WHERE THERE IS A HILL, THERE IS A WILL

 

THE MOUNTAINEERING DOCTORS of PNG

by BIG PAT

TWO doctors and a mountain.

Make that PNG's very own roof of the world, Mount Wilhelm in Chimbu.

Throw in a couple more local peaks and you've got the locomotion.

This is an inspiration upward story of one PNG family's passion for conquering mountain peaks.

The taller they are, the greater the risk, the tougher the challenge, they will for it.

As the years go by, climbing is now taking the power couple away from our friendly shores.

Meet husband and wife mountain team Mahlon and Haydee Paiva of Port Moresby. During the day, they wear gowns, listen to your heart beat, and even might knock you off the planet for a short while.

Both serve as doctors at the Paradise Hospital in the capital city of Papua New Guinea.

But in their free time, their real pastime is hiking and mountaineering, and that, to Dr Mahlon and Dr Haydee, is the real adventure of life.

It all began when Mahlon, from Kerema, Gulf Province met this beautiful leggy Honiara 'mori' Haydee in medical school. At that time, the only peak they were trying to summit was the ladder to becoming a doctor.

After graduation Mahlon chose maternal health care, dealing with mothers, while Haydee chose to put the lights out on patients - dokta blo slipim man na meri as she puts it - or anaesthetics!

This week, Dr Haydee Paiva achieved something quite impossible, becoming probably the first Solomon Islander to reach the base camp of the world's highest mountain Mount Everest.

At the camp, which is halfway to the top of Everest, she proudly unfurled the PNG flag of her 'tambus' and Solomon Island flag of her homeland.

Together, the couple has climbed Wilhelm six times. Dr Haydee has walked the world famous Kokoda Track five times including a back to back walk from Pom to Kokoda station and back.

Dr Mahlon has struggled across the Owen Stanley twice adding 'missus is a fitness freak and am not impressive as her'.

And drum roll - their first husband and wife effort at a peak in Africa.

The couple triumphantly reached the top of the 5,895m Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in 2014.

It was an arduous and taxing climb that both found challenging with Dr Mahlon succumbing to altitude sickness at the top, Stella Pass and requiring oxygen on the way down.

Dr Haydee, a fitness fanatic, completed Kokoda first with a group of women on the theme 'breast cancer awareness' with Getaway Trekking.

Dr Mahlon recalls: "She then planned to climb Mt Wilhelm but couldn't find anyone interested in doing it with her.

"So the next best choice was to take me . . . ahaha . . I made it without much training. Suffered a little from altitude sickness even at base camp.

"Took us six hours from the base camp to summit and three hours back to base camp.

On hearing of his beloved wife reaching the Everest Base Camp, Dr Mahlon and his 3 daughters . Melanie, Mazel, Siunari'i and little 'bubu' Riley were over the moon.

Having his wife go that high is a treasured moment for the family and the next focus might be something higher than 5,000 to 6,000 metres.

Dr Mahlon said: "When we were younger raising a family was the focus but when they grew older we began doing this, climbing mountains.

"I guess a lot of people have their focus on raising a family and supporting relatives which we do but we also make time to shoot off into the bush or climb a mountain for an adventure."

When Mrs Paiva comes back next week, there will certainly a round of glasses raised in her honour, more so from her number one fan, her 14-year-old daughter.

footnote: the mountaineering doctors have since gone their separate ways but still remain good friends.