Telefomin (part 1)

Immediately after Kompiam I was scheduled to do my week-long 'bush orientation'. This had originally been planned to take place in Ambunti, but with me getting sick the night before I was supposed to leave Mt Hagen (and subsequently being delayed in reaching Kompiam by a week) another plan had to be formed. Since MAF didn't want to send me to a village by myself, the alternative plan that was offered was for me to go to Telefomin, where there is a MAF base. There, two of the haus meris who are working for the MAF families would look after me and we would do various activities, including an overnight hike to another village, from where the plane could come and pick us up.

A rainbow on arrival at Telefomin

Birthday dinner for one of the MAF kids, the night I arrived

Day 1 - Exploring Telefomin

Vero and Joyce were brought to the house and we spent a bit of time getting to know one another. Then we went for a walk to the high school (teaching over 500 students from all the villages within a couple of days' walk), the hospital, the vocational training centre, and community health worker training centre. It was frustrating to see at both the school and the hospital brand new buildings that were unable to be used - in the case of the school, it was a library with no books; in the case of the hospital, operating theatres with no doctor.

A library with no books...

Main 'street' in Telefomin

Telefomin market

Day 2 - Church working bee

The description given to me the day before had been a bit sketchy. I had managed to make out that it was something to do with church and something to do with carrying timber. All was revealed as we went for a walk out of town, met up with other people, and eventually arrived at a sawmill with a neat pile of sawn timber nearby. The task was to carry the timber back down the bush track to the road. It would be collected later and used to build a new house for the pastor.

Joyce took me to one side and explained that I could sit in the shade and one of them would sit with me while the other carried some wood. When the first one came back, they would swap over. I said that I could help too, and pointed out that there were kids carrying timber so surely I would be able to! They let me take some (although it was about half as much as they were carrying). We made three trips in and out of the bush, and after the third I decided to call it a day and sit and talk with some 'mamas' who had also finished their work.

After all the timber had been carried we were all invited back to the pastor's current house for lunch. It was very humbling how much people appreciated me sitting on the ground like they were and eating the same food.

See, I can help!

Joyce (L) and Vero (R)

Stacking the timber at the road for collection

Lunch