{"id":1904,"date":"2016-06-09T21:44:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T01:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2016-06-21T19:59:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T09:59:09","slug":"tribal-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/2016\/06\/tribal-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"tribal trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I mentioned that I was heading into a tribal location to help our medical staff run a vaccine clinic, but due to some inclement weather on both ends, it was delayed until the next day.<\/p>\n

\"View
View from my window.
Michaela Huebner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since we knew that the weather in this location can get real bad real fast, we opted for a dawn departure to make sure we got in before the weather turned sour. This means leaving our center at 5am, driving to the hangar where minimal staff prep and load the airplane so we can leave by the time the sun rises. After about 30 minutes in the air, and a breathtaking sunrise, we landed on an airstrip that\u2019s about a six-hour hike from the village we were aiming for.<\/p>\n

\"Tribal
Tribal airstrip. 6 hours from our final destination. See the helicopter waiting for us?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Everyone
Everyone in the area comes to watch the missionaries unload from one aircraft and reload into another. They don’t talk, just watch.
Michaela Huebner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This particular airstrip is on a mountain ridge-top that seems to be just long and just wide enough for it. There isn\u2019t much on either side except trees and rocks heading straight down. Oh, and you land going up hill (take off going downhill). It\u2019s a fantastic sight!<\/p>\n

\"On
On the return journey, I got to sit in the front seat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"shaking-hands\"
That’s a lot of hands to shake! Chris Walker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were met there by a helicopter that would shuttle us and cargo in 2 groups over to the village; I\u2019m so glad we could skip the six-hour hike! This was my first ever bush trip, and I had no idea what to expect. Once on the ground, we were greeted by the whole village! They lined up from the \u201cheli-pad\u201d to the door of the makeshift clinic so that we could shake everybody\u2019s hand and greet them.<\/p>\n

After the first \u201cgroup\u201d of handshakes was a wall of greenery; big palm branches and banana leaves formed a beautiful arch. Suddenly music and singing came from behind the green wall \u2013 there was a group of guitars serenading us as we walked through the green arch, received a beautiful hand-woven lei (marigolds and hibiscus) from the young women of the village, and shook even more hands right up to the door! It was a welcome I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

\"erin-lei\"
Shaking hands and taking selfies is super hard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Everyone
Everyone is going to sit and wait their turn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since our time was limited to a one day clinic instead of two, we jumped right to work. One of our nurses showed me how to draw vaccines from the vials into the syringes, and gave me a lesson in shot-giving. We set up different stations: a \u201ccheck-in\u201d where some of the church\/village leaders greeted and signed in patients, recording their names and ages. Next was a washing station, where arms and legs were washed with soap and water so the shots could be given without introducing infection. Next patients received up to 5 vaccines (some oral). Finally, there was the lollypop station, where everyone received a reward for letting us stick them with needles.<\/p>\n

\"They
They let me give shots!
Chris Walker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We started with the kids, and went until we were finished with all ~250 of them before we broke for lunch. I learned that squirming and screaming kids are really hard to give shots to, and that leg muscles (when squeezed tightly) can bend a needle.<\/p>\n

We finished with the kids about lunch time and when I looked outside I saw \u2013 nothing! It was completely socked in with clouds. Not rain, not fog, not mist \u2013 normal clouds. Because of the elevation and location of this village, the clouds just roll right through the village in the middle of the day.<\/p>\n

\"That's
That’s the missionaries house, in the middle of the day!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lunch was simple and quick \u2013 pizza rolls, and for those of us brave enough to try it \u2013 roasted guinea pig. Yes, you read that right. Hey, I tried it!<\/p>\n

After lunch we got back to work, this time vaccinating all the adults.\u00a0\u00a0At the end of the day we saw about 440 people from two villages, and gave somewhere in the ballpark of 2000 vaccines.<\/p>\n

We all went to bed really early, and were up early for another dawn departure to reverse the process (helicopter, Kodiak) to take us back home. It was a whirlwind, but so amazing to be a part of! Preaching isn\u2019t always with a Bible, sometimes it\u2019s by giving vaccines to keep a village healthy so they can live long enough to become missionaries themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Wish
Wish I had gotten a picture of this sweet, chunky baby! And later we had to give him shots. :(
Chris Walker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I mentioned that I was heading into a tribal location to help our medical staff run a vaccine clinic, but due to some inclement weather on both ends, it was delayed until the next day. Since we knew that the weather in this location can get real bad real fast, we opted for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1080,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1239,125,1249,448,91613,1196,68449,85834,637,2147,490,638,152,86387],"class_list":["post-1904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","tag-aviation","tag-culture","tag-erin","tag-ethnos360","tag-josh-and-erin-verdonck","tag-missionary-aviation","tag-missionary-aviation-png","tag-missionary-life","tag-new-tribes-mission","tag-new-tribes-mission-aviation","tag-ntma","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-partnership-development","tag-quest-kodiak","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1080"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/josh-verdonck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}