Talking about ageing priests, there were several I encountered over the years in really remote places like Kamulai
Maisk Rotum; The last I heard which was about 5 years ago, Father Abel was still at Kamulai!
In early 1990 I spent 2 days stuck at Kamulai due weather, along with the Dz Chief Pilot (AY) and found Padre Abel to be a good raconteur at mealtimes and also extremely knowledgeable when it came to the subject of wine and winemaking.
Seems he was born and grew up in the Champagne district of France.
Those guys were really stalwarts and I wonder if the Catholic church has 'resupplied' those missions.
Stalwarts? Certainly!!
As for resupplying the missions....Dunno 'bout that.
And as an afterthought, Re Fane; I clearly remember one of the best morning visits to Fane I ever had.
One of the Catholic Sisters there made me one of the best mugs of freshly brewed PNG coffee I ever had and proceeded to tell me of the morning she walked out of her rooms at Fane and heard aircraft flying overhead. She looked up to see a flight of Mitsubishi 'Betty' bombers* with a fighter escort headed for Port Moresby.
Cannot remember her name and she has since 'gone to God' but listening to her that morning was a privilege!
* She had done a course in Aircraft identification. She thought the fighters were Zeroes but wasn't sure.
BTW whenever I landed at Fane; once at the top I always did a 270 turn to the left to park!
Makes you weep, doesn't it
Taily!
Em Nau.