14 - the Jack of all trades.

Blog 14- a long night tonight as another nasty assault at a PNG village spills it's human carnage across the water to Saibai. A poor woman who was septic from wounds that she received months ago, has resulted the need for a medivac. So after being at the clinic from midnight to 10 am on this day off I was thrilled to have a bit of time for a snooze. I'm still on call til 8 am, so praying for a quiet afternoon.

History. I had the opportunity to chat to Uncle Cedric this afternoon. An elder. He toldmme about the island in detail and the clans. There were 5 clans. Aik, crocodile, snake, emu and shark people. They used to live all over the island but some years ago the island was devastated by a king tide that washed the 5 clans away. In the spirit of community, it was decided to bring all the people together in one village. Some of the clans decided to relocate to the tip-of cape York (3 weeks by canoe) .  This community became to villages called Bamaga and Seisa.  Some of the old people on the island still use these names as their surname.  Each house in this village has the totem animal painted on their house to denote which clan is their heritage. On many house lots there are four or five families living in dwellings  all on the same block of land. If a villager needs our help and can't CRT themselves to the clinic, we go out in the ambulane and collect them from their home.  A medical door to door service.  It is a service and does get abused as a taki run. I just got a call from an old lady flying back to Saibai from horn island . She has asked me to collect her at 515 and drop her home. Well I'm not doing anything else so why not.

So far on this last 2 weeks I've been a vet, a midwife, a nurse, a coffee boy , a laundry maid, and now a taxi.... It kinda cool.

Ohhh I better go it's 5:10  ... I don't want to keep her waiting.