Kapuna Hospital
Kapuna Hospital is hidden deep in the jungle swamps of Papua New Guinea. Clinging tenaciously to the banks of the crocodile-infested Wame River, a tributary of the mighty Purari River, Kapuna is the only hospital within paddling distance for 30,000 PNG locals.Think Kapuna Hospital, and you at once think Doctor Lin Calvert, who for the last 53 years has been resident 'surgeon/gyneacologist/obstetrician/anaesthetist/paediatrician' and a number of other hard-to-spell and even-harder-to-do medical things...but if you're the only doctor in the house, you have to do, 'cos they're dead-if-you-don't...
This website is for those who have been to Kapuna, for those who are thinking of going to Kapuna (for whatever reason), for those who support the work at Kapuna, and for those who happen along and have a few moments to view a very different place with a very different lifestyle. In fact, the only people this website is not for? Those living at Kapuna: the Internet, in spinning its worldwide web, has to-date managed to avoid ensnaring Kapuna.
As early viewers of this site may now note on return, there has been some progress. This is a learn-on-the-job mission, so please bear with us as we grow in knowledge and understanding. Hopefully, we have the bones of a workable website, basic though it be (if there are any professional but bored web-builders (do they call them Spiders??) out there that would like to improve this FoC... smiley face...)
As you can see, we now have Kapuna pages for History, Anecdotes, News, Volunteering, Downloads, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and Contact Us. As you will also see, most of them still need serious populating by-those-who-know, who are mostly busy in the jungle dispensing chloriquine or sewing up crocodile injuries (injuries by crocodiles, not injuries to crocodiles).
Lin Calvert's half-life autobiography and commentary on the 70s revival in the Gulf Province, Let the Fire Burn, is now uploaded ready for downloading by any and all. Her latest medical manual for those with big-need...but-little-medicine is hopefully not too far away.
Any of you that have been to Kapuna Hospital in its 60 or so years of existence, we would love to hear from you and record any special memories (words and photos) of your time in the jungle.
In case you've ever wondered, Question: why Kapuna? Short for Takapuna, in Auckland? No. A random name plucked out of nowhere? No. The local word for hospital? No, but a little closer.
Answer ( from a usually reliable source): Before Pidgin English became the common language of PNG, the trade language was Police Motu (used, I presume, by the Police as they spread around the country under Australian governance). In Police Motu, a hospital is muramura gabuna (medicine place); so Kapuna is a slight variant of place in Police Motu.
And Kapuna is certainly a place; hard to get to, true, but a place well worth getting to. I used to frequent a 2nd hand bookshop called Hard to Find but Worth the Effort. If Kapuna hadn't been called Kapuna, it could have been called Pai'iri Ena'a Kani Miki, Aika Pai'iri Pokoio Ima Miki, which if I remember my Iai/Koriki means word-for-word Place to Go Hard Very but Place to Stay Good Very.
Hope you enjoy, and God Bless
