Keep family and friends informed by sharing this article. It had been a frustrating Sunday. And then, a lifeline. He offered us a lift. We were happy to get out and visit a new site. But, as so often is the case in Papua New Guinea, plans changed. Dr Jacob had been at the Togoba Mega Clinic and had performed cataract surgeries. An energetic man, Dr Jacob is such a master of his art, he can do hundreds of cataract surgeries in a day, taking less than a couple of minutes for each eye.
Since the plan had changed, we weighed up going to the Minj site. In the end we decided to join the crew going out to Minj, so I could interview Dr Jacob on the bus ride out. Our bus was owned and driven by Aaron Molunga, a member of Uknathan church. We were accompanied by another local youth member from Kimininga church, Peter Rime. The six of us sat in the bus, awaiting a police escort. Dr Jacob had been escorted in his travels as a VIP and on the previous night had a run-in on the road home with a drunk driver almost taking out his transport.
The Police Area Commissioner, who had accompanied him, had apprehended the driver and miraculously, no one was hurt. So they were keen to wait. But as time ticked by, we needed to set off or we would miss the meeting at Minj.
The decision was made to set off without waiting. The escort could meet us on the way or catch up. As we set out, the sun was still up. As is the way in PNG, people were walking close to the road on either side.
We were travelling quite quickly to make up time and yet were still passed by another bus, similar to ours but fully loaded. The rain set in; before long it was quite heavy. It quickly got dark. Suddenly, like an unseen hand had given it a shove, the back of the bus slid out. I grabbed the seat in front as the bus started to fishtail up the road, each slide from side to side seemingly longer than the last. Time slowed down as the driver fought to regain control over the skittish beast.
