Tatana Village

MedCAP [read: Medical Civilian Assistance Program] to Tatana, day one. Tatana is a small island community connected to mainland PNG by a small land bridge not very far from Port Moresby. It is a mountain shaped island with most all inhabitants living on the water's edge on stilted houses. Interestingly there is no fresh water is available on island as such they must trek water in, a job done solely by women, hauling 20L tanks of water to and from the water tank/well. People are very close with each other, they are forced to be close, living on a small island necessitates that. So they all talk about ecah other like gossip you might hear at lunch in high school. Children flock together and play like as if a kabbutz. It is a beautiful village with a great view. The people were exceptionally nice, many of them make what money they have by fishing.
I set up shop on a table up stairs in the church hall next to the window with a view of the water and windows that let in light and a cool sea breeze. The day went by so quickly, it seemed like I had hardly started seeing patients when the end of the line found its way inside.
The next day I returned to Tatana, getting a warm greeting from the community just like before. Outside, next to the line of people looking for medical care is a group of people who needed no further healthcare... I say this because they were strong young men playing a very competitive game of volleyball, the likes of which would hold its own weight even on the sand courts of Mission or Huntington Beaches. This day my personal goal was to give everyone smoking and betelnut cessation advice. This is on top of the ergonomics, exercise, and stretching counseling I would give everyone I wrote NSAID treatment for. Ergonomics is a big problem here--the woment stay hunched over for long periods time doing repetative tasks such as washing clothing. They do so on the floor, sitting crossed-legged, leaning forward rubing the clothes inside a big bowl of soapy water in front of them. What you will never see is them put the bowl on a table so that the whole operation is at elbow level.
Later that night we tried betelnut with Sonia--it was her last night. Betelnut is chewed with much ritual. first you shuck the betelnut, exposing the seed which you can pack in your cheek. Next you grab a kava (member of the pepper family) seed pod and lick it, dip it in Lyme (Calcium Carbonate) and add that to your mouth's mixture. Once the chemicals combine you start looking much closer so someone with red paint in their mouth than anything else. The stuff gives you a quick buzz, lightheadedness, flushing, and increased heart rate--but most of all it causes you to perpetually spit nasty red looking stuff. I know its terrible for you. I saw people all day long who had dental and oral medical problems, even cancer, from chronic betelnut chewing. Nonetheless, we couldn't leave PNG without trying it once. (I understand the irony of this in relation to what I wrote in the previous paragraph) Needless to say, I'm quite sure that this was the last time we tried the stuff, it tasted like stink and left your mouth feeling like you just chewed on a piece of chalk.

Bon Voyage,
~Nic