Bucks
Daniel Soliday Papau New Guinea
Dear Friends,
Good morning. When I think about Daniel Soliday, words like accountant, entrepreneur, and real estate investor pop into mind. Yes, they certainly describe the Perkasie businessman. But Dan Soliday’s a Good Samaritan as well. More on him in a moment.
Dan Soliday, Kenton Bauder, and Mike Cygan are the principles in Bucks Preservationists, the enterprise which has been transforming the business districts of Quakertown and Perkasie. The Trainer Mansion, town homes, Apple Professional and Durner Organ buildings are a few of the Quakertown projects. So is the District Court at 7th and Market in Perkasie. All have improved the area.
Dan Soliday recently returned from a two-week trip to one of the most remote islands in the world. On Papau New Guinea, just north of Australia on the Great Barrier Reef, he and Mark Weigner from Quakertown helped construct a house for a Baptist missionary. They are members of the First Baptist Church in Perkasie, the sponsoring institution.
Melanie Shustack belongs to First Baptist as well. She’s been a missionary on Papau New Guinea for four years and will occupy the new house when it’s finished by years’ end. Melanie and three other missionary families from Pennsylvania teach and provide spiritual guidance for the natives.
Dan and Mark plus three others from Maryland formed the team, which constructed the exterior walls, roofing, siding, and floors during their trip. “There’s no electricity, no running water…no cell phones [on the island],” Dan began. He told me that the island is 500 miles long and 150 miles wide. Water is collected in tanks and gravity fed to huts which dot the island. Generators provide electricity for five hours each day. Gasoline and food are imported.
Solar panels on the roof will heat the water; a septic system is a necessity. When all is said and done, Melanie Shustack’s new quarters will look like a typical American home. Dan told me that the materials for the three bedrooms, two baths house approximated $10,000. Volunteers like Dan and Mark donated the labor. The wood was harvested from jungle trees and the rest flown to the island in small planes based in nearby Australia.
“I’ll do this again,” Dan continued as he described the trip. “The [native] people amazed me. They’re extremely friendly…very happy and always had smiles on their faces. They live in one-room grass huts with a cooking pit in the center. They don’t wear shoes and have one set of clothing.”
Dan told me about life on the island. “The infant mortality is so high that new babies aren’t formally named until their first birthday,” he said. “All are vegetarians. Sweet potatoes and white potatoes, plus bananas and pineapple are staples of their diet. Men are five feet tall and the women are slightly smaller.
“I ate very well but lost eight pounds,” Dan added. “Hiking and manual labor took the weight off. My profession is numbers.” After all, he is an accountant.
Dan told me that there is no native religion in Papau New Guinea. A separate team is teaching the natives to build a church. “Some native communities have witch doctors,” he said. “It’s very upsetting for the missionaries…that some natives practice Christianity and witch doctoring simultaneously.”
The natives took Dan night hunting using hand made bows and arrows. “We were hunting wild boar and ‘cuss cuss,’ a possum looking creature but two times bigger,” he said. “We had a neat time [hacking our way through the jungle] but I didn’t win any trophies. Native arrows are five feet long so hunters have to use stealth to get close to their prey.”
First Baptist is a growing church with about 600 in the congregation and three services each Sunday. Dan told me that he and his wife Cheryl participated in a church mission to Spain last year. He estimated that First Baptist has an orchestra with 30 pieces. During the day, the members ran day camps and performed concerts at night. Cheryl is a singer.
Dan looked fresh and strong.
“The trip to Papau [New Guinea] was a great experience,” Dan concluded. “We are so blessed when you see the third world. It was fascinating to observe different cultures.”
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith