Leonard's arbitrary birthday

Hello to Jaive Smare—who is one of the best writers I know, and a former DWU student; one of my favourite people---where are you? Thanks for leaving a comment.

Saturday the 24th was Leonard’s birthday, we think his 10^th, but its only a guess. In fact, I've given him my mother's birthday to commemorate her. Always overcompensating, Bubu Mama also threw a big treasure hunt party for him at Jais Aben, which involved a long morning of me and household members hiding clues all over the grounds of the place that led to four treasure chests, one for each team, stuffed with junky toys for all the 26 players. Party cake, swimming, jumping from the big tree to the water, screaming and zooming around the place with bananas and pawpaw and lollipops. It took three carloads for everyone to arrive, thanks to Jacob, and three hours of carloads to return each kid to his/her home in and around Madang. I’m spent, in every way. It was heaps of fun, though, and Leonard received about 6 pairs of underpants, some juice glasses, a coffee mug, a towel, and other inventive gifts from kids’ parents who, like myself, find it nearly impossible to shop for gifts in Madang. I have to thank Joyce, Elvin, Gina, Jacob, Junior, Jason, Annette and everyone else who had a hand in this.

Annette and Tane were there, too. They’ve come up from the Sepik, Yimas Village, for Tane to have surgery at Modilon hospital. An Australian orthopaedic  surgeon arrives this week, and we’ve got an appointment for Tane’s two club feet to be –what?—corrected? straighened? We’ll see what can be done. Undoubtedly a lot, considering the efforts its taken for these two to get here. Last summer my friend Susan Salinger and her son Zach came to visit and they met little Tane, age barely 1 yr old at the time, and asked the obvious question---what can we do? We get so used to disabilities here in village PNG that someone like Zach, a teenager with a heart, has to jolt us into action. He promptly went home and raised some money from friends at school to see if Annette and Tane could be sent overseas fort surgery. Back in Madang, we contacted Kerri Clarke at the Australian Orthpaedic Association and discovered an Australian surgeon, Dr John Griffith, would be in Madang end of November, so, thanks to Trans Niugini Tours, we got Annette and Tane on their charter flight to Hagen, where they caught a PMV to Madang.