There are three types of fun to experience:

Type 1 – fun while it’s happening and fun to talk about later

Type 2 – not fun while it’s happening but fun to talk about later

Type 3 – not fun while it’s happening and not fun to talk about later

How about some examples.

For Type 1:

1. Getting some neat experience helping people
2. Flying with cool doctors and medical staff

   

3. Seeing the beautiful country by air, etc.
4. Visiting new places
5. Meeting the people
6. Cramming the unlucky people that fit (“volunteers” I call them) in the back seat and stacking cargo around them. Its kinda like playing Tetris (remember that game? Its more fun in real life).

   

For Type 2:

1. Food – it can be… interesting. Here in the interior good food, or much variety, is hit and miss. Many of the doctors here that grew up towards Georgetown seem to echo the food limitations and miss having the coastal abundance. No one goes hungry though.

   

2. Intermittent utilities – electric power, running water, and internet do not work 100% of the time… we joking call these “1st world problems.”
3. Waiting: It seems there is not much sense of time here, scheduling is relative. “Be here at 8AM” must translate to “oh we can stall up the plan and be there 45 minutes late if at all, no need to follow-up…”
4. Communication problems: Being dispatched for a routine mission only to find out on landing in the middle of nowhere that the hospital goofed up and no patient needs transported.
5. Jump starting the plane when the battery died in the field.
6. I thought about getting a haircut until I walked by the barber shop one day and one of the guys was bleeding from getting cut… no. Just no.
7. The critters – eventually one gets used to the ants, cockroaches, spiders, geckos, and vampire bats with rabies. Mosquitoes with Malaria, Zika, Deunge fever, Yellow fever, etc. And the various stray dogs, goats, and sheep that roam Lethem.

   

For Type 3:

1. Catchy problems: Stressing out over transporting some patients with possible contagious infectious diseases (such as Tuberculosis and Spinal Meningitis), sanitizing the airplane, and cleansing my mind afterwards.
2. Delivery problems: Running very low on aviation fuel drums only to have the truck driver delay weeks and then leaving for Georgetown forgetting to stop and pick up our empty fuel drums. It can take several weeks to get fuel out here. Being on standby for flying and everyone’s beckoning call only to be disregarded and forgotten is extremely maddening.

   

3. Communication problems: Getting a call for another routine medical emergency only to find out on landing that it was not “just another broken arm”, there are busted ribs jabbing internally and the patient is on a locally procured stretcher that will not easily fit the plane. I had to dump all the gear and seats out, load the patient and oversized stretcher in the back, and cram all the loose seats, gear, and luggage around where it would fit. This would have all been alleviated if they would have communicated clearly to bring the aircraft stretcher. Rarely do I get gruff with villagers but that time I had to so it does not happen again.

   

4. Seeing the pain and suffering of some patients living in a rural area that can sometimes be a hard life. In this culture, more often than not the women work harder than the men. There are many examples but a good one would be village women hauling heavy supplies on foot from the airplane while the men walk with no load or ride motorbikes. I know it’s a culture thing but as an outsider it still strikes me the wrong way. Some of them have acted mildly surprised when I voluntarily carry heavy/bulky items.

   

A trend can probably be seen here – the Type 1 fun list has the good photos, Type 2 fun list bigger, and Type 3 fun list the most complicated (and there is a lot more Type 3 I cannot even write here).

Perhaps I am viewing this world through the wrong lens. One thing for sure is that some of the matters and challenges I cannot speak of may be God’s blessings in disguise. These kinds of experiences change a person. The American Peace Corps volunteers I cross paths with can also attest to this. More people from the 1st world should experience it too. It will help put things into perspective.