A busy few days!

Hi all!
Well thanks to the wonders of Skype and the power being on I just spoke with my daddy on his birthday! Great to see and hear my parents and brother back at home!
Saturday started with the little boy with the injured shoulder in theatre. Under anaesthetic we could examine his shoulder movements and work out that it was not dislocated, although his xray did show a fractured humerus. After seeing a few more patients I moved accommodation. My new accommodation is going well - I'm now living with Dr Addy who is one of the missionary doctors (and who I heard speak at a CMF meeting many years ago!). She is Indian, although her parents were missionaries in PNG for many years. She has been at Rumginae for 14years now.
I received a warm welcome, with my room nicely made up and flowers put in it, and a yummy cake in the oven! I also now have the joy of fresh bread, as she has a breadmaker! So much better than the rubbishy white bread I had to get when I arrived! There are also very few ants!!! (altho earwigs and the odd giant wasp!)
I sorted out my backpack which had grown mould due to the humidity (97% again today!) and in the evening I went for a swim in the river! I had a rough first night as the bed 'mattress' is really thin (essentially a thin slice of foam) so I had bad back pain and hardly slept. I now have another mattress underneath, which is much better!
On Sunday I tried 'sago' for the first time, which is the local staple food. It has a complicated and labour-intensive making process, involving (I think) cutting down a particular tree at a particular time, cutting open the branches and scraping out the inside, which is then washed, the liquid drained and the sediment from that collected ! The resulting powder is cooked to make a sort of plain doughy cracker.
In the evening I went on a youth secondary school gospel outreach, which was really good. Hundreds of young people from the school and some people from the town too. Some singing, dancing, testimonies, dramas and Bible readings etc and a hilarious drive back. I was packed into a dodgy bus behind a huge spare tyre and we drove back through the pitchblack jungle in the pouring rain! At points the driver was leaning out the window to see, as the windscreen was so useless!
Yesterday began with an emergency surgery for a suspected appendicitis. It ended up being very complicated and challenging. After an hour of unsuccessfully trying to insert a spinal anaesthetic we accepted defeat and went for a ketamine anaesthetic instead. The patient then promptly stopped breathing, and after being stabilised required a lot of assistance with his breathing for the rest of the operation. He also kept flailing around and needed to be restrained a lot (turned out he is an alcoholic, which explains why he kept needing so much ketamine). I was scrubbed in an assisting with the surgery, which was also difficult in itself, with plenty of pus and difficult anatomy and a very large inflamed appendix. So the appendectomy took 4 long stressful hours!
Other patients that day included a pregnant girl with pre-eclampsia (medics: no antenatal care, lots of oedema, eye problems, clonus - the lot!).
Today started with more surgery! I assisted with tubal ligation, then we had a skin closure of a healing ulcer and a sort-out of an abdominal stitch abcess. Also saw a lady with some kind of bowel to skin fistula! Then this afternoon was festivities, with the opening ceremony for the new CHW classroom block. The building was decorated with leaves and balloons and there were lots of speeches and some traditionally dressed dancers. The building was built with funding from Japan, so we had the Japanese ambassador!
We now have the MAF pilot back, as well as the family whose house I stayed in at first, so that's cool.
Much love