Pryor’s in PNG
The Gecko
If you told me the story I am about to tell you, I would not believe you. I promise you that it’s true. I will even provide photographical evidence. No names, or events have been altered, and this is not based on a true story, it is a true story. Having the right tools for the job is very important. I’m a person who loves tools, especially having the right tool for the particular task I’m working on. I was happy for Karie when a local business manager donated our massive photocopier and printer. For the amount of lessons and assignments that she has had to print for the FODE school, it was definitely what she needed. She has printed thousands of pages to help the students realize their dream of completing their high school education. Just recently it stopped working. We could not figure out why. It put us in a bit of a bind trying to keep up with the printing, but Karie has managed somehow. I took the back panel off to see if it was blown fuse. I could also smell something like burnt wires, which I know is not good. Well it was not something simple, so I took it to the place where we purchased it to see if they could fix it. They found what was wrong with it. In this case it was something small, but proved to be costly. A gecko had crawled across the main circuit board when it was turned on, and had died while short circuiting the main power board. For the price of a new circuit board (roughly $600) the photocopier will be up and running in a few weeks. Who knew that something so small could cause so much damage? You never realize how much you use or count on something until it’s not there anymore. We found out how much we need the photocopier to keep the FODE school operational. We also have learned that while being a tiny animal, gecko’s can reek havoc on your bank account if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Be careful out there.
Numbers
3 missionaries, 10 full time national staff. 2017 has brought with it some changes. We realized that maybe we haven’t shared with you the growth and development of the project that seems to happen daily here. OIPNG is made up full-time missionaries Jesse and Karie Pryor and Isaac Aughenbaugh. We can’t do the work alone so we have hired 3 nurses, 1 storekeeper, 1 construction foreman , 2 assistant elementary school teachers to assist the 3 government subsidized elementary teachers. In addition to these full time employees OIPNG provides regular part-time employment for 9 more men as drivers of the boats, mowers for the grounds and airstrip, sawmillers and chainsaw operators. Another 15-20 men and women are employed seasonally for construction work and milling. I know you are asking where does the money come to support this huge work force. Our full time staff are about 70% paid from the profits of the small store we run at the clinic. This store began as a way to employ our nursing staff. We offer customers more than 200 items as rice, tinned fish, crackers, salt, nails, razors, cloth, thread, cloth diapers, plastic pants, school supplies and housewares, soaps, bleach etc. We take great pride in knowing that the items we offer are kept to a minimal markup and well stocked so that people will be able get items in the village that they would normally have to go to town to get.
Record keeping has also improved for OIPNG in the last few years. As operations grow we have enjoyed seeing the numbers move. In 2015 we offered vaccinations and in 3 days saw more than 300 children come and be vaccinated. 2016 we offered vaccinations each month and 486 came to be vaccinated. This year our numbers are increasing so fast that it is possible we will double that number.
4,477 is the number of pieces timber milled by OIPNG last year. This gave us a total of 26,555.37 board feet. We now have 2 portable sawmills and when they both are running we are able to produce a large amount of timber very quickly. Speed is important because we only have enough water in our creek to float the timber home for a few months. When the dry season comes the creek dries up stranding our timber miles away and turns a 6 hour motor canoe trip to pick them up into a 12 hour trip. This year timber is being milled to complete Isaac’s house, a nursing staff house, a labor and delivery ward at the clinic and the FODE classroom.
Our school numbers this year are interesting as well. The Samban Central Elementary School has 174 students in Kindergarten through grade 2. The Ap Ma FODE Centre has 35 enrolled students in the first term. These are grades 7-12. Right now we are forcing enrolment down because of a teacher shortage. We are hoping that some of the FODE students will be accepted into teacher training schools after graduation so that we can enrol as many students as possible.
Some people are literary. A story is all they need to feel totally connected to life here in PNG. Some of us need the numbers to help gain a sense of the scope of the work and the ways in which it is growing and changing. I hope it seeing OIPNG in numbers paints a different sort of picture.
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