Kementian News, 10-28-07 Edition

 

10-28-07

Howdy Y'all,

Things are still going on here. We are coming along pretty well with the new clinic, despite the rain every day. The roof is nearly complete so now the rain will stop and the work on the interior begins.

There'll be two in-patient rooms, a pharmacy, a lab, and a examination room inside. Still have to put a porch on the back, doors, windows and floors in the attic in before its usable.

I've got plenty of pictures of the progress thus far, but I haven't been able to upload them. I'll be sure and let y'all know when I do get them done.

Pastor and Dwayne are seriously looking at a 25 acre tract of land down near Brooke's Point. The intention is to build an airstrip and a base of operations. Right now they are having trouble finding people with the right knowledge to get the transfer worked out legally.

The house that is our current base of operations is barely sufficient and the neighbors are less then wonderful so getting our own property would be an answer to prayer.

The real question now is if this property is what we are supposed to acquire or if God has something else in mind.

Please pray that this situation will work out.

The weather here has been a pain for the work on the clinic. Sun comes up in a clear sky and creates a nice hot morning. Then anywhere between 1000 and 1300 it starts raining. It could rain for 20min or for 5hrs. The rain and the high humidity (the lowest we've seen is 75%) makes drying clothes quite the challenge. This week it only took 1.5 days to dry the clothes and we were thrilled! We expect the rain to quite just about the time we get the roof finished.

Two weeks ago I opted to hike out to Bingbilang and Malis to assist with Sabbath School (assist as much as much very limited Palawan allows) We finally made it back in around 2000, about 2hrs after dark. That trail is challenging in the daylight, its even more so in the dark and rain!

After that I was planning on going to a close village like Tamlang last week so i could actually get some rest on Sabbath.

Pastor had been out for about 10days and finally made it in last Friday, so when he met me at church last Sabbath, he asked if I could go out to drive the Hilux. Knowing he really dreaded going out and getting stuck there, I agreed.

Lunch and cleanup took longer then expected and we finally hit the trail out about 1330. We made it to Bingbilang at just about 1500. Knowing that Sabbath School at the each location takes at least an hour plus drive time, I was expecting another dark hike.

Turns out there was a person who needed some medical attention there in Bingbilang so that took another 30min.

En route to Malis, Leonda called us on the radio to tell us we had a patient to pickup near Malis and take to the hospital.

By the time we got to Malis it was already past 1630. Leaving there about 1715 we headed off to pickup the patient. Driving down back roads and trying to avoid falling into the irrigation ditches that line the road and following directions in Palawan we finally got there, got him loaded into the truck and headed back to Bingbilang to drop of the truck full of kids. We accomplished that around 1900.

On this trip we found out about another person that needed taken to the hospital but didn't have much info. Acquiring that info took another 45min. Then we were off to find this person.

The road ran out before we got to their village so Sublitu and Naptheli headed off to find her. They made it back to the truck around 2100.

I drove back to Bingbilang to drop Sublitu and Naptheli off so they could hike into the mountains while I took the patients to the hospital and stayed the night in Brooke's.

Arriving at the hospital around 2215, we all marched into the hospital and got them checked in. While the nurses were getting them settled in, i was sent up the street to the pharmacy to collect some IVs an a few other items that i couldn't tell you what they were. And to answer the question, no, the hospital does not have its own pharmacy. It expects family members or those helping with the sick to collect the meds etc.

I finally got back to the house about 2330. Only to discover that I didn't remember the combination to the lock to get inside. Being too late to want to disturb the George's for the combination, I just crashed in the truck. I was tired enough it didn't matter much were I slept.

Woke up about 0600 and started the day off with a call to Kementian to get the code for the door. Got in, got some food and cleaned up the truck.

Ran a few errands and checked on the patients in the hospital, picked up meds for them. Took a family member back to his village to find people to donate 1500cc of blood for one patient and began my hike into Kementian about 1245.

Prior to this, I've only hiked in twice. Once in the day and once at night. Both times following someone. This time I was alone, praying I could remember the way.

Turns out I did remember it and made it to Kementian in 1hr and 25min.

Sometime along in that mess I managed to find a stick sticking off the side of the road that quite neatly took off the passenger mirror and scratched the front fender and door. I checked, but the mirror is not repairable. It'll have to be replaced.

I was kinda worried about being on the trail alone as I wasn't entirely sure of the way nor did i want to do the hike alone. Its always more 'fun' with friends along. Not to mention should i fall on one of the numerous slippery sections of the trail and hurt myself.

In the end, I had a very enjoyable and quite relaxing hike. I took my time, took pictures and had a nearly 90min prayer time going. By the time I got to Kementian, I was in a much better mood and my mind was quite clear.

Sometimes the 'worst' turns out quite good.

Starting to look at putting up the HF rig and discovered that the antenna had an unfortunate meeting with a lawn mower. I haven't strung it out yet to see whether it is salvageable or not. I should have acquired that HF antenna that I was toying with getting before I came over.

The HF rigs and antenna tuner are supposed to work, but haven't been tried in years. Gotta get them out and plug them in to see whats what.

Pastor said that he does not have a Philippine license as they didn't seem to care all that much when he brought the equipment in.

