Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition
Howdy y'all!
Thursday started out like most any other day, with one exception. We were all anticipating the evening meal that Tammy and Leonda were working on.
Work proceeded as normal with a little extra checking of the time to see how much longer till we went down to play games till the food was ready. The weather finally gave us a bit of a break in that it didn't rain all morning, just most of it. There was enough break in the rain that it was decided that if Chris could get free in the lowlands, that Dwayne was going to fly out and pick him and the groceries up. In the end it turned out that Chris had to stay down there and baby-sit a few patients so was unable to come in. The river's were flooded enough that Chris wasn't able to cross them to get the groceries to the trail head for someone to bring them in either. So many substitutions were made in the recipes.
Sometime mid-afternoon, we were informed that we could head down around 1600 to play games.
Getting everything wrapped up took a bit longer then expected so we were just about ready to head down when we got a radio call from Kensuli that there was gentleman there with a large cut in his foot that hadn't quite bleeding in about 36hrs. Somebody needed to go stitch him up.
To get to Kensuli from Kementian, you have to cross the Tamlang (Pronounced Tom-Long) river as well as several smaller creeks. Usually a 30-45min hike down to the river and up the other side to Kensuli. Since Thursday was the first day in about 5 that it hadn't rained all day, these water ways were very flooded. Pastor had tried to get to Kensuli earlier Thursday morning and had to turn back at one of the creeks. The Tamlang has a rope across it so that was passable.
With the injured person in Kensuli needing attention, Dwayne fired up the helicopter. We kept waiting for him to take off, but he kept getting out to look at the tail rotor. Apparently the incessant rain had filled one of the blades with water, making it out of balance. Dwayne was able to get it drained and took off with David, 10min later then anticipated. By now its nearly 1700, it gets too dark to fly by about 1805. The flight is maybe 3min to Kensuli, but stitching takes time.
The rest of us headed down to Pastor's house praying that they'd make it back in time.
About 1810, we heard the helicopter fly over and we jumped on the radio to contact Kensuli to see if David had come back as well (he had said he'd stay if it was needed). We were saddened by the news that David was still in Kensuli.
David is a big fan of food. Thanksgiving has a lot of food. David had been talking about the food for well over the past week and was very eagerly awaiting the meal. This, coupled with the simple fact that we wanted as much of the team together as possible, and that David didn't need to stay the night, but had simply finished about 10min too late to catch a ride back on the helicopter, made us quite sad.
A quick consultation of the problem and it was decided that we should at least try to get him home. Pastor said the creek was passable if a rope was available. So Brandon, Napthali, and myself took a rope and headed out to get David.
Crossing the Tamlang was kinda fun actually, you hold onto the rope and work your way across hand-over-hand while your body is essentially surfing across the top of the current. Not to hard, but your tired from fighting the current once you get to the other side.
Once the three of us had made it across the Tamlang, we set off down the trail. In about 10min hiking we came to the creek (whose name I don't know) with David on the other side. This creek is normally a docile, pretty babling little creek. After all the rain, it was just shy of waist deep and moving very swiftly.
With nothing to tie the rope too on our side, Brandon and I anchored the rope to ourselves and braced against the rocks. Napthali waded out as far as he could and tossed the other end to David. Once the rope was there, it was quite easy and he made it across in no time.
The rest of the trip back is simply a reverse of the trip across save one small detail. David has lost nearly 30lbs since arriving here over a year ago and his shorts are over sized. As a result Pastor had recommended that he remove the shorts to keep them from becoming a sail in the water and pulling him off the rope of the Tamlang. So this he did, leaving him in his boxers. The problem is, boxers have no way of being tightened around the waist and on David's first attempt to cross, it became clear that the boxers weren't going to stay on. Saying that these were a good pair of boxers, he took them off and proceeded to cross. Brandon was on the opposite shore with myself on the home side when David came across. Brandon's headlamp is very bright and while he was laughing at David, he kept looking across the river right at David. This tended to keep David in the spotlight. If it hadn't been for the light, it was more then dark enough to keep everything hidden.
Due to this little streaking experience, I very nearly titled this story “Naked in the Tamlang”
Once we made it back to the George's to sit down and have our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, it was 2000, yes, we were quite hungry and ate huge portions.
Leonda and Tammy had spent at least the afternoon in the kitchen and had made a veritable feast. I honestly hadn't expected nearly that much food and was pleasantly surprised how many of the items I'm used to seeing at home were on the table. Grandma's gluten wasn't there, though I think I survived without it. I'll just have to eat double next year!
As with any holiday, the most important part is family. Since I'm out here, I was missing family a lot. I was able to talk to the folks on Wednesday morning, which was very nice, but its just not the same as having them there.
I've a great many things to be thankful for this year. Far too many to begin listing here, but the foremost items on my list are these:
A loving God who cares and protects even little ole' me.
And, family and friends who show they care by keeping in touch when its oh so easy to just forget that I'm on the other side of the world missing them terribly.
If you could keep a couple items in prayer for me, I would be greatly appreciative.
First, my learning of the language is far behind schedule. I know a few words and phrases, but I'm not where I should be. This is partly due to weather, schedule, and a few various other things, but the single biggest problem is a mental block. I'm not averse to learning the language, in fact I want to, but something isn't working right. If you'd keep that in prayer.
The other request is a silent. I need prayer for it, but don't want to expound on the details.
I pray this letter finds you all quite stuffed from Thanksgiving, reminded how much you have to be thankful for, and blessed.
Take care and God bless!
Nathan
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