They Were Right!!!! “When it Rains it Pours!”

Thailand was so peaceful and restful to me.  As I boarded the planes on Thursday to make my way home…..little did I know what would await me at Papua.

Thursday evening, was full of fun, as I met Andrew in Jakarta for an orthodontic appointment and a “date”.  His request, my bill = Burger King and Dairy Queen.  I loved being with him.  I felt so “safe”, as Andrew now towers a good 3-4 inches over me.  I told him he was like my body guard and wow, what extravagant dates he goes on with his parents! ; )  He loved showing me around the city.  We crashed and arose at 3 a.m. to catch our flight home to Papua.

Our flight was uneventful.  We were warmly greeted by eager boys and an even more eager husband.  He gave me a quick peck, much to the talk of all the onlookers (I think it was a social taboo, oops).  We didn’t hang around to find out.  The boys had a basketball game.  Which they won (yeah, yeah, yeah).  Then a lovely supper with the six of us.  To which there were many resounding “thank you Mom” and “it is so nice to have you home so we don’t have to think about what we are going to eat” comments.

That night (Friday) it was raining hard, but we slept like babies.  I, still on Thailand time, was sleeping in at 8 a.m. when Darron awoke me.  “Ruth, wake up.  There has been major flooding.  Bob is very sick and they are going to transport him to the hospital in Abe.  The bridge is out.  They need me to help get him across the river.”  Right!  I’m awake……  we had no idea that it had rained that hard.  Water was standing everywhere.  Sure enough the bridge was out.  This is our only way into town.  A plank served as a ramp that they were lowering and lifting motorcycles across.  Eric had a stretcher and many hands guided Bob across.  Not because of coincidence, Erik’s car was on the other side of the river.  So there was transportation to get Bob to the hospital.

 

As the day progressed, we learned that Bob would go in for surgery that evening for an appendectomy.  In the afternoon we went scouting to see the damage.  Bridges out, but already being restored with dirt being packed on top of the broken rubble.  See my husbands blog to get the full story (can be linked to it, see the side and list of blogs).

Sunday, we headed over to the new hangar because we learned that it had flooded.  Words do not express what it was like to slide through mud, thicker then chocolate syrup.  For hours we labored along with the aviation staff to clean out all the mud.  Water hoses were brought in to spray out all the gunk.  It was inches thick in certain rooms.  Anything that was on the floor …… groan!

These are not shiny floors, this is mud!!!!

Sunday evening we took the kids to Sunday night soccer.  It was time to let down our hair and play a bit.  At the end of the game, Andrew was playing goalie and blocked a hard kick ball with his arm which resulted in much pain.  Off to the school clinic we tromped, we grabbed a splint and some Tylenol with codeine. This would get him through the night, until we could obtain an x-ray.

In the storm our hot water heater was damaged.  So the kids were heating up their bath water with an electric kettle.  Jacob was starting to get his bath ready, when a piercing scream filled the house.  Immediately I sprang up from the couch and ran toward the bathroom where in a split second I glimpsed the burnt peeling skin on my sons chest.  I scooped him up and laid him down on the kitchen floor.  Grabbed cold flour out of the freezer and poured it on his burns.  Every minute, he would ask for new cold floor.  The next 45 minutes were probably some of my more painful moments as a parent, because I felt so guilty and sorry.  There was no reason why I couldn’t have helped him pour that kettle.  It was so needless.  Fortunately, we had children’s Tylenol with codeine (noticing a pattern here) and Silvadene.  He slept soundly all night.

Meanwhile, many of our friends in town and neighbors were dealing with flooding in their homes.  Bob’s surgery was successful and extremely timely.  It’s raining……it’s pouring and we can say that “Bob, was snoring.” : )

To summarize:  The hangar is mostly clean.  Most of our friends and neighbors homes have cleaned up too.  Bob is home and looking great.  Andrew’s x-ray looks negative (according to the official radiologist “mom”) and Jacob is healing nicely and in no pain. 

Rain, Rain, go away……come again….please, not on Mom’s washing day!  As I write, “it’s raining, it’s pouring……..”.