Grandpadad as guest blogger!

We are alive and well, despite the lack of news. We've had some serious connectivity issues with our computers thanks to some change-over, so we apologize that it's been a record length of time since our last post! Thankfully, my dad has picked up the ball and wrote a lovely email with photos that I've turned into a blog post. My comments are in brackets when I've added to or clarified something.

It's been so special and fun and HELPFUL to have my parents here! My mom cooks and bakes quite a bit, giving me a much-appreciated break, and cleans up after supper, and my dad does serious bath and bedtime duty. They are always on call to come babysit when I need them, or take a couple of kids at a time down at their house just below ours. All five there at once is a bit much to manage as their excitement level shoots through the roof when they are at Grandma and Grandpadad's house!

My parents will be here another two weeks. We'll treasure every day!

Now, here's my dad:

Dear Friends and Family,

Last week I was able to ride in the helicopter with Gavin for about an hour over the land of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The weather at the landing site never cleared so we couldn’t land, but we had a nice fly about! Below are some of the pictures I took during the trip.

 

Gavin has to carefully check everything about the helicopter because there is little room for error! These images give you some idea of the challenging nature of the terrain and why a helicopter is so critical.

We also visited the Clinic to see our daughter Carrie at work.

This machine runs all kinds of chemistry tests on patients' plasma: cholesterol, uric acid, glucose, liver function, etc. I draw the blood and spin it to separate the plasma first.

[We use the microscope to identify malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, kidney disease, infections of various kinds, some STDs, and even possible blood cancers.]

She is looking for indicators of disease to help the doctors know how to treat the wide variety of sick people that show up everyday. She works with some sophisticated machinery to provide quick and accurate analyses of blood and other body fluids. [I used the wrong tube to draw blood the other day and came up with results that suggested the patients were well past dead, so the "accurate" isn't always true, but I'm learning quickly! Thank God for knowledgable staff around me who can say, "Um, that number isn't possible. S/he would be dead."]

At times, Gavin and Carrie’s roles come together. A PNG man had a slice wound across the stomach exposing intestine in a remote village and needed to evacuate as soon as possible to a hospital. Gavin was the pilot and Carrie brought to the airport the nurse who would travel with the injured man so he could receive in-flight treatment. Such a serious wound, without the helicopter, would likely lead to death.

Gavin has to give every passenger travel instructions and emergency information should the flight crash. The quints look up to their flying father! (He was flying overhead in the photo below.)

We have been enjoying our grandkids as we “family” together with the Joneses. I’m able to keep teaching since all my classes are online for NorthStar-Academy.org. I’m also preparing to teach a new class online starting in August so I’m working the Internet from here!

Jane was making her every popular banana bread and the girls got a front row seat! I often travel with Carrie in the car and the kids fall asleep with all the bouncing on the rutted dirt roads!

David and Marcie (taking my cleaning lady home)

Since the quints are enrolling in beginning (3-year-old) preschool next month, we took them to the class open house this week. They were all excited to see the new activities in store for them! Pictures are a bit blurry since the quints were on the move and hard to capture!

David "teaching" with the pointer finger

Gracie on the play computer

I’ll close for now. Thanks for your prayers for us here in the land of the unexpected and we certainly appreciate hearing from you and getting your prayer requests as well!

Blessings,

Neal for Jane and the Joneses