Arefi village

Last Saturday, we visited Arefi village (the largest village near Birie Island), together with Dr. John Egli – who came to Papua Paradise last year – to do some GP medical care for the local Papuan villagers. The morning started a little slow when we got there; we had plenty of time to set up our little ‘pharmacy’ with Dr. Egli’s medical supplies and then within an hour, we had given out over 20 number tags to patients! Subsequently, people streamed in and asked to see the doc.

We got into a smooth routine of Erick being in the consultation room with Dr. Egli to help translate in Indonesian, and I was given the intricate task of dispensing drugs and taking blood pressure readings. It was really good fun mingling with the villagers in my sputtering Indonesian and laughing at the children’s antics. Dr. Egli was very conscientious with his patients and the kids certainly found him amusing! He encountered all the common ailments including sore throat, cold, back pain and high blood pressure, plus some fairly unique cases.

At the end of the day, we saw a total of 76 patients, triple of what Dr. Egli normally sees in a day! Hopefully everyone’s on the road to recovery. Given back to the community today, the team’s done well! 🙂