Wow, things are pretty crazy these days. My pembantu, who is actually the pembantu of the family that normally lives in the house we are currently living in, has decided to quit. So.... I’ve been one busy little beaver these past two days. I guess this lady was already planning to quit once the family got back from furlough as she was mad at the wife. It is unfortunate as she has been treated very well by this wife. But in the past couple years it has become harder and harder to find a good pembantu. A lot of people don’t want to work hard or suffer from neversatisfieditis. There is a lot more money floating around Papua these days. The government of Indonesia has allowed more money to stay in the province. Last time we were living here I did not see Papuans with the kind of money that I am seeing now. The other day I was at the local mini “Superstore” and I saw some guys buy a battery operated jeep for a child that cost more than three million rupiahs! That’s insane! Anyways, more and more people are choosing simply to not have a pembantu at all. I have to admit that that is a tempting thought but realistically I don’t think I could do it. There are too many other things that take much more time than they do back home – mostly food related things. I guess my pembantu wasn’t happy that I wasn’t going to pay her more than she had been making for the other MAF wife even though on a week to week basis, she was working the same number of hours. So I may start looking around for someone or just hang in there and try to do without. The floor won’t get washed every day... Oh well...

Today we witnessed a new pilot’s first solo flight and upon landing the local workers all doused him with water in the traditional MAF ritual that all new pilots go through upon completion of their first solo flight. Today it was a friend from Bandung who was initiated. Normally the pilot has to bring a load to an airstrip and then come back, but today the weather was so bad that all the flights turned around and came back without reaching their destinations. The photo of the larger airplane with people exiting is just that. These people had hoped to fly out a week ago but that flight was also cancelled and today again they didn’t get back to their village. So they have to wait again...

P.S. Uncle Keith, do you recognize the man in the glasses in the one photo?