Bits and Bites...

Yesterday a couple guys came and started to prepare the ground behind our house for some concrete. I took the two photos above this morning as they continued working along with Hugo and one more guy. Man, Papuans work at a galacial pace. It can be quite painful to watch... so I try not to. Now I understand why it took sooo long for our house to be finished. So the plan is to have concrete at the back of the house where we have our generator and gas tanks etc... instead of just dirt which is kind of well, dirty... The other big patch of cement is for the kids to play on. There's nowhere around here where they can play hockey or basketball or write with sidewalk chalk etc... The kids are very excited about this!

Then this afternoon the young man in the lower photo came by with a black backpack and asks me if I want to buy (I forget the exact word he said, something like anggur... which actually means grapes). I thought maybe he meant some kind of food and then he opens up the bag and takes out a tree kangaroo! This is not the first time someone has come by selling live animals. We've had a guy come with a snake wrapped around his arm (the mouth was taped shut) and some ladies came with a couple rabbits before too. Anyways, I told the young guy that we really didn't want any pets as we already have five kids. Never mind the fact that this little guy will get pretty big and where in the world would we keep something like that! I asked him some questions about it. It came from somewhere far away on the island, I forget the name, but he took it here on a plane. He's had the kangaroo since it was a baby and it is now two years old. It's been his pet. I asked him how he could sell a pet that he had taken care of for so long? He just shrugged his shoulders. Maybe he needs the money for school. That wild shirt he is wearing is a school uniform. Anyways, he said that because it was still young, he would sell it for 1 juta (million) rupiahs. That's more than one months wages for the average worker, but still not much for two years of nurturing. Anyways, the animal was cute and quite tame but I sent him on his way and told him not to waste his time going to the neighbours as everyone already has all the pets they want.

This past week we got word that the local men of Pos 7 (our hill) were going to "fix" the road. Now, our road is the absolute worst road in Sentani, bar none. Months of big dump trucks bumping up and down have just wrecked the road. So one morning a bunch of guys were out there and filled all the pot holes with dirt. Which is fine.... if it doesn't rain really hard... like today and yesterday and the day before.... It can be quite treacherous to navigate the road in the rain on a little motorbike like ours. Well, it's actually called a "bebek" which means "duck". http://feunekesfamily.blogspot.com/2007/09/freedom.html It is just not designed for off-roading...

Oh, BTW, Pak Nuel's wife had a girl and it was their 5th child, not their sixth. It is really hard to get information out of this guy... I ask him if he likes to drink sugar in his coffee or just drink the three-in-one coffe the way it is (super sweet already). And he says, oh, just the way it is. Then a few days later he comes to me and tells me that all the sugar is gone. Oh, I guess you do like to add sugar to your coffee... Ah, cross-cultural communication...