November 14, 2008

 

Greetings from Wamena! 

 

We have been back now for almost a month. 

 

Our trip from California was slightly more eventful than desired.  For the first time, our carry-on bags were weighed.   The limit is 7 kg and well, we were double in weight.  However, the agent told me that if I carried my camera separately it would be alright.  But I was trying to consolidate the items I would carry on . . . anyway, Kim and I were finally allowed to carry on our very heavy bags.  It didn’t occur to the agent to check Claire’s bag (which had maybe ½ pound of rocks . . . don’t ask!).

 

The rest of the trip was smooth.  We picked up my mother Betty 3 hours later at the Denpasar airport in Bali after we arrived and we stayed with some special friends in Bali.  They have created a recipe book of which proceeds of the sale goes to the clinic.  They’ve been very instrumental financially in helping the clinic continue to function and improve while Kim’s been gone.   We also met the Bogle Family in Bali (they were there for a CrossWorld All Asia conference).  It was good to catch up a little with them.  We continued onto Sentani where we had to wait for our visa documentation to be processed at the immigration office.  A couple of days later, we all went to get our fingerprinting at the immigration office, and then to the police station for more fingerprinting.  This procedure is done yearly (we wonder if they think someone else might take our place in Indonesia!) when our visa is renewed.

 

Back in Wamena, about 10 days after arriving in the country, my mother was a big help in cleaning out the pantry due to a small infestation of cockroaches and one mouse!   She unfortunately had several incidents with the mouse including when it got trapped in her bedroom and was trying to get out via the door and bedroom window.   At midnight she and Kim were “mouse hunting.”   But it’s hard to kill a mouse when it runs up your leg . . . that happened to Kim!   After about 3 weeks living in the house, Claire and I trapped it on lem tikus (glue) baited with a little granola.  All is quiet now. J

 

Claire is back to school.  Her class has four 4th graders, and three 6^th graders.   She has settled back well and is enjoying the routine of going to school although she still isn’t too keen to bicycle to school every morning.  Pray for strength, energy and safety each morning as she and I weave through trishaws, pedestrians, dogs and even pigs as we take 15-20 minutes to bicycle to school.

 

The cost of things have gone up while we’ve been gone at least about 20 percent.  I am trying to adjust to the higher price of foodstuff, airfare, and fuel, and I worry about how many Papuans are dealing in the price fluctuations as many don’t have regular salaries.  Fortunately, many of them have gardens, so are almost guaranteed a source of vegetables and sweet potato.

 

Meanwhile, Kim has been busy at the clinic.  He’s back to coordinating the building and equipment repair/maintenance, administrative issues, liaisons and meeting with non governmental organizations (NGO), government and church officials as well as, most importantly, treating patients.  Unfortunately, the time he has available for seeing patients has been limited due to all the other demands.

 

It’s been hard to see many NGO’s come to Papua wanting to educate Papuans about HIV/AIDS but when asked about helping to treat and counsel AIDS patients (this includes constructing a building to provide this care), there are no funds available. 

 

 

 

 

Above: Kim being welcomed back by Bapak (Mr.) Mahn.  Everyone gave him hugs.

 

There is now 18 clinic staff (including night guards).   Three of them handle the HIV/AIDS counseling, spiritual encouragement and reporting to the government.  Unfortunately, the staff are having to do all their work in one room due to space constraints in the current building.  Please pray that somehow the clinic will get funds to build, and someone to supervise the construction (Kim cannot do this as well, so if there is no one else, it will not happen) of a separate building for the counseling center.  Privacy of each individual is imperative and is becoming a challenge as more people feel they have a right to know who the AIDS victims are.  It may not seem terrible to us who are reading this, but Kim, Ben and the staff have found that even with education, families are taking their young adults back to the villages to die or simply to kill them.  Superstition and ignorance prevail.  Our landlord who is an educated Papuan told me yesterday that one could get AIDS from clothing.  When I tried to explain that it did not, he was very confident that I was wrong and chose not to believe me!

 

Even with the downers (like finding out that one of the night guards had siphoned off $500 worth of diesel out of two drums – he lost his job); Kim is finding satisfaction in being to help those who come seeking medical care – like the baby with TB, or the young girl who was raped and now has AIDS, or the child who has pneumonia and is gasping for air.

 

Thank you for your expressions of prayer, support and care for these Papuans who need loving, compassionate and Christ-like medical care.

 

Serving together for the Kingdom,

 

Grace (for Kim & Claire)

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:   Kim and Grace have separate email addresses: 

 

To contact Kim, write to kim@duggers.org

To contact Grace, write to grace@duggers.org

To contact both of us, please send the same email to both the addresses.

 

Mailing Address:

Box 239

Sentani 99352

Papua, INDONESIA

 

Grace cell phone:  62-0812-4812361

Home phone:   62-969-32849

 

If you’d like to begin or continue supporting this ministry, you can mark your donations

 

Project 37707

 

and send to:

 

CrossWorld, PO Box 306, Bala-Cynwyd, PA 19006.