Milne Bay is a very beautiful place. For our first week of this new outreach we have been based around Goodenough Island. There are lots of small islands, large mountains and beautiful reefs in the clear blue ocean. There were some amazing jellyfish that came around our ship on our first day at the island; they came by the thousands at dusk, it was truly a spectacular sight. It has been a busy but rewarding week. Ben is leading one of the Community Engagement teams and Angela has been working alongside two local PNG physios that have come on board the ship from Alotau Hospital.
On this outreach there are many families and kids on board which is a lot of fun and really a blessing for the community engagement teams as the kids are able play and engage so well with the PNG kids. Ben has enjoyed leading his team especially with the new dynamic of the kids on board.
This week Ben’s highlight was visiting a village that had never heard about YWAM. On Wednesday the seas were too rough to reach our destination and so the teams ended up going to different villages then was planned. Ben’s CE team went to visit a school that was meant to be just a few minutes walk away. They ended up outside a different village after a long walk without reaching the school. Once stopped they prayed together and decided to stop at this village and not continue to the school. The people in the village were a bit unsure about the YWAM visitors at first but given a bit of time they were so happy and excited to have them. The whole team found it to be a very engaging and rewarding day.
Angela has found it wonderful to work alongside the other physios. This is the first time having local physios on board the ship and they have brought great knowledge, particularly on disability engagement in the community, and also great resources for use in the villages. It’s been nice to work alongside them and share knowledge. We have been able to visit people with stroke, brain injury, a family with dwarfism and muscular dystrophy, a little baby with cleft pallet and developmental delay, a young girl with serious injury from a pig bite, knee and back pain patients, significant scoliosis in a young boy and many more injuries.
This week has been slower in clinics which has been really nice as it has meant we’ve been doing a lot of in-services and training for the local health workers. This is exciting and really the most important thing to empower and upskill those who will be providing the health care of the future.