Beyond Borders by Vera Kühne

Author:Vera Kühne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Books on Demand
Published: 2017-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Community in Paradise

Lusciously green hills, mountains, bizarre widely protruding trees on the heights, palm trees and tall grass – this was the first impression I had of Papua New Guinea from the aircraft window. It looked different from everything that I had seen up until then – wilder, more pristine. On the last leg of the journey the people, too, looked different – they were almost all indigenous people. Their bodies were small and petite, their skin was not anywhere near as dark as the Dinka’s, they had long noses with a flat bridge and wild, kinky hair which jutted out from the head. They made a very friendly, good-tempered, almost silent impression which didn’t fit at all with the stories I had read about cannibals and shrunken heads.

Papua New Guinea is the third biggest island state in the South Pacific. Via Cairns in Australia and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital city, I landed in Rabaul in the eastern part of the island of New Britain.

In 1994 the harbour town was buried under two metres of ash after a volcanic eruption of Tavurvur when the majority of town was destroyed. Since then, most of the houses have been rebuilt and the road has been dug out again, too. Overall, Rabaul still appeared more urban and more civilised than I had expected.

Brigitta picked me up from the small airport in a VW bus. She wore a colourful sarong and was as jovial as she had been in Bamberg (Germany). She committed to staying in Papua New Guinea as a gynaecologist for three years. We drove towards Vunapope on the other side of the bay, through a section of lunar landscape – ash hills, several metres high, piled up on the left and right along the roadside, remains of the natural disaster. Apart from that the roads were sealed, I saw small shops, cafés and even a big supermarket.

Soon we reached Vunapope, a suburb of Kokopo. This is where the biggest Catholic missionary station in Melanesia is located, to which St. Mary’s Hospital of Vunapope also belongs. Tropical flowers, cacao trees and banana palms grew on the extensive hospital premises. Through a palm grove I saw the shimmering sea and three volcanic cones, one of which was smoking – an almost primeval landscape.

Brigitta and the other doctors were accommodated in several simple wooden houses built in colonial style, located next to the hospital. On the shady patio Brigitta served us gin and tonic: “This is the only alcohol which the Sisters allow us to drink – because of the quinine against malaria”, she winked at me. The abundance of vegetation, the luscious colours and the high humidity caused me to feel kind of dazed. A massive colourful butterfly, bigger than the palm of my hand, landed on the wooden railing of the patio. This was totally different from Rumbek.

Later on, I met the other three young women who shared the house with Brigitta: Clara was from Italy; Elaine was

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