So this is one of the bridges here in Sentani that was washed out with the flooding. In the last photo you can see the new one being built on the left and a temporary one down to the right. This temporary bridge is officially one way, the opposite way the motorbikes in the photo are going. Motorbikes are allowed both ways. We live on the far side of the bridge right now and will be moving to the other side this week. This morning I went to church and crossed this bridge and it took me about five minutes. To go home, I can't go back across this bridge but I have to go up the hill, past our new house and around and then down way on the other side of town. This takes an extra twenty minutes. Not because it is so far, but because of the condition of the roads. The roads we need to drive were not designed for heavy traffic and are quite narrow. But because there has been countless numbers of big heavy dump trucks and fuel trucks and all other vehicles travelling this road, it has become rather potholey and the shoulder of the road is actually eroding away. So it is a bit of an obstacle course as you navigate the road and you reach speeds of a whopping 40 km per hour at the good parts. The local government says that they want all the new bridges to be done by December so that they fall into the budget for this fiscal year. Apparently there have been bonuses promised to the workers if they get it done on time. Let's hope so because this sure makes travelling a challenge here! That's why I love to use the motorbike to get around. But once we are moved into our new house, Hugo will need the motorbike to get to and from work so I'll have to use an MAF car. We pay by the kilometre to use them.

On the other photos you can see the footbridge that foot traffic needs to use to cross the river. Really well built eh? Love how they hammered the support board onto the wrong side of the slats... That's Mikah and a friend crossing on the second photo.

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Humourous note:

The Indonesian language isn't nearly as wordy as ours. They get by with way less words, but that also means that sometimes a word can have two very different meanings.

Mabok: means drunk and it also means to be car sick