I'm tempted to check into getting a Philippine radio license so I can play with making some contacts with an RPI call sign. We shall see how many hoops need jumping through to get that to happen.

I thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. They are much appreciated.

I pray God blesses each one of you and all of your families.

Nathan

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

 

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

Life continues here in Kemantian. I've been here just over one month. In some aspects its rally flown, and in another regard, its crawled by. Its all good.

In some aspects its just as busy as home, in some other aspects its much slower, and in a few aspects its much busier then home. Its kinda hard to explain.

Let me see if I can describe a typical day here.

Sun comes up around 0545-0600 right now, we are up and about by 0600.

Between 0600 and 0800 we have our personal devotions, shower, fix and eat breakfast, and any other chores that need done. After home where I did all that in half the time, I don't know how I did it.

0800 starts the day officially (unless it was preempted for some urgent reason) Thats when we head out for a couple hours of language learning. Ideally that is, its happened often enough that I've got called off to work on something else that its not an all the time event.

1000 we set off to our various tasks.

This continues till about 1200 when we head back to get something to eat.

By the time you cook something up, eat it, clean up and get headed back out, its typically about an hour or so.

1300-1700 is more taking care of what needs done which seems to be never ending. At present, most of our time has been taken working on the new clinic.

About 1700 we head back and start supper. Again, this takes at least an hour. We usually get somewhat more elaborate with supper so it does take longer.

By 1900 its dark and we are typically free for the evening. Team meeting and a few other things change that but I'm not sure what the official schedule for those are yet.

We usually turn in by about 2100. not much to do beyond that and the roosters like to make sure they now how to crow about 0300... Anybody know how to fry a chicken?

Saturday's are much the same as far as time goes, just what fills the hours differs.

Church starts at 0800 and continues through its various parts till about 1200.

Potluck follows with rarely enough to fill even the kids. So we typically go back and eat something in addition to the potluck.

After church/potluck, everyone splits up and covers a bunch of different villages to hold branch Sabbath Schools. Ranging in distance between 10min and 2hrs hike away from Kemantian.

Yesterday, Brandon and I elected to go to Bingbilang and Malis for Sabbath School. Bingbilang is the village in the lowlands very near the start of the trail. So we the entire way out. Took us about 1hr 45min. We figured we were doing pretty good.

After all the activites down there, we hit the trail back in about 1700. Seeing as its at least a 2hr hike and the sun goes down about 1800 we didn't have much time to hike in the light. With dark coming and the trail being slippery from an earlier rain, we didn't make it back in till nearly 2000. Brandon's sandals were being rather contrary and not holding his feet in a manner to make them useful. Quite a few raw spots and sores later, he was quite fed up with them.

Last time I sent out an email, it contained a story about a particular Tuesday a couple weeks ago. David Aguilar told us his side of the story last week and we were all in awe of what had transpired. I won't spoil it by telling it again here, but keep a lookout for a two-part story in an upcoming AFM Magazine. If you don't receive Frontiers, you can contact AFM and they'll get you setup. http://www.afmonline.org

Dwayne Harris is here from Gospel Ministries International with a Hughes 269-A helicopter to assist the project. He's been a wonderful help, not just with the whirly-bird, but also with the other projects we have around here. We are going to try and get the HF rig setup here in the near future so he can be in touch with several other missions here on the island in case they need help. I know the folks we bumped into in Puerto Princessa from New Tribes would be thrilled to have an emergency out should they need it. Their projects are located just on the other side of the ridge from us. About 4 days hike, but less then a 10 minute flight.

The helicopter has turned whats normally a 2hr hike into a 10min flight at most. We can't use it too much with the cost and lack of availability of AvGas, but its darn handy when it is used.

Dwayne was held up at Manila International Airport because they were out of AvGas, otherwise he would have been here about a month ago.

We discovered that Wendy had a oven that she wasn't using so we hauled it over and tried it out. Its not mom's convection oven, but it works better then nothing! I tried my hand at bread on Wednesday, and it turned out decent. A little dry, and not quite enough time in the oven. Can't complain really as this is the first time I've tried my hand at making bread. I still miss mom's bread immensely, but this will tide me over till I get home.

The weather is such up here that bread doesn't keep for more then about 3-4 days if you are lucky. So prior to this we had bread for the first week we brought from Puerto, after that we were trying to find something to fill the cracks with. Now we can actually have bread as a food and not just a treat.

Rice is the main staple up here. So far I'm not tired of it. We shall see what happens in the next 8 months.

We have been able to keep a nice stock of bananas around. Right now we are waiting on a large batch to ripen so we can eat them. I do love my bananas.

Last Friday, my radio decided to give up its ghost. Its had a habit of locking up and requiring the removal of the battery to get it functional again, but this time when i did that, it didn't come back up. It acts like it fried, but I don't see any evidence of that inside the case. I'm hoping it will resolve itself, but I somehow doubt that its going too. Seems I have a rather expensive paper weight now. Oh well, its served me well for the last 3-4 years, I just would have liked another 10mo out of it. :-)

I do believe thats enough from me.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. Its very much appreciated.

May God bless each and everyone of you as well as your entire families.

Nathan