Paul

This is Paul. He's one of the workers at the school property. At the moment he's doing upgrades on the toilet block (making it into a toilet and shower block - it's made an incredible difference!), building drains and generally doing renovations around the property. This year he and Greg have also built an extra classroom and when the land ownership debates are resolved, in God's timing, they will start building the school on the property next door.

Paul has been working very hard this year – he’s worked some very long hours to get the building projects done and has not taken any time off. He's a really strong man and doesn't seem to be affected by the various sicknesses going around. Usually that is!

Last week he was very sick! He told me he felt weak, achy and had a headache but just assumed it was from working so hard. After a few days the pains got worse so he rested over the weekend, still thinking he had been working too hard. Monday brought a very different story! He woke up with fever and chills - typical signs of malaria - so he took the day off to go to the doctor. 

The doctor did the malaria check and found out that Paul had 360 parasites in his body. Yes, 360!!!!! That is off-the-charts high and it’s unfathomable that he had been working with that going on in his system! Anything over 10 is high and Paul had 360!! Apparently one of the doctors said, “Yu strongpela man tru!! Klostu bai yu kamap ded man!!” which means, “You are an unbelievably strong man, you’re nearly dead!” The nurses were horrified and couldn’t believe that Paul was even managing to walk by himself, let alone work. Most people would have been laid up in bed for days already. That just confirms how tough Paul really is!! He took the week off work, but it was a struggle for him to do that. When I popped in one afternoon he was there painting. I promptly told him to go and rest! He told me he realised that his body was too weak for working, but he was so sick of laying down that he thought he’d do a little bit J On Sunday he told me that he only stayed for about an hour because he got too tired. No wonder!!

It is very common that people get malaria here. There are a lot of mosquitoes and with the wet season upon us, there are even more. Many of these mozzies carry the malaria virus. Most people from PNG tend to have malaria in their system, which can stay dormant for many months before flaring up when they are a bit run down. I would say it’s as common as a cold/flu in Australia. We get colds, they get malaria. The people here also are not as ‘afraid’ of malaria as we white skins tend to be. Medication is available and you can get it relatively easily – and once you’ve taken the treatment, you feel significantly better – until it flares up again that is……

I’m praying that Paul’s vicious malaria will improve and that it won’t come back again. He did tell me he will go back to the doctor or hospital and get checked out again after he has finished the antibiotics, just to make sure he is better. With the severity of his malaria it’s possible one course of antibiotics isn’t enough. I’m very thankful he’s being wise. May God heal his body!