The Man and I lived in Papua New Guinea for three years.
I tell people that I learned to drink gin and play cards, which was true. As a CWA ( Country Womens Institute) member I also used to help with the weekly purchase of vegetables for the children's ward of the local hospital, and at Christmas time we would help play Santa
This is an entry from my diary, Dated December 20 2009. Andrew, Anna and Paul were Nationals who worked at the CWA.
Today I went with the other expat
wives to distribute toys and gifts bought by CWA to the local hospital. Andrew,
Anna and Paul, the national workers at C.W.A came with us.
Andrew was beamed delightedly as
he pushed the trolley with our boxes. He announced our arrival in each ward
with obvious relish and thoroughly enjoyed helping to distribute the gifts and
tee shirts.
We visited the children’s ward
first. What an eye opener. The beds were just slatted wooden platforms about
18’ above the floor and the little patients lay directly on them. Small babies
were lying partly on pillows. Parents were very much in evidence and with
pillows alongside the beds were obviously sleeping on the floor alongside.
On
one side, of the ward near the door a premmie baby who looked about 32 weeks lay
naked in a small wooden cot. Ordinary fluorescent tubes were balanced across
the top, obviously a primitive version of phototherapy for jaundice. Taped over
the baby’s eyes were cut down adult eye-pads. At the other end of the ward an emaciated skeletal
girl lay very still on the thin mattress, hardly covered by the not very clean looking
sheet,. There were a couple of babies with quite severe sounding wheezy coughs who
sounded as though they should have been on oxygen, or at least a nebuliser. Several
of the children had obviously infected
wounds, and saddest of all a tiny baby who had been born at the hospital only the
week before who had been discharged home with its mum, then readmitted that day
because its moth had died
We went next to the maternity
ward; the only difference in the beds was their size and height from the floor.
The women were cheery and the babies beautiful, one or two had been born
earlier that day. On a bed behind a curtain the still form of a thin woman lay,
covered with a sheet, a drip was up and I could see a very full catheter bag
lying on the floor. A very pregnant girl paced up and down slowly, between the
two rows of beds. She paused regularly; face creased with the effort of her
contractions, and leaned into the older woman who was walking silently beside
her.
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