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My colleagues used to tell me about
flying with helicopters, they're frightened
of bad weather and other things.
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But I'm motivated to do it and feel
the challenge.
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Way before I returned to Papua, I had a
dream,
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that some day I would become a doctor
who flies all over to remote areas.
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And that dream came true.
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PEARL IN THE NOKEN
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I joined the Baliem Mission Centre (BMC)
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In the organizational structure, I'm the
medical manager.
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We have a bimonthly schedule.
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We visit some areas that are already under
BMC's purview and try to expand to another.
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First, we go North,
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to the Kaimana area.
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There, we'll find Esrotnaba lake.
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It's the center for our services. And
second, to the South, the Korowai area.
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We have strong connections with Helivida.
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Helivida is an organization that serves
and helps all of Papua's remote areas.
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In one of my trips, I flew with a Helivida
pilot, Pilot Erwin.
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We were flying at around 12 noon,
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because there was an emergency medivac
(Medical Evacuation) mission to one of the
small villages,
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near the border of Oksibil and Boven Digul.
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It's about 2 hours and 20 minutes from
Wamena.
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And the trip to Boven Digul requires
passing a mountainous area near Kurima,
Iberoma, Tama, and there are strong winds.
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Suddenly, many clouds blew in and covered
the mountains, so we couldn't see anything,
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and we couldn't fly any higher.
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So we followed the river of Baliem, followed
it up. But it was raining heavily.
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I stayed quiet. Then the pilot said,
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"Doctor Mia, please do not worry because
we need to thank God for giving us this
heavy rain.
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That means I don't have to clean this
chopper anymore,
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because God is cleaning it from heaven."
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Yes, immediately my stress disappeared.
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Everyday, I'm working at the hospital and
if suddenly there's a medivac calling from
Helivida,
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I have to be on stand-by.
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And at any time, whether it's good
weather, or bad, if there's a medivac
calling,
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if there's a pilot ready, I need to get
ready to fly to evacuate patients.
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Mum, here mum.
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He and I were nurses,
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who helped patients,
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up in remote areas.
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Even in the remote areas,
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where people are afraid to enter.
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But he and I,
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we have given our all to serve
these people.
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I get my spirit from my parents.
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Ever since I was a child, there was always
a request for my father at my house to
conduct operations
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He had to travel from night until morning,
often without rest.
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If there was a patient who needed an
operation, and the doctor called, he needed
to leave to help assist.
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Besides these complicated operations,
there was often a medivac from the MAF
(Mission Aviation Fellowship).
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He went straight away and left us for days.
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So here's a community, they've gathered
so I can conduct an examination.
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I've given them basic immunisation.
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I stayed and worked there.
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This is the local medical centre where
I worked for them.
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It's from the old days, so only black and
white, not colour like mine.
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There was a journey from Karumbaga
to Bokondini. That's far.
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It's quite far.
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So we needed to put Mia inside of a noken
(a cloth to carry a child).
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Because she's still so small.
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If she's thirsty,
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I need to put her down and feed her
some milk,
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and then continue to walk.
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We put her in a noken, and we climbed
a mountain.
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It was hard to carry her on the shoulder.
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To climb, it's difficult. And the path was
covered by trees.
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So many trees hit our heads, and many
other things.
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So we couldn't move fast.
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But with the Noken, we can walk fast.
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Even when we climb up a mountain, we can
hold on to a root. Easy, right?
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I have an story from when I was working in
Wamena in 2009, and began to work in the
Emergency Hospital there.
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Suddenly a fight occurred between some
tribes.
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And many of these victims were carried to
the Emergency Hospital in Wamena.
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A senior nurse came and just touched my
head like this.
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Yes, I understood what it meant.
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She just held and touched my head like this.
It means that she has once carried me in
her Noken.
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And that her head had once carried me.
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I need to return all the kindness that's
been given to me by my sisters and
brothers, who I call the hands of God.
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Money will never be enough.
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I must return all the kindness and love
that they've given to me.
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I'm giving it back to all the people I've
ever treated.
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I don't have any passion to start my own
medical business,
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to make money from my patients,
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just to take care of my own welfare.
No!
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For me, a doctor is a healer. That's all.