KAPUNA HOSPITAL

 

‘KAPUNA YOU YET YOU COME LUKIM’

 

An Ode to Kapuna Hospital Kikori

 

KAPUNA is a place you won't to miss if you are a first time visitor to the Gulf of Papua.

It is the place (gabuna) on the muddy banks of a mighty river that winds through the swamps of Kikori and disperses into the ocean.

In Hiri Motu, 'gabuna' means the place, hence the Orokolo variation Kapuna. As the place is actually a hospital, it was initially referred to a 'muramura gabuna' which in Hiri Motu means medicine place.

Kapuna is steeped in rich history and intertwined with a family of passionate doctors from New Zealand, the Calverts.

Kapuna is like holding up a candle in the wind. Established more than 50 years ago as a mission hospital on the Kikori Delta by pioneer husband and wife Kiwi medical doctor team Peter and Lin Calvert, it has served with distinction the people of this region.

The matriarch of the family is Dr Lin Calvert,  now a sprightly 92 years old and still serving the people of Gulf when extra hands are needed, gets around on the hospital compounds, reads her bible and medical journals while making extensive notations. Retirement? Never heard the word!

Old people’s home in comfortable NZ? Unlikely! She has got her eyes firmly fixed on a far better ‘country’ where she will not have to use her tried old stethoscope, nor have to deal with sickness and death and where, she herself will leap like a hart and enjoy eternal youth.

Notwithstanding, it is a mark of a deep love of a place and its people when you are buried in the place where you have poured out your soul (blood sweat and tears) for more than half a century in service to people not of your own kind in a remote corner of a foreign land.

Well, footwear is something of an oddity in this watery world unless it is a gumboot.  The younger Calverts, a daughter who is a medical doctor and the son who is the Property and Support Services Director now do all the heavy lifting at Kapuna.

Both siblings are Kapuna born and bred. It gets regular visits from other international doctors coming for a 2-3 years terms of service, willing to give up the comforts of their home countries to serve in this remote outpost of a hospital.

Very recently, a young Dutch couple, all blonde and beautiful with two young children, joined the Kapuna team as Doctors and IT help. Forget the artificial reality TV Show SURVIVORS, come and see the reality of surviving at Kapuna.

In Kapuna, you see real survivors without the sound and roll of cameras, rent-a-crowd cum-captivated TV audiences. Kapuna has a website and has internet services and limited Wi-Fi is available at certain times of the day.  Adjunct to the hospital is a nursing school, training health and nursing professionals. Everything is either flown in or barged in, including store goods and fuel for running the hospital generator.

This remote out-of-the-way Christian medical institution is a ‘WAY Station’, for those seeking physical healing; and hopefully God willing, also spiritual healing.

Unsung heroes, maybe. They will be the last to put their hands up for the Logohu awards or the Queens honors, but it goes without saying, they are the best exponents of the true meaning of service for Papua New Guineans. May I add, against all odds! Gulf Public Servants and politicians; take a leaf out of Kapuna’s book! Kapuna, yu yet kam lukim!

A member of the family recently returned after doing sometime in Kapuna. She talked of sacrifice, service and serenity she found in Kapuna and how the ethos of Kapuna affected and captivated her heart and has vowed to return, God willing. Dr Lin Calvert, now fluent in one of the local languages, produces the Gospel of Mark in the Lai language. Dr Lin retired to spend more time in her garden.

Dr Peter Calvert died in 1982, and was buried at Kapuna.