Xray Drama

Do you remember a post a while back about how I was stressing about getting all the paperwork ready for our Australian medical visas?  At the time, I blogged about how we live in the mountains of PNG and the only licensed doctors that we were allowed to see for this process live on the coast.  I spent so much time planning how we would get to these places. 

 

First, we planned to go to Port Moresby.  Caleb has to go there every other month for work, so even though the airline ticket was more expensive than Madang, we would only be paying for my ticket (and not his).  I booked the flight, the accommodations and made the appointment.  THEN, I found out that it was going to cost 769 kina per person for the exam and chest xrays.  I then spent the rest of the day cancelling all these plans.

 

The second plan included flying with another mission organization to Madang.  We would go down on a Tuesday morning and come back on a Wednesday afternoon.  I had to book these tickets 4 weeks in advance, so I did.  I also booked the accommodations and made the appointments.  This was going to still cost quite a bit of money….but what other choice did we have at the time??

 

Then, we found out that our friends needed medical visas, too.  We considered chartering a plane from our own mission organization, but in the end, we rented an Auto Shop vehicle, set up babysitters for the kids and went to Madang on a Wednesday and drove home on a Thursday.  We still praise God for working out so many details so that we were able to do what seemed like the impossible.  In fact, the first thing the doctor said to us when he saw us was, “I don’t think you can get all of this paperwork done in the time you have here in Madang.”

 

I posted pictures of us smiling with all our paperwork in hand and ready to turn in.  Well, the paperwork got on the plane for Port Moresby…..but then we found out that the doctor had failed to seal and sign and stamp one important part of it.  So, that part was sent back to us….effectively delaying the rest of the paperwork from being accepted.

 

Moving paperwork (especially important paperwork) around this country is difficult.  There are so many factors that affect the time it takes to get from one place to the next.  In short, it took 2 weeks to get the documents turned back in.  But, when it is all said and done, the visas have been lodged and now we wait.  Thankfully we were able to turn it all in with 8 weeks left before we leave.  Please be praying that everything is smooth sailing from here.  It would be nice to have our paperwork in hand in about 6 weeks.  But, in reality, it could take the full 8 weeks…..which would be really stressful for us all.