Wow, time flies. Here we are packing up to get ready to leave to go back to PNG for a 6:30 am flight tomorrow. This two weeks in Australia has been pretty fun, despite lots of dental and hospital visits!
In two weeks we’ve had 10 appointments! That’s been a lot of jumping on the bus all the while trying to make sure Oscar has fun and has a good nap. I think we did ok!
The good news is that Gerdine is minus 3 wisdom teeth, plus 3 fillings and plus a night time gum shield to help her stop grinding her molars. The wisdom teeth involved a general anaesthetic. The first thing Oscar said when he saw her in the recovery room was “Mummy bonked head!”. We seem to have taken care of most, but not all of Gerdine’s tooth pain. Unfortunately, we can’t tell till her mouth recovers from surgery – and we’ll be back in Kovol by then!
The good news for Oscar is that his ultrasound came back normal and there are no more concerns from the UTI’s he had as a newborn. He’s been on low dose antibiotics since he was 3 months old, and we’ve been given the go-ahead to stop with them š A healthy baby – with his first scar after tripping and hitting his head on furniture š
With all the dental fun going on I decided I should also get a check-up and found out my teeth are super healthy which is always good to hear!
When not riding the bus network all over town to get to appointments we’ve spent a few days relaxing at our lodge, a day or 2 at the lagoon and a day or 2 shopping.
Our lodge had a little pool which Oscar loved. He didn’t actually like going in the pool, we tried a few times and gave up on it – but he did love flinging floats around and playing sea monster, I was the sea monster jumping out of the water trying to get him š
The lagoon is an amazing free, outdoor swimming pool by the beach. It has great, shallow and sandy edges and so it was perfect for a toddler learning to enjoy the water. Tropical sun feels amazing still š
Finally the shopping was an opportunity to get little things impossible to find in PNG. A door sweep to try weatherproof our house a bit more, some cigarette lighter plugs that output different DC voltages and the smallest kettle we could find. We managed to find a tiny 1000w one that should be able to make 2 cups of tea using our solar system and save on having to use lp gas to boil water. LP gas needs to be flown in by chopper whereas sunlight is free and often there š
It felt like a half break. Gerdine was at the dentist a lot and had a reverse culture shock that left her unsettled for pretty much the entire time, I was on child care a lot and suddenly it’s time to go back again. We feel a little rested though, so hopefully, there’s enough juice in the tank to dive straight into organising the logistics of flying us and supplies back in and then starting language learning.
Australia has been good to us and we look forward to maybe returning one day for a more leisurely visit (with an older Oscar!)
In other Kovol news our coworkers just messaged us via satellite to tell us that the internet is down again. That means we’ve got to get our supply orders for the next 2 months (maybe longer?) in now, and I’ll have to see if I can spend a day blogging to drip-feed Kovol news on a schedule š
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