about travel taking time out of our clinic days. Angela was able to spend the whole time doing physio and seeing people one on one. (I enjoyed this so much, it was such a blessing to have the time to talk and pray with patients about there needs and show them someone cares and that God loves them.) Ben was able to talk to the village leaders about the village needs and empower them. At the end of each day we walked to a creek that was 20min away, it was a beautiful spot and so nice to have a refreshing dip to cool off from the hot steamy days. On the Thursday Angela did some home visits in the morning seeing a lady virtually paralysed from a stroke and a man who had great difficulty walking. It is such a blessing to see the smile on someone’s face when they see you trying to help them. As we packed up to leave on the Thursday and walked back to the boats again the rain decided to bucket down only this time we were lucky it cleared up not long into the journey and we had a much more comfortable ride home.
Friday was another unexpected day as we had sailed overnight to Oro Bay and we were ready as usual by 8am to travel this time by car into a village “20min away”. One of the cars arrived at 11 and one at 11:30 and the drive was around an hour long. So it was a short clinic! We didn’t get started till closer to 1pm and had to try to leave by 4pm. Not much time at all but thankfully it was a very organised village and we had a very productive time and were able to see the ones who really needed us. YWAM had not been to this village before and they were very welcoming and really lovely. They even made us a meal at the end of the day as a thankyou gift and we didn’t end up leaving till after 4:30. Angela again was able to do physio all clinic and even treated a man who was 105 years old who had nerve damage in his leg due to a bullet wound from the war but was walking around remarkably well despite it. Ben spent the day doing the village assessment and helping optometry check people for reading glasses which was a interesting and different experience.