#8- Sunday in the Roman Paradise

Sunday in the Roman paradise
Well I wake this morning, and back on the job at 7:30. Today is my second day off (the clinic is open m-f) but the nature of seeing emergencies often requires that you do follow up and reviews, dressings and bloodtests.   Due to this malaria outbreak, any patient who presents with vague flu symptoms and a fever over 38.5 requires a finger prick malaria tests daily for three days, so we are obliged to do these, and part of the nature of this job, is that often these villagers won't return for follow up, so we go out and find them.
This work is so far removed from what I usually do, that it actually feels like a novelty.  

This took about an hour and a half, so after 9am, the day was all mine as I handed the on call "baton" over to Teresa, another nurse. And what a magnificent day it was too. Today for the first day that I've been here, the sun came out.  It was amazing. The water of the Arafura Sea was like a melted aquamarine gem with deep blue sapphires peppering the waters. Barramundi, turtles, reef fish and stingrays could be seen clearly, and a gentle breeze was whispering through the coconut palms... It was like a holiday paradise.

At 9:30 the church bells at the Holy Trinity were ringing to call villagers to worship. When in Rome you do as the Romans do, right??  So I went to church. 
It was incredible, all the women were wearing bright floral dresses, some of the elderly men in cloth skirts like a Fijian sulu. You take off your sandals before you enter and sit on wooden pews in a stone whitewashed church with beautiful stained glass windows.  At the centre of the mahogany raked roof trusses was a life size wooden crucifix with a Black Jesus, and two black angels blowing trumpets. 
The sermon was in creole which is a broken English spoken across the islands of the Torres. Whilst some of the sentences were lost on me I actually understood the gist of the message which was delivered with power by the priest. Good solid teaching about using your faith, not just having faith. A dear friend of mine Katrina, put it this way..."if your faith hasn't changed you then your faith hasn't saved you".

After the sermon, there was lots of singing and very loud wailing and whistling and some good old fashioned hymns, with and island drum as the only instrument. It was awesome. The voices of those nanas in mumus, was like a legion of angels singing... Man they can bang out a tune.

After the service, I decided to wander down to the boat ramp and jetty, and wet my line. I wandered down with one of the school teachers who i met at church and within minutes, we were surrounded by 9 kids aged 4-14 to teach us how to fish. One small boy called George put it best by saying..."Mr Rab (Rob) mifala know youfala know how to fish, but mifala will teachim how you catchem fish."  and boy could this kid catch fish. I was there for 2 hours and he and the other kids were pulling in fish after fish. Their bucked looked like an aquarium.
Me... Nada! Nil! Zip! But it was a great afternoon chatting to the local kids about fishing, and their customs and their aspirations.

Tonight I sit in my flat reflecting on the best day here so far. The icing on that cake, was a mice long chat with Jo and Ben and Amy.  I really wish that they could be here to experience this with me. It really is an amazing experience.

Tonight marks the end of my first week on Saibai. I have so many great stories and have learned so much already. I think to really feel comfortable here you need to immerse yourself in the lifestyle and the culture.  I'm trying my best to do that, but speaking Roman when in Rome is not as easy as I thought it would be... But I'm game on for the challenge!